Get Out Get Active
Ocean Estate's Active Travel project
The Oceans Estate Get Out Get Active project ran from January 2010 to January 2011. With its team of three, Rebecca Davis (Sustrans London project coordinator) and Momota and Rebekah (travel advisors) it set out to get the estate residents being more active in the ways they travelled for their everyday journeys, in other words, more cycling and more walking.
The team had a busy year getting to know the residents, embedding themselves in the local community and building partnerships with local schools, centres and other organisations. The team quickly learned that the barriers to active travel were a lack of understanding of the benefits, and a lack of opportunity to discover them. To overcome these barriers the project first had to educate the residents on the rewards of travelling more actively. This was done through regular drop-in travel advice surgeries, information stands at schools and community events and organised sessions with established community groups.
Once the residents had a better understanding of the benefits of walking and cycling, they were then referred onto one of the projects weekly walks, or cycle training programmes (including Oceans 11!). These activities were further supported by cycle maintenance workshops, Dr Bike events, joint events with additional support from other health focused groups, as well as a local project office that always kept its door open for questions, chats and shared success stories.
By the end of the year, the project had helped the residents of the Oceans Estate to become healthier and happier. The team had engaged with over 800 people, over 60% of whom felt fitter at the end of the project than they did at the start, with a 56% increase in the people who walked on 5-7 days a week and a new wave of enthusiasm for cycling sweeping through the women of the estate. The residents reported to have a much better knowledge of what active travel was, as well as how best to use the local public transport. The team left behind a legacy of health through travelling actively, with many of the community partners now running their own cycling and walking programmes, and enthusiastic residents keeping their neighbours on their feet or on two wheels.
Sustrans worked with Tower Hamlets, a recognised Healthy Borough, to improve the health of the Ocean Estate community and the environment through promoting sustainable ways of travelling. Get Out Get Active is supported by:
 |
 |