Awards recognise the top smarter travel teams

The winners of the Smarter Travel Awards were revealed at ArenaMK last month. The five categories attracted 65 entries, so it was no easy task for the independent judging panel to reach their decisions.

Winner of the Best Shared Mobility Service Provider Award was Co-Wheels Club. The independent car club operator allows local residents, businesses and organisations to have keyless access to cars whenever they need, with online booking of cars parked in dedicated bays. The operator has pioneered low and zero emission vehicles.

The Best Smarter Travel Marketing Campaign Award went to PR firm Diva Creative and national cycling charity CTC.

CTC commissioned Diva to deliver a campaign to encourage lapsed cyclists back into the saddle. The Diva-designed Big Bike Revival website received 400,000 visits during its first month. The campaign generated media coverage which reached an audience of more than three million people.

The Smarter Travel Professional of the Year is Richard Smith, director at Action Streets. Smith has delivered cycling projects in the north-east, led schemes such as the ‘Walk-to-Work’ campaign, lectured at Newcastle University, and now co-ordinates Smarter Choices for Cycle Coventry. Over the past year he has supported journey planning in the workplace by implementing the Bike Citizen’s App that turns mobiles into satnavs. He’s built cycling promotion into Coventry Council's internal and external communications and has played a major part in growing the subscriber-base of the Cycle Coventry monthly e-news bulletin by 60%.

Winners of the Innovation Award were Transport for London (TfL), Serco and Blaze for the Laserlight initiative on Santander hire bikes in the capital. 

The Blaze device casts a bright green laser profile in advance of the bike, which alerts drivers to the presence of a cyclist. This projects the image seven metres in advance of the bikes and provides better visibility than LED front cycle lights. 

A three-month trial saw Blaze fitted to 250 bikes. But after extensive technical and customer research, Transport for London and Santander will fit all 12,000 of their public hire bikes with Blaze. 

The award for best  Workplace Travel Plan went to Thames Valley Park (TVP).  Thames Valley Park is home to a number of international businesses, with more than 8,000 employees.

In 2009, a TVP Travel Plan Steering Group was established to address localised congestion and car parking issues at the business park, and to deliver improvements to public transport services. Thames Valley Park has seen a 6% reduction in single car occupancy, a 2% increase in cycle commuting, a 4% increase in rail travel and a 7% increase in bus use. This has taken 750,000 car journeys off the local network.

www.smartertravelawards.uk