What is Local Motion?

Darlington: Sustainable Travel Town...

In 2004 Darlington was one of three towns chosen by the Department for Transport (DFT) to be a Sustainable Travel Demonstration Town (along with Peterborough and Worcester).

The award meant £3.24 million of revenue funding spread over five years for Darlington to deliver ‘Smarter Choices’ to encourage and enable more people to use sustainable transport. Even making just one journey a week by bike, or bus, or walking those short journeys instead of jumping in the car, can and will make a difference – to you and your neighbourhood.

Some of the initiatives introduced in the project, known as Local Motion, included:-

An Individualised Travel Marketing programme offering tailored travel advice to every household in the town
School Travel Planning and Medal Motion – The School Travel Plan Officer worked with every school in Darlington on travel planning and other travel related initiatives including the installation of cycle parking. Walk to School weeks were themed and branded Medal Motion and included all forms of transport.
Since 2004 Darlington has had a Bike It officer, co-ordinated by Sustrans, working in schools on promoting all aspects of cycling. In addition, all Darlington pupils were offered free Bikeability training.
A supporters club was launched and grew to include more than 10,000 members. Members received a card, travel information/advice and discounts in local shops.
General marketing campaigns also formed part of the Local Motion project. This took the form of radio, local and national press, bus and billboard advertising.

...and a Cycling Demonstration Town

In 2005 Darlington was chosen by Cycling England to be one of the first six Cycling Demonstration towns.

This award brought a further £3 million in funding, matched by Darlington, to spend on cycling infrastructure and provided an additional 22km of new or upgraded cycle routes as well as an additional 13 toucan crossings, over 1500 school cycle parking spaces, 6 complete radial routes and a circular route around the town all of which helped make it convenient to cycle to school or work each day.

As the only town in the UK to have been both a Sustainable Travel Town and a Cycling Demonstration Town, Darlington is unique.

Let the People Decide

Darlington residents led the way with sustainable tranpsort and parents of Darlington children have been really supportive of schemes such as the annual Medal Motion campaigns and the work of Sustrans Bike It in local schools.

This has meant an increase of 57% in cycling in the town, saving the equivalent of 6000 tonnes in CO2 emissions per annum, with an incredible 7.5% of pupils now cycling to school.

Results

When the Department for Transport (DfT) issued independently quantified results from the Sustainable Travel Towns, Darlington had seen a 9% reduction in car trips; 113% increase in cycling trips and 14% increase in walking trips. Along with a 9% reduction in car driver trips which equates to 10,800 fewer car trips per day. The local reduction in car trips helps support new development and economic growth without creating unacceptable levels of congestion.

The Local Motion project has seen a large increase in the use of active travel modes estimated to be in the range 15%-18%. This supports the national agenda to reduce levels of obesity and promote healthier lifestyles.

The DfT report states that estimations based on Darlington household travel diaries show per capita savings of 50kg of carbon dioxide in 2008, compared to 2004 and summarises that the overall programme was successful in reducing car use and in doing so, offers very high value for money.

Darlington: a leader in the sustainable transport field

Local Motion has showcased Darlington nationally as a leader in the sustainable transport field, demonstrating that targeted interventions aimed at changing the way people think about travel and providing greater travel choice can make a real and sustained difference to peoples travel behaviour and building a better quality of life for everyone across the Borough.

Local Motion Sustainable Travel Town Seminar - 3 June 2009

On 3 June 2009 Local Motion held a seminar which focused on Darlington's initial five years as a sustainable travel demonstration town. The seminar examined the transport activities undertaken during the five years as well as the changes in travel behaviour resulting from those activities.

The seminar was attended by transport experts from throughout Europe and the UK as well as local businesses, residents and interest groups. Presentations given by Werner Broeg, managing director of Socialdata, on travel behaviour change in Darlington and changes in attitudes towards transport can be found in the links below:-

Travel Behaviour Change [pdf document]

Attitudes and Potentials for Change [pdf document]

Darlington Sustainable Travel Town evaluation report looking at changes in residents travel behaviour between 2004 and 2008

Darlington Travel Behaviour Research - 2004 to 2008 [pdf document]

Local Motion presentation given to North Eastern Branch of the Institution of Highways and Transportation - 21st April 2009

IHT presentation - April 2009 [pdf document]

Local Motion Conference - 2 April 2008

On 2nd April Local Motion hosted a national conference which disseminated information on Darlington as a sustainable travel demonstration town - in addition a range of guest speakers presented on related transport issues. Some of the presentations are available below:-

Darlington-Sustainable Travel Town - Owen Wilson [pdf document]

Travel Behaviour Change in Darlington - Werner Broeg [pdf document]

Factors Influencing Walking and Cycling Levels - Matthew Page [pdf document]

Health and the benefits of sustainable travel - Nick Cavill [pdf document]

Delivering a town-wide ITM programme - Kate Gladstone [pdf document]

The Tees Valley Footprint - Alistair Paul [pdf document]

National Council of Women - Margaret Field [pdf document]

Delegate List [pdf document]

Local Motion results in Darlington - some of the successes can be found in the following monitoring update

Local Motion Monitoring Update [pdf document]