Monday, June 1 2009
Some 13,500 Dundee homes are to be contacted over the next 18 months by transport planner JMP in a determined bid to encourage the city’s residents to improve their health by walking and cycling more.
By also engaging university students, school children, employees and visitors to the city from the wider catchment area, and offering ongoing help to health referrals, it is anticipated that 31,000 people will be given the healthy exercise message – “travel more actively”.
Dundee City Council has commissioned the Personalised Travel Planning project, under which engagement with local people will take place between August 1 this year and December 2010. The work, which is part of the £2.2 million Dundee Travel Active programme (DTA), is due to report by March 2011. It is largely funded from the Scottish Government’s Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme.
DTA also includes infrastructure improvements to the pedestrian and cycle route network, encouraging families to try out cycling under an Active Kids, Active Parents programme and the establishment of a “bike library”. This facility will allow eligible local residents and university students to hire a bike at low cost for a few months to test whether they would wish to cycle regularly.
A team of local people will be recruited and trained to assist with the Personalised Travel Planning doorstep visits. These people will provide advice and follow-up with information suited to the individual’s particular needs.
Tim Steiner, an Associate Director at JMP, said: “Travel behaviour choices impact on health generally and body weight specifically. One in four adults in Scotland is obese and rates have trebled since 1980. Nearly two-thirds of adults do not take the recommended amount of physical exercise; for many people walking or cycling for some of their journeys is an easy way to incorporate more exercise into the daily routine.
“This is an exciting and challenging project, which we see as a major opportunity for Dundee and for showcasing behavioural change in the context of promoting active travel and healthy lifestyles.”