A record number of Beat the Street participants have been encouraged to get on their bike and start cycling following a seven-week game in Milton Keynes.
From 1 February 22 March, Milton Keynes was transformed into a giant game for Beat the Street. The seven-week game saw more than 12,000 local residents get moving across their city on foot, bicycle, skateboard or scooter. The game was delivered on behalf of Milton Keynes Council with the aim of engaging residents with the city’s Redway system of walking and cycling lanes, and to increase active travel and exploration throughout the town.
Following the game, more than 800 participants provided feedback on changes they had made to their active travel behaviour over the course of playing Beat the Street. The results not only showed an increase in usage of Milton Keynes’ Redway system, but the largest increase in the proportion of participants cycling of any Beat the Street scheme thus far.
At the start of Beat the Street, 41% of participants reported cycling for travel in the previous week; however, at the end of the game this had risen to 51% of participants. Additionally, the proportion of people reporting using the Redway system every day or on most days increased from 52% to 57% following Beat the Street.
The scheme in Milton Keynes also led to increased levels of walking for travel: before the game 12% of participants said they did no walking for travel in the past week, which had decreased to just 3% following the game.
Intelligent Health worked closely with a variety of local groups and stakeholders in Milton Keynes to increase levels of active travel such as Santander who provided free rentals for their Milton Keynes cycle hire scheme to registered Beat the Street participants.
Cllr Liz Gifford, Cabinet member with responsibility for Transport said, “ I am delighted that so many people took part in this great event which was a healthy, fun way to get about the city without a car. MK has so many fantastic places to visit on foot or by bike and our unique redway network allows people to explore these safely”
“I hope that all those who took part will continue to get out and about as much or even more!”
Dr William Bird, CEO and Founder of Intelligent Health, said: “We are incredibly proud of the results from our programme in Milton Keynes with a higher proportion of players cycling than any other Beat the Street scheme. There is already a fantastic infrastructure for active travel in place in Milton Keynes, so it is great to hear how many people have started to cycle around their city following the game.”
