Sustainable Bristol

Walking to a healthier Bristol

Posted on 17 April 2010

Nearly 9,000 Bristol residents are taking at least an extra hour of exercise a week, thanks to walkit.com, the city’s online walking route planner.

Walkit was launched in Bristol in October 2008 by Forum for the Future, in partnership with Bristol Primary Care Trust, Bristol City Council, and Triodos Bank. In its first year it has been used by 14,616 people sparing the city’s congested roads more than 22,000 car journeys, boosting Bristol’s ambitions to be the UK’s “Green Capital”.

The urban walking route planner – walkit.com – generates easy to read maps between any two points whilst also showing the health and environmental benefits of making the journey by foot. In 2008, the website won an award for most innovative transport project in the National Transport Awards. It has also appeared in the Sunday Telegraph’s 101 most useful websites.

“Walking is brilliant for your health.  It reduces heart disease, lowers your blood pressure, keeps your bones and muscles strong, keeps your weight under control and improves your overall feeling of wellbeing.  If there was a medicine that did all that people would pay a fortune for it, yet walking is free,”

says Dr Angela Raffle, a consultant in public health with Bristol Primary Care Trust.

“Walkit Bristol is helping local people do their bit to improve the city’s air quality and reduce its contribution to climate change” adds Paul Rainger of Forum for the Future’s Sustainable Cities Programme. “Each person who switches to walking to work saves about a tonne of CO2 each year.”

Forum’s Founder Director, Jonathon Porritt, emphasises the green benefits of walking in cities.

“Ditching the car for short journeys has always made sense, both for the wallet and personal health” he says. “Now that we know what kinds of carbon savings we need to make, there’s even more reason to follow our instincts.”