Active Travel III: Accelerating the UK market

In recent months we’ve been exploring one of the most exciting areas of growth and opportunity within urban mobility, and why it matters so much to the Connected Places Catapult, and the future of healthy, connected and net zero places. Active travel is about creating options for us to move more. This can have a massive impact on our physical and mental health, the air quality in our overly congested cities by getting more commuters out of cars and onto bikes and footpaths, and the UK’s collective effort of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In this third episode in our active travel podcast series we continue the conversation with businesses, place leaders and campaigners for better and more active travel. We ask what seizing this potentially huge opportunity might look and feel like on our streets and in our neighbourhoods. How do we design our public spaces for more active travel? How do we ensure that change is accessible to everyone? And what are the gaps in our existing knowledge base when it comes to understanding even the current market? In this episode we hear from Prof. Rachel Aldred, Director of the Active Travel Academy at the University of Westminster, Susan Claris, Associate Director at Arup and Vice President of Living Streets, Isabelle Clement, Director of Wheels for Wellbeing, and Ben Knowles, CEO of Pedal Me. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Follow the show! Don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.  Show notes Register now for our Active Travel Summit on 29th September! You can click on these links to read the two UK government reports that are referenced in the episode – Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Transport, and Decarbonising Transport: Setting The Challenge. To read and download the Catapult’s Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. The Active Travel Academy has co-authored a report out this month on the benefits of cargo bikes in London, which was supported by Pedal Me. You can download the report here. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!