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Final report for 2016

An active travel promotion for schools from Greater Wellington

Regional Council

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Table of contents

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………………...3 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………....5 2. Background Research…………………………………………………………………………….5 3. Programme Description………………………………………………………………………….7

2.1 Changes for 2016…………………………………………………………………………….9 2.1.1 Duration of Promotion……………………………………………………………..9 2.1.2 Prizes…………………………………………………………………………….….9 2.1.3 Parent Engagement…………………………………………………………….….9 2.1.4 Promotion through Education Gazette……………………………………….…..9

4. Results……………………………………………………………………………………………..….10 3.1 Participation and TA Breakdown…………………………………………………...10

5. Evaluation……………………………………………………………………………………………..12 4.1 Review of Activities …………………………………………………………………………12 4.2 Review of Competitions…………………………………………………………………..…13 4.3 Parent Survey Results…………………………………………………………………....…14 4.4 Teacher Feedback Results………………………………………………………………….15 4.5 Prizes Review……………………………………………………………………………...…16 4.6 Social Media Review………………………………………………………………………...16

6.Discussion……………………………………………………………………………………………..18 7. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………19

List of figures

Figure 1 - TA Breakdown of all Movin’March schools in the region in 2016…………………….….10

Figure 2 - STP schools by TA in 2014-16……………………………………………………………....11 Figure 3 - Movin’March resources used ………………………………………………………….........12 Figure 4 - Student’s preferred travel mode (from WoW Passport)……………………………………13 Figure 5 - Child transport modes before Movin’March…………………………………………….…..14 Figure 6 - Child transport mode changes after Movin’March…………………………………………15

List of tables

Table 1 - Movin’March Schools that are also STP schools…………………………………….……..11

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Executive summary

Movin’March is an active travel promotion for schools run by Greater Wellington Regional Council

(GWRC). Schools are encouraged and supported to promote active travel journeys for students

on their way to and from school.

The total number of schools registered to participate in Movin’March 2016 was 60. This was up

from 49 last year. Schools in all Territorial Authority areas (TAs) took part: Hutt City schools made

up 23% of the total and Wellington City 22%. Two competitions were run during Movin’March

2016. One targeted schools and students (WoW Passport Challenge) and one was designed to

engage parents. For 2016 an updated Movin’March website was created with a range of web

resources available to teachers.

Over 70% of teachers surveyed indicated their school took part in the WoW Challenge. 90% of

respondents agreed that the WoW Passport Challenge had an effect on how students travelled to

school. This competition generated 1953 student entries from 22 different schools. The prizes of

two brand new bikes proved to be highly motivating. Students indicated their main form of

transport on their passports during Movin’March. Walking was the most common mode followed

by scootering.

During Movin’March a parent survey was sent out to gauge parent awareness of the promotion

and to get an indication of conversations around active travel being instigated by the promotion.

The results showed that 85% of parent respondents had heard about Movin’March. While 35% of

parents said that their child/ren had started walking, scooting or biking to school as a result of

Movin March.

Future Direction Active Travel and School Travel programmes do not provide a silver bullet solution for traffic congestion, but the literature and recent local experience does reveal which factors are necessary for behaviour change programmes to be effective;

Engaging meaningfully with the target community

Tailoring programmes to individuals or smaller target groups

Combining social and individual level interventions with physical or structural changes

Programmes are more likely to be successful when run in communities where infrastructure is good or being improved, and where there are committed and popular local ‘champions’ either in the school community or neighbourhood. Local ‘leaders’ need to be committed to the cause, these include teachers, principals, parents, local politicians and other influencers. Recognisable programme branding which includes a local flavour helps to build and maintain a relationship with the community. Programmes need to provide a range of tailored options which may appeal to different individuals’ needs or wants. They also need to be simple and flexible enough to allow them to be adapted or tailored. Movin’March has the potential in future to align closely with areas of significant infrastructure changes, such as those with Urban Cycleways Funding. This combination could create meaningful behaviour change opportunities, and build a sustainable culture

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of active transport within those communities.

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1. Introduction

Movin’March was first delivered in 2012 by the Sustainable Transport team at Greater Wellington

Regional Council. It was part of its ongoing work to reach regional targets to increase the number

of walking and cycling trips to school and reduce congestion in urban areas.

The programme is now in its fifth year, and continues to receive strong support from schools

across the region. This year 60 schools registered for the promotion which is an increase from the

49 registered schools from last year. Seventeen of the 60 schools were new to Movin’March

(28%) with 28 of the 60 not signed up as school travel plan (STP) schools (46%). This provides

evidence that there is good exposure to schools not currently working with our team and our

associated programmes.

The promotion ran for the entire month of March where previously it had been run for just a week

within March. This gave schools more flexibility to plan and run their events to suit their schedule.

The weather throughout March and into April was stunning for the entire region which undoubtedly

helped keep enthusiasm high and encouraged more families to commit to active travel.

Movin’March has several objectives:

To make resources available for schools who have an interest in active travel

To promote the benefits of active travel to the school communities; specifically the benefits for children, for the environment, for parents and for schools.

To provide a focussed time to celebrate active travel to school and associated achievements

To provide support for on-going travel behaviour change in schools beyond Movin’March. There are three key benefits that the Movin’March project aimed to deliver to the Greater Wellington Regional Council and to the community. These were:

1. Implementation of actions outlined under the Travel Demand Management, Cycling Network, Walking Network and the Road Safety chapters of the Regional Land Transport Plan 2015.

2. Collaborative partnerships between Greater Wellington and the Territorial Authorities Road Safety Coordinators and School Travel Plan Coordinators.

3. Supportive relationships between the Wellington Region School Travel Plan programme and other agencies who deliver health and environmental programmes in schools.

2. Background Research A recent literature review commissioned by the Sustainable Transport team at GW outlined the

current state of active travel in our communities. Currently in New Zealand less than 20% of urban

trips are made by active or non-motorised modes such as walking or cycling, and less than 3% by

public transport (train/bus/ferry), although the Wellington region has significantly higher levels of

walking (23%), public transport use (4%) and growing numbers of people cycling to work (73%

increase between 2006-2013 to 3.6%) (Ministry of Transport, 2014b; 2014c; New Zealand

Parliament, 2014). However, compared to cities in The Netherlands or Denmark, the mode share

for sustainable transport modes remains low (Faherty & Morrissey, 2014). Converting more

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motorised vehicle trips to active or public transport modes would assist in reducing transport

emissions (Lindsay, Macmillan & Woodward, 2011). Since the Ministry of Transport Household

Travel Surveys began in 1989, active travel (walking and bicycling; AT) to school has steadily

declined from 33% in 1989/1990 to 24% in 2009-2013 (Ministry of Transport, 2014).

Active travel has been shown to have significant individual health benefits due mainly to an

increase in physical activity (De Nazelle et al., 2011). New Zealand has the fourth highest rate of

obesity in the OECD and one in nine children are classified as obese. Health agencies generally

recommend 30 minutes of physical activity per day, noting that the greatest benefit comes from

simply avoiding inactivity (De Nazelle et al., 2011). Regular physical activity helps prevent a range

of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes (Lindsay et al., 2010).

Around half of New Zealand adults do not meet the 30 minutes per day recommended (Ministry of

Health, 2015). De Nazelle et al. analysed several studies which all concluded that walking and

cycling for transportation were related to decreased risk of many health conditions (2011).

Children who use active travel on the school journey benefit from better health, social and

education outcomes (Garrard, 2011; Alliance for Biking & Walking, 2014). Physical activity benefits

children's physical development, aerobic fitness, weight, mental health and cognitive function, yet

almost half of all New Zealand children are not physically active everyday (Garrard, 2011; Nestle

MILO team, n.d.). Active travel on the school journey provides children with greater levels of much

needed physical activity than those travelling by car (Mackett et al., 2004 as cited in Whitzman &

Pike, 2007). In addition to the obvious physical benefits of more physical activity through the

school journey, a recent Danish Study, found that:

“[children] who bicycled to school were better able to concentrate. In fact, walking and bicycling to school had a stronger impact on a child’s ability to focus than having breakfast and lunch. The physical activity associated with walking or bicycling to school advanced the child’s mental alertness to the equivalent of a student half a year further in their studies” (Egelund, 2012; as cited in p69, Alliance for Biking & Walking, 2014).

The additional benefits extend to children having more positive emotions (compared with children

using passive modes for school travel), and parents of active children reporting “stronger

connections to dimensions of well-being” (p516, Ramanathan, O'Brien, Faulkner, & Stone, 2014).

Australian studies have shown that children’s independent mobility (CIM; or ‘parental license’) is

negatively affected as the proportion of children travelling independently to school decreases2

(Schoeppe, et al. 2015). CIM and unstructured outdoor play are essential for a child’s

development. VicHealth suggests that CIM has many benefits;

“Being independently mobile helps children in their development of spatial awareness, decision-making, self-confidence and knowledge about their local neighbourhood “(Zubrick et al. 2010; as cited in VicHealth, 2015).

They also found other benefits to CIM;

2 Study period between 1991 and 2012

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“...children have a greater opportunity to interact with other children when they are not under adult supervision. This fosters independence and responsibility, which in turn builds children’s confidence, self-esteem and social skills (Hillman, Adams, & Whitelegg, 1991).” (p.6, Zubrick et al., 2010)

With numbers of children travelling independently to school decreasing, both in Australia and New

Zealand (Ministry of Transport, 2014; Schoeppe, et al. 2015), these physical, mental and social

benefits are adversely affected.

(Active Communities Travel Planning – Literature Review, Prepared for Greater Wellington

Regional Council by Hilleke Townsend (Modalis NZ), June 2016)

Students walking to St Anthony’s School in Seatoun

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3. Programme description

Movin’March is a month long event which encourages schools to promote active travel through:

- Celebrating students who walk, cycle, skate or scooter to school and congratulating the

parents and caregivers who support and enable them.

- Providing information about the benefits to children, the environment and parents, of

active travel within their school communities.

- Providing ideas, resources and incentives to schools to help celebrate active travel to

school in different ways.

Schools are provided with a registration system open from December 2015 – March 2016, a

website containing activity ideas, blog and competition details including prize information and a

Facebook page to promote events and celebrate success stories.

An event guide, with details of competitions, links to other programmes and ideas for celebrating

the month, was distributed to all schools in the region at the beginning of the first school term in

hardcopy and email versions. Schools who registered online received additional resources to use

for their events. Schools were invited to take part in Movin’March in whatever way they wish – they

could choose from a list of suggested activities or create their own.

The activities suggested in the Movin’March guide and on the new Movin’March website cater for

a range of engagement levels and are intended to be accessible to all schools. For schools who

wish to take the promotion of active travel further, including integrating it into their curriculum work,

Movin’March provided:

- A range of specially designed lesson plans

- Links to the Wellington Region’s School Travel Plan programme resources

- Links to NZTA’s road safety education portal, and curriculum resources

- Links to SusTrans resources from the UK

Competitions and Prizes

Two competitions were run during Movin’March 2016. One targeted schools and students, the

other was designed to engage parents.

The school competition required students to complete named WoW (“walk or wheel”) passport

cards, post them to GWRC to enter a draw to win one of two brand new bikes and helmets. The

passport cards had twelve spaces for a stamp, hole punch or signature to mark an instance of the

student walking or wheeling to school. For every fourth stamp, a child received an active transport

sticker of Jack the Kāka. There were three different stickers to collect. The stickers were attached

to the inside of the passport card which students could keep. Schools were encouraged to run the

competition in a way that worked for them. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive with many

schools requesting extra passport cards as students finished their first one.

In addition to the two individual bike and helmet prizes, there was a prize for the school with the

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highest percentage of student passport entries relative to their school roll. This prize was a bike

rack valued at $800.

Another competition encouraged parents to get involved in their child’s active journeys to school

by posting pictures of interesting things seen on the school journey. Parents were able to tag

#movinmarch to share the post on the Movin’March Facebook page. Prizes were one of two family

passes to a Wellington Wild Things destination of their choice. The winning families chose to visit

Wellington Zoo and Matiu/Somes Island.

Smaller spot prizes were chosen for their practicality and popularity from previous years. Schools

were given a small number of coloured pencil sets, enough WoW Passport cards for every student

and collectable Jack the Kāka stickers.

Website

The Movin’March website was updated with a range of web resources available to teachers. The

new look website featured an appealing short video clip about Movin’March on the homepage.

Extra posters, guides and passports could be printed from the website by schools that needed

them.

The competitions were explained in detail and the blog page was regularly updated with stories

from schools in the region. Lesson plans aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum were

developed from previous years’ Movin’March activities, to make them easier for teachers to

include in their teaching. Links to resources from NZTA and SusTrans (UK) were also provided.

Popular resources from previous years were retained including an online version of the School’s

Toolkit resource that the Sustainable Transport team created in 2012. The initial registration

survey asked teachers to indicate which resources they planned to use and the feedback survey

at the end of the promotion asked teachers to reveal which resources they actually used.

An online survey tool was used for registration for Movin’March. Regular emails to participating

schools included:

registration confirmation email

follow up when resource packs were mailed out

updates reminding of competition closing dates

final email thanking them for their participation and prompting them to fill in the feedback

surveys

Engaging with parents

Parents were also surveyed online this Movin’March. The aim was to measure parents’ familiarity

with the messages of Movin’March and whether the promotion had inspired conversations around

active travel at home.

The parent survey link was sent out to all participating schools. Many of them included the link in

their school e-newsletter or posted on their school Facebook page. To attract participants the

survey was incentivised with two $100 Prezzy Card prizes. More than 2,200 families were sent

the email link with thousands more having access to the link via Facebook. 170 parents

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responded to the survey from 22 different schools with 159 of those parents choosing to enter the

draw for the Prezzy card prize. For the end of Movin’March a teacher feedback survey was

distributed with a link via email to the 60 participating schools. The survey remained open

throughout the April school holidays to give busy teachers a chance to complete it when they had

some spare time. There were 27 responses from teachers.

The Movin’March Facebook page was established after Movin’March in 2014. At the beginning of

December 2015 the page had 56 likes. As of May 2016 it has 124 likes with 40 new likes coming

during the month of March. The most popular posts related to prizes and a sneak preview of the

WoW passport card which reached 2252 people organically and attracted 178 post clicks including

23 likes, comments or shares. Blog stories linked to school pages prove popular and usually

inspired a flurry of activity on the page. The page fans are made up of 81% women with 36% of

them being aged between 35 and 44. Schools have been advised that the Movin’March Facebook

page will remain active and will be a source of information regarding active travel to school and the

next Movin’March promotion.

Poppy from Maungaraki School in Lower Hutt with her WoW Passport card

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Albie and Tom from Paraparaumu Beach School in Kapiti on Whacky Wheel Day

2.1 Changes for 2016

There were a few changes to Movin’March for 2016. The changes made are described below:

2.1.1 Duration of promotion

This year Movin’March was run for the entire month of March, where previously it had run for a

week within March. The change was designed to allow schools more flexibility to run the

promotion in a time frame that suited them. Many schools only ran activities or the WoW Passport

competition for a limited time but they were not restricted to particular dates. The only downside to

this change was the ‘All in Day’ event that was held in previous years wasn’t able to be held

because schools designed their promotions around their own timetables. Therefore there was no

one event that unified the region at the same time.

2.1.2 Attractive Prizes

This year the budget was carefully managed to allow for the purchase of special prizes to capture

people’s attention. The prize bikes that were offered for the WoW Passport competition were

purchased using a half price promotion from Weet Bix boxes for Bike Barn. This allowed the

purchase of two fantastic Merida bikes in spectacular colours (matching those of GW). The bike

rack was provided by Urban Effects for $800. The family passes to Wellington Wild Things

destinations were purchased directly from the chosen destination with East by West Ferries

donating their family pass prize when they discovered the positive nature of the promotion. The

Prezzy cards proved to be a valuable incentive for parents to complete the online survey with 159

entries into that draw.

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Ayush from Karori West Normal School with his prize bike

St Anthony’s School pupils with their new bike rack

2.1.3 Parent Engagement

F to engage parents with Movin’March through the Parent Photo Competition on Facebook and

the online Parent Survey sent out during Movin’March. This was the first time parents had been

directly targeted to evaluate the effectiveness of the promotion.

2.1.4 Promotion through the Education Gazette

This year an advertisement was placed in a prominent spot in the Education Gazette which is a

national publication that is distributed to all schools throughout NZ. See below.

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3. Results

3.1 Participation and TA Breakdown

Promotion to schools started in December 2015 and registrations opened on 15 December.

Registrations were accepted throughout March. The total number of schools registered to

participate in Movin’March 2016 was 60, up from 49 the previous year. The Territorial Authorities

(TAs) were all represented with Hutt City schools making up 23% of the total and Wellington City

with 22%.

Figure 1: TA breakdown of all Movin’March schools in the region in 2016

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Hutt City (23%) and Wellington City (22%) had the highest representation in the total Movin’March

registrations. Upper Hutt City, Masterton District, Porirua City and Kapiti Coast District were

represented with totals between 11% and 15%. Carterton and South Wairarapa Districts had 2%

of the total registrations each.

The Movin’March registrations were compared to schools already engaged with GWRC in the School Travel Plan (STP) programme. The Table 1 below shows the breakdown.

Table 1: Movin’March Schools that are also STP schools

Table 1 shows that 100% of the schools engaged in STP on the Kapiti Coast have taken part in Movin’March for the last three years. Hutt City reached 100% more engagement with Movin’March than they currently do with the STP programme and Wellington City schools are also attracted to Movin’March. Higher engagement in the Movin’March promotion is likely due to the flexible and short term nature of the month long promotion as opposed to the commitment required from the STP programme. As shown in Figure 2 below, half of the TAs in the region have increased the number of schools engaged in the STP programme since 2014 whilst the other half have stayed static or decreased.

2014 2015 2016

MM STP MM STP MM STP

Kapiti Coast District 5 5 7 7 7 7

Porirua City 4 2 4 2 7 2

Hutt City 7 3 9 6 14 7

Upper Hutt City 6 4 9 6 9 6

Wellington City 12 5 15 6 13 4

Carterton District 2 1 1 1 1 1

Masterton District 4 4 3 3 8 3

South Wairarapa District 1 1 1 1 1 1

Total 41 25 49 32 60 31

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Figure 2: STP schools by TA in 2014-16

able 2: Walking

4. Evaluation

4.1 Review of Activities

Figure 3 shows the Movin’March resources that teachers used according to the Teacher Feedback

Survey. Overall, the colouring in sheets and other activities were used more than the provided

lesson plans, NZTA resources and the GW School’s Toolkit (a copy of which all schools already

have).

Figure 3: Movin’March resources used

In their initial registrations, teachers were asked what activities they would be interested in using

for Movin’March 2016. Some of these options were new for 2016 which meant teachers may not

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have known sufficient detail. The WoW competition proved to be appealing and 22 schools sent in

competition entries. Over 13,000 passport cards were sent out to schools. The following

comments were recorded in the teacher feedback survey:

The resources are great. However, one thing to think about is letting schools know about such initiatives in term four of the previous year, so they can become part of the school planning for the next year.

The resources are excellent but we didn't use them as well as we could of (sic) this year. Will in 2017. We wanted our School Council to organise and decide on the events for Movin March but they were elected too close to the beginning of this event. We really liked the WOW passports and the children really got involved. We only had a few cars driving to school.

Unfortunately this sat as an extra to the school programme so was not given the emphasis I would have liked it to. The on line activities and lesson plans were good, however, and I could see how they could be used.

I used the statistics lesson plan as this was the only resource that would really work with my age group 6-7 year olds.

Students coloured in the sheets to help display and promote the Movin March programme.

The materials were used to promote and engage the students.

4.2 Review of Competitions

Parent Photo Competition: This competition generated 11 entries from 8 different parents. No

feedback was received from other parents but an assumption for the relatively low response to this

competition is the privacy issues perceived by parents. Facebook was chosen as the medium for

this competition as many schools now communicate with their parent community through

Facebook. The parents who did enter were enthusiastic about their posts and expressed no

privacy concerns regarding the pictures they posted. The winning parents were awarded a family

pass to a Wellington Wild Things destination of their choice.

WoW Passport Competition: This competition generated 1953 student entries from 22 different schools. The prizes of two brand new bikes proved to be highly motivating. Students indicated their main form of transport during Movin’March on their entry cards and as indicated in the figure below, walking was the most common mode followed by scootering.

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Figure 4: Student’s preferred travel mode (from WoW Passport)

Over 70% of teachers indicated their school took part in the WoW Challenge. When asked how the competition was run in their school:

ten teachers said the classroom teacher stamped the passports at the classroom

six schools had senior students stamp the passports at the school gate as students arrived

five schools had staff or parents stamp the passports at the school gate but only for a limited period of time (i.e. not the entire month)

Ninety percent of respondents agreed that the WoW Passport Challenge had an effect on how students travelled to school. Teachers who noticed a change in active travel to school noted the following things:

An increase in number of children on bikes, scooters, or walking to school, the bike racks being full.

Less vehicle congestion at school gate.

Students enjoying the challenge of getting to and from school and from using different modes.

The number of scooters and bikes parked at the front of the school increased dramatically. Further, 40% of our children completed the challenge. We normally have very few children walk or wheel to school. Also, the teachers supervising the school road crossing noticed a significant increase in students walking, scooting or riding to school.

Through talking with parents, I found out that some were only walking to school every day with their child/ren because of Movin' March, and some older children were walking quite a way (one child walked 5kms to school) prompted by the Movin' March promotions. The change was across the school. Approximately 1/3 of families made more of an effort over the month.

Students were motivated to get to school in an active way. In the classroom students were talking about how many stickers they had.

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4.3 Parent Survey Results

During Movin’March a parent survey was sent out to gauge parent awareness of the promotion

and to get an indication of any conversations at home about active travel instigated by the

promotion. The online survey link was sent out three weeks into the promotion.

This was to allow time for parents to get involved in Movin’March if they hadn’t heard about it

already. It also promoted the Parent Photo competition and gave them time to enter if they hadn’t

already. The results showed that 85% of parent respondents had heard about Movin’March.

Over 60% of parents found out about the promotion from their child/ren with 38% reading about it

in the school newsletter. One survey respondent knew about Movin’March from seeing a poster

and one knew about it from previous years. The survey was designed to discover if conversations

stemming from the Movin’March promotion resulted in active travel mode shift on the route to

school. Parents were asked how their child/ren travelled to school before Movin’March.

Figure 5: Child transport modes before Movin’March The above figure shows that 44% of children travelled with family in the car, 31% walked and 15 % scootered to school. Parents were then asked if their child/ren had changed their mode of travel to school during Movin’March. Nearly 50% of parents indicated that their child already used an active travel mode to get to school. While 35% of parents said yes that their child/ren had started walking, scooting or biking to school as a result of knowing about Movin March. Another encouraging figure was that 12% of parents had discussed the option of their child/ren walking or biking in the future, presumably when they were older or had built up some skills (see figure below).

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Figure 6: Child transport mode changes after Movin’March

The results show that of the 52% of surveyed families not already actively travelling to school

before the promotion, the majority have started or planned to start as a result of Movin’March.

(The discrepancy in numbers to the previous figure is a result of individual parent answers).

4.4 Teacher Feedback Results

Of the teachers surveyed 58% had heard about Movin’March 2016 through the email invitation

while 28% were informed by another staff member. A combined 17% found out about

Movin’March through Facebook, an internet search, a parent request or through the advertisement

in the Education Gazette.

Of schools participating, 34% let individual teachers run their Movin’March activities with some

central co-ordination by senior management. Nearly 30% of schools had the activities co-

ordinated by the principal or senior management staff member. Student councils led 20% of

school’s activities with only 7% of teachers running their activities independently.

Teacher comments:

Children liked the progressive nature of gaining stickers as the card was completed.

Just keep it going we loved it and it was great for our school leaders to organise.

Love it. Loved it being a month long.

Thank you for doing this. WOW was a very enjoyable and easy to promote and manage programme.

A great initiative for all involved.

4.5 Prizes review

All the prizes were very popular with schools and students, with many schools asking for more.

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Anecdotal evidence showed the junior students loved the coloured pencil sets and the seniors

liked the drink bottles (which were School Travel Plan branded). Feedback on the stickers

suggested they were a good motivator for younger students but not for the older ones.

Observations at schools saw students of all ages enjoying the stickers and being keen to collect all

three. Supplies of badges and drink bottles from previous years were exhausted during this

promotion because of the higher than predicted number of participating schools. In the future

more prizes with Movin’March branding on them would be very sought after by schools.

4.6 Social Media/Media review

The Movin’March Facebook page has 124 likes, 68 of these came between December 2015 and

the end of March. Forty new likes were recorded within the month of March. The most popular

post on the Movin’March page was a link to one of the blog stories for a school in Lower Hutt. The

post reached 2252 people organically with 178 post clicks and 23 likes, shares or comments.

Movin’March stories were featured in three local papers. Press releases from GW went out at the beginning and end of the promotion but were not featured in local media. They were featured on the GW Facebook page and got a combination of 21 likes and 7 shares.

Example of Movin’March blog page from website

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Kapiti Observer – 7/4/16

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5. Discussion

Movin’March had a target of 40 schools taking part in 2016, in total 60 schools registered and

received promotional material and prizes. This reached over 14,000 students and their families

which exceeded the 10,000 target.

The aim was for 12,000 car journeys to be taken out of the pre-school peak during Movin’March as

parents choose to travel at a different time than usual, or choose a different mode other than SOV

(single occupancy vehicle). With 60 schools taking part, it is estimated that at least 14,000 car

journeys were replaced by active travel modes (if every participating student replaced one car

journey with an active mode). The promotion was also expected to support students and their

families to travel actively and provide opportunities to try active travel to school. This is the

intended design of Movin’March- targeting parents through the students at participating schools

and encouraging them to try a new mode of travel to school.

The fun and excitement generated by the competition aspect of Movin’March provided

opportunities for families to consider the reasons/benefits of active travel and motivation to try

travelling actively in a supportive school environment.

Recommendations from previous years indicated a desire from schools to know more about what other schools were doing for Movin’March. Anecdotally it was discovered that both student and teacher participants enjoyed looking at the blog feature on the Movin’March website. Activity on the Facebook page was busy when schools were tagged in posts and photos so others in that school community could see what they had been involved in.

The Movin’March promotion is well established with schools in the region, the name is

recognisable and respected. Participation has continued to grow every year with 94 schools taking

part at least once over the past 5 years. While no major change is recommended, the following

recommendations might help to improve the programme for the coming year.

Technology – Using new technologies to engage students would be an added incentive to participation. To include an interactive element to the website that is both fun and educational which students could access on class iPads or chromebooks would likely have appeal. The use of travel tracker technology could also be well used in this event.

Parent Engagement – Continuing to target parents with competitions and surveys would strengthen the community link between schools and the Movin’March promotion.

More lesson plans and units of work that teachers can include in classroom teaching. These would need to be available early in Term 4 to allow for long term planning.

More co-ordinated media approach to capitalise on social media popularity and transfer this and good news stories into press releases for local media to pick up.

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6. Conclusion

This evaluation shows that Movin’March is going from strength to strength with more schools

taking part in 2016 than ever before. New ideas and innovations keep the promotion evolving and

allowing schools more flexibility encourages more to take part. Maintaining tried and true activities

keeps schools comfortable with the event whilst providing opportunities for them to try newer

competitions and activities.

Providing a range of incentives makes the promotion popular. Schools enjoy having access to

free spot prizes, competitions and classroom activities that promote a healthy message. Feedback

from schools and parents was overwhelmingly positive, with many indicating they will participate

again next year.

Movin’March 2016 achieved its objectives in the following ways:

• To make information and resources available for schools which have an interest in active travel – all primary and intermediate schools in the region were invited to participate in Movin’March with 60 schools signing up. Those schools were supplied with resources and incentives to promote and celebrate active travel to school. The resources included an activity guide and web based lesson plans, activity ideas, stories from others schools and links to other web resources (e.g. NZTA and SusTrans). Incentives included spot prizes, competitions and larger prizes plus promotion of school events on our website and Facebook page. • Promoting the benefits of active travel to the school communities; purposely the benefits for children, for the environment, for parents and for schools – The resources provided including a Health and PE lesson plan and GW School’s Toolkit, and promoted the wider benefits of active travel to school. Public awareness of the obesity epidemic in NZ and climate change research has seen a greater understanding of the benefits of active travel. • Providing a focussed time to celebrate active travel to school and associated achievements – Movin’March provides a clear timeframe for celebration. The extension of the timeframe from one week to one month provided more flexibility for schools without losing the focus. The Wellington region weather during March this year was excellent which was conducive to active travel. Many schools chose to extend the promotion into April. • Providing support for on-going travel behaviour change beyond Movin’March through the supply of links and resources – The Movin’March website and Facebook page continue to be available to all schools. The blog stories about school events are popular and provide inspiration to schools for next year. The Facebook page continues to share stories that are pertinent to active travel which will keep people engaged until the next campaign launches. The School’s Toolkit is being updated and will be available online for schools to access.

Conclusions from the Active Communities Literature review show there is no silver bullet for Active Travel and School Travel programmes, but the literature and recent local experience does reveal which factors are necessary for programmes to be effective;

Combining social and individual level interventions with physical or structural changes

Engaging meaningfully with the target community

Tailoring programmes to individuals or smaller target groups

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Other modes should be actively discouraged where practical, to remove the ‘ease’ associated with those

Programmes are more likely to be successful when run in communities where infrastructure is good or being improved, and where there are committed and popular local ‘champions’ either in the school community or neighbourhood. Local ‘leaders’ need to be committed to the cause, including teachers, principals, parents, local politicians and other influencers. Recognisable programme branding which includes a local flavour helps to build and maintain a relationship with the community.

Individuals who are already contemplating a change to more active modes and those who are already in active transport (AT) -oriented groups (families or workplaces) should be targeted first, but not exclusively. Those who have never contemplated active travel for themselves must also be included in the conversation to begin a culture change which actively encourages and enables AT. Programmes need to provide a range of tailored options which may appeal to different individuals’ needs or wants. They also need to be simple and flexible enough to allow them to be adapted or tailored.

Lessons can be learnt from the experience of Greater Wellington’s, and other organisations, campaigns to improve the design and delivery of Travel Programmes within the Wellington Region. Information gathered about communities can help to tailor and target their needs, while local volunteers can be supported to extend limited resources. Importantly, there needs to be a long-term vision, which enables both culture change and more direct outcomes.

Recommendations:

Combined interventions work best (particularly when combined with a physical-environmental change such as infrastructure or facilities),

Interventions should be targeted at the ‘pre-contemplative’ as well as the ‘ready for action’ groups (and those in between) to build culture change as well as more tangible outcomes

Programmes should be tailored to the group or individual, recognising different cultural and contextual factors; where resources are limited programmes should target those already considering change

Community involvement is essential, particularly for school based programmes, Keep programmes simple and flexible Branding should be local, recognisable, and separate from Government or Agencies

Movin’March is on the right track in terms of involving the community with a school based initiative,

having a simple and flexible programme and promoting a recognisable brand. Throughout the

Wellington region new infrastructure to promote walking and cycling is constantly being built. This

will allow schools on the Movin’March journey to combine their active travel promotion with the use

of new networks.