Webinar: How to encourage active travel uptake

On Tuesday 23 July 2024 iMOVE held a webinar, How to encourage active travel uptake, in which outcomes from two iMOVE active travel projects were shared. The recording of the project outcome webinar is embedded below.

The outcomes from these two projects will help governments and service providers understand people’s motivations and concerns about active transport, and reflect on how problems can be mitigated to encourage uptake.

About the webinar

Active travel (aka active transport) has many recognised health, cost, environment and transport network benefits that make it an attractive proposition to solving transport challenges. It has however proved difficult to increase the active travel transport mode share for a few reasons. Provision of suitable infrastructure and services is high on the list: people want safe and convenient options if they are going to ditch the car.

We will share the results of two iMOVE-supported Transport for NSW projects in the active travel space. Firstly, an evaluation of the Wagga Wagga active travel network implemented as part of the Wagga Wagga Active Travel Plan. The University of Sydney will present data about the impacts and outcomes of this regional active travel network on transport integration, travel mode switching, user preferences and behaviours, city connectedness, traffic and parking congestion, health and social wellbeing and other community benefits.

Secondly we will hear from the University of NSW about understanding how to encourage people interested in cycling but worried about safety to transition to this transport mode, in the iMOVE project Safer cycling and street design: A guide for policymakers. The study used immersive VR to test different design features to see which would encourage them to make the change. The results will help inform future cycleway design in NSW and nationally.

Wrap-ups of the two projects and downloadable final reports are available at:

• Impacts & community benefits of a regional active travel network
• Safer cycling infrastructure: Design and policy

Speakers

• Tim Selby: Director, Strategy, Planning and Integration, Active Transport, Transport for NSW
• Dr Margaret Thomas: Senior Research Fellow (Adjunct), University of Sydney
• Dr Mike Harris: Senior Lecturer , University of NSW

Webinar video

The event was recorded, and is embedded in the video player below.