18 July 2008
Top transport award for SPT-supported walking route planner
An innovative website dedicated to planning walking routes in and around major cities has scooped a top national transport award.
The site walkit.com - which launched its Glasgow website last month with support and finance from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) - was named winner of the Most Innovative Transport Project at the National Transport Awards which took place in London this week.
walkit.com beat off fierce competition from projects including the Highways Agency’s active traffic management scheme on the M42, Manchester City Council’s bus corridor and Dublin City Council’s HGV management strategy to lift the title.
SPT Chair Alistair Watson said he was delighted with the news: "Congratulations to walkit.com, this is a great achievement. I hope that it encourages more people to start exploring their local areas on foot.”
The site aims to get people walking more in and around their communities by helping make more informed decisions about shorter urban journeys. Each route map includes a journey distance, the walking time (according to a slow, medium or fast walking pace), a calorie burn and even the amount of CO2 saved by avoiding fuel-burning transport.
Last year the site received over 440,000 visits and generated nearly 670,000 walking routes. It now operates in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Derby, Newcastle/Gateshead and London.
The service is expected to be rolled out to rest of the UK's major cities by the end of 2008.
Visit the walkit.com website (opens a new window).
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