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Improving access by foot and bike

Connect 2

Sustrans' Connect2 aims to improve local travel across the UK by creating new walking and cycling routes. Sustrans' Research and Monitoring Unit is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the project, which has been designed to measure the impacts on levels of usage, accessibility and physical activity.

Extensive monitoring and evaluation activities are being delivered in partnership with local authorities and project partners at each of the 79 schemes. Detailed monitoring plans have been established with all of the schemes which cover a range of monitoring and evaluative approaches from Route User Intercept Surveys to automatic/manual counts of users, along with workplace and school travel surveys.

The community impact of Connect2 is being evaluated through 19 case study schemes across the UK, in associated with the consultancy ERS. This detailed qualitative evaluation is being complemented by the completion of event participant/organiser questionnaires at the community events taking place at every scheme. The evaluation of Connect2 will be completed in 2013.

Links to Schools

Sustrans has worked in partnership with local authorities across England since 2004 to deliver Links to Schools and Links to Schools & Communities. A number of different data collection tools are used by the Research & Monitoring Unit to monitor Links to Schools and Links to Schools & Communities including:

National Cycle Network

Sustrans' Research and Monitoring Unit has been collating data from local authority networks of automated continuous cycle counters throughout the UK for several years. A complex model is used to generate estimates of the National Cycle Network usage. Figures for usage on different types of routes, combined with the figures describing changes in levels of cycling, form the basis for national level aggregation.

DIY Streets

DIY Streets brings communities together to help them redesign their streets, making them safer and more attractive places to live. The monitoring and evaluation of DIY Streets is designed to be as inclusive as possible giving all benefiting residents their chance to have a say through community consultations and qualitative methods. We are also using CCTV monitoring to evaluate the impact of the liveability of neighbourhoods before and after interventions take place.

Art & the travelling landscape

Sustrans' Research and Monitoring Unit have worked alongside our Arts team to evaluate arts projects. These include the Sensory Mapping Project, where an artist developed detailed Sensory Maps of pupils' journeys to school comparing the journeys by car with more sustainable forms of transport. The Research and Monitoring Unit coordinated the evaluation and is currently working on the evaluation of the Tranquillity is a State of Mind project in Worcester.

Sustrans volunteers survey

In December 2010 Sustrans Research and Monitoring Unit undertook telephone interviews with selected Sustrans volunteers including rangers and office staff. This was complemented by an online survey which generated a combined response rate of approximately 26%. The National Volunteer Survey report highlights volunteer profile information, types of activities undertaken and the outcomes and impacts associated with volunteering.

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