Aims of the Project

 

Background and history

Wandsworth Cycling Campaign realised that leaders and opinion formers in Wandsworth are more likely to be car owners than the general population. We wished to test this belief and use it in a direct way to address car-dependent lifestyles. Evidence strongly suggests that overcoming barriers to cycling – such as safety concerns – can be achieved by providing individuals with high quality cycle training. We thought that changing influential individuals' travel behaviour would have a 'cascade' effect in encouraging others for whom they act as role models to try cycling, particularly for commuting and other utility journeys, but also for leisure or as a family.  In effect such individuals would become 'cycling champions' for their local communities and organisations.

 

Concept

The 'Movers and Shakers' project aimed to target a range of community leaders and other opinion formers in the borough of Wandsworth. Movers were selected from from a variety of backgrounds and types of organisations e.g. local faith groups, schools and colleges, local elected representatives of political parties, amenity societies, town centre partnerships and so on.

 

Key individuals were invited to have individually tailored one-to-one cycle training and to communicate their experiences of cycling to their own community, using whichever medium is most appropriate for them.  

 

Funding

We applied for a London Cycle Community Grant and were granted an award to cover the costs of the training, and administering the project. Many thanks to TfL and LCC for administering this for us.

 

Organisation

We used Cycle Training UK (CTUK) as training provider since that organisation has an excellent track record and is exceptionally well placed to deliver training in a flexible way. We believed that flexibility, both in terms of timing and location, was crucial in attracting community leaders – who were likely to be busy individuals with many demands on their time. 

 

We evaluated the project using a short questionnaire before and after the Movers' cycle training. We found that a lot of Movers attitudes to cycling changed after they had taken their cycle training. See the Movers pages to find out how they got on.

 

Dissemination

Movers have been invited to share their experiences with members of their communities by way of local papers, websites, community bulletins etc, and the Movers and Shakers team has also provided a two page newsletter about the project with quotes from the Movers and photos of the training which Movers can use to spread the word about cycling. They can also use this website.

 

Celebration

A celebration event was held to mark the end of the project, where all the Movers as well as other influential local people were invited to come along, share their experiences and see the presentation about the project, including the video which records the training and our Movers' attitude changes.

 

Follow-up

We encourage all our Movers to keep cycling, and to get their communities involved as well. We have included a guestbook on this website and would be very pleased if the Movers could pass on reports of how their cycling experiences have developed since their training. We look forward to hearing how they are getting on.

 

The Movers and Shakers team have also prepared this website and a report for other cycle and campaign groups to refer to, as we have found this has been a very effective and positive way of spreading the word about cycling in our borough. We are willing to share our experience with other groups so if you don't find what you are looking for on the site, please contact us using the email address below.