Transport and health collaborate to get Reading back on two feet

The number of walking trips we make each year has slumped in recent decades. But transport planners and health practitioners in the Berkshire town of Reading think they have found a way to reverse the trend.

Andrew Forster

07 February 2014

Beat the Street: users register their walking trips by holding their key fob or smartcard up against a sensor mounted Health and transport collaborate (l-r): Veronica Reynolds of Intelligent Health; Hannah Budnitz of Reading Borough Council; and Bob Pinkett of Peter Brett Associateson lampposts

Beat the Street: users register their walking trips by holding their key fob or smartcard up against a sensor mounted on lampposts

It may be pushing it to suggest that the humble pedestrian is an endangered species but official figures do not make happy reading for those who believe in the power of two feet. According to the Government’s National Travel Survey the number of trips we make by foot each year fell more than a quarter (27%) between 1995/97 and 2012.

Huge numbers of people enjoy walking as a recreational activity but walking advocates have long struggled to get it taken seriously as a transport mode....