Stepping Out

GAVIN Dickinson cheerfully admits that at 5ft 9in tall and weighing 19 stone, he was a little on the overweight side. He wasn't entirely a coach potato. He enjoyed playing cricket. It was just that when it came to getting around the city, even to the local paper shop, he had one simple, ingrained habit - reach for the car keys.

"I drove everywhere, basically," he says. "It was just habit. Laziness."

Gavin, who is 35, lives with his wife Carol and their 11-year-old daughter Sarah in Acomb. Every day he drove to work at the CPP building in the city centre, just a ten-minute walk away. For good measure, he also drove his wife to work at York Hospital, and his daughter to school at Acomb Primary.

Then, a few weeks ago, out of the blue, he received a telephone call from someone at the University of York. They asked him if he had a car, whether he used it to get to work - and whether he would benefit from someone coming round to explain about alternative ways of getting about the city.

He agreed and before he knew it, had signed up for a pilot scheme being organised by City of York Council and the Stockholm Environment Institute at the university, which aims to promote alternative forms of transport.

Gavin was given a "health map" showing walking routes to work and the city centre, with a chart on the reverse side to enable him to calculate how many calories he could burn off by walking instead of driving to work. He was also given a pedometer - a little gadget he puts in his pocket which records the number of steps he takes each day - to enable him to keep track of just how far he walks.

It has transformed his life, he says gleefully. Now, not only does he usually walk to work - sometimes he drives in, then his wife picks up the car on her way to work leaving him to walk home - but he also walks everywhere else around town. That includes walking to the paper shop and going for regular evening and weekend walks with his family to the local shops or the park.

It may not sound much but Gavin is already feeling much fitter for it. "I haven't lost an awful lot of weight," he says. "Only six or seven pounds. But I'm definitely fitter."

The family recently went to Spain for a holiday in 106-degree heat. "We did a fair amount of walking and I really noticed the difference in my fitness," he says.

What really helps him to keep up his new, more active lifestyle, is the free pedometer he was given. Before he started walking more, he was doing about 1,000 steps a day, he says. Now it is more like 5,000-6,000 steps. "It gives me a target," he says.

It is not just the walking that has improved his health.

Since becoming more active, he has also become more aware of what he eats. And his family are all benefiting.

Carol was already fairly fit, says Gavin - she runs twice a week, and is 8 stone compared with his 18 or 19 - but even she now often cycles to work rather than allowing herself to be driven. And Sarah now often walks to school. "So she is benefiting as well."

None of which means the family have given up the car, says Gavin. "We have the car still, but we are much more aware now of our health. And if you just think about how many cars are on the road - if you could get just ten per cent of those people walking, what would that do?"

That's exactly what the new Intelligent Travel pilot scheme - funded by the Department of Transport, headed by City of York Council and managed and evaluated by the Stockholm Environment Institute - is all about: encouraging people just to think a little about the alternatives.

Altogether 240 households have signed up in three areas of the city - Poppleton, Clifton and Rawcliffe, and Chapelfields.

Staff from the Stockholm Environment Centre cold-called families picked from the electoral register, then visited those who said they might be interested.

They offered a range of advice and incentives to encourage families to look at alternative ways of getting around the city - including bus, cycles, walking and sharing cars. Discounts and incentives were offered to those taking part, such as free or discounted bus travel for six months, free reflective strips and discounts on bicycle check-ups for cyclists, and the pedometers and maps for walkers.

The idea, explains Dr Gary Haq of the Stockholm environment Institute, is to evaluate how all the households have got on after six months, to see how much their behaviour has changed.

If it is proving to have boosted their health and to have helped cut congestion, the scheme could then be extended.

The scheme is not anti-car, insists Dr Haq: the emphasis is on encouragement and raising awareness. "It is about getting people to change their travel behaviour," he says. "It is good for the environment, good for their pocket, good for traffic congestion and good for their health."

The key, adds City of York Council's Dan Johnson, is that changing your behaviour a little needn't be difficult. "The aim is to show people how easy it is to incorporate walking and cycling into their daily lives."

Gavin agrees. "If I can do it," he says, "nearly everybody can."

The Intelligent Travel pilot scheme runs alongside an existing Walking Your Way To Health initiative in York. A series of regular walks have already been established across the city, and copies of free Health Walks in York leaflets are available from the Selby and York Primary Care Trust on 01904 623142.

Updated: 11:05 Monday, August 11, 2003