Evaluation of Living Streets’ Fitter for Walking project

BHFNC were commissioned to undertake an independent evaluation of Living Streets’ Fitter for Walking project (January 2009 to December 2011). As part of the project, which was funded by BIG lottery, Living Streets worked with approximately 150 communities in 12 Local Authority (LA) areas across five regions of England to increase awareness and promote walking as a mode of transport for short journeys along specific routes. The evaluation report presents a comprehensive assessment of the delivery of these types of programmes as well as the impact of environmental changes on walking levels in a sub-set of community projects.

Project activities were overseen by a co-ordinator from Living Streets and were delivered based on the needs and interests of the community, and funding and resources available from the LA, therefore each project was unique and included a diverse set of activities. There were three main areas under which project activities were delivered:

• environmental improvements completed by the LA partner, eg, new dropped kerbs, new street lighting
• environmental improvements led by the community, eg, litter pick-up, bulb planting
• promotional and awareness-raising activities, eg, led walks, development of walking maps

Some key findings from this evaluation include:

1. Environmental improvements and awareness-raising activities to promote walking were successfully delivered in a large number of communities through the Fitter for Walking project with support from Living Streets’ co-ordinators, LA partners and community groups and residents.
2. Route users, residents and communities all reported perceptions of improvements in community cohesion and social interaction in most of the projects, and some community members reported an overwhelming impact of the project on the daily lives of people living in their local area.
3. Increases in the number of pedestrians using project routes were observed in nearly all the community projects evaluated and up to 25% of route users perceived they had used the routes more often in the last 12-18 months.
4. By the end of the project, a higher proportion of route users were using walking as a mode of transport and route users were walking for a wider variety of journey purposes. Community members and residents reported doing more walking in their local area, discovering new places to walk to and new routes to get to their destinations and there was a perception that generally more people were walking in the local area.

Further information about Living Streets' Fitter for Walking project, and how to get involved, is available at www.livingstreets.org.uk/ffw

Download Evaluation of Living Streets’ Fitter for Walking project