Beat the Street has turned Paisley into a giant real-life physical activity game and now enters its Go Travel themed week to encourage players to ditch the car and walk, wheel or cycle to school or work.

 

Taking place until Wednesday 12 October, the game encourages players of all ages to get active and so far, 9,112 people have signed up and have together walked, cycled, rolled and wheeled more than 58,000 miles.

Currently, Todholm Primary School leads the total points leaderboard and A&R leads the average points leaderboard. Lorraine Clements from the 8th Paisley Brownie and Guides group, who currently are fourth on the average points community leaderboard said: “It’s definitely good fun. The Beat the Street game has been a fun way to encourage my Brownies and Guides and their families to get out and about. I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ve all done with their scores.”

 

This week, all Beat the Street participants are being encouraged to leave the car at home and travel actively to school or work, or even park further away than normal and walk the final part of their journey, tapping Beat Boxes on the way.

 

Councillor Michelle Campbell, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board, said: “Leaving the car at home has a tremendous impact on everything from pollution to congestion and traffic so next week, we’re encouraging people to make the most of the great outdoors and find new routes for walking or cycling to school or work.

“Doing it once may help make people realise how easy it is to travel actively to school or work and changing these behaviours will have big impacts on individual health and on our carbon emissions as an area.”

 

The Go Travel week ties in with the Not Far? Leave the Car campaign which is currently running across Renfrewshire and rewards people for undertaking sustainable journeys with discounts and vouchers at more than 100 local businesses in Renfrewshire.

 

All people need to do is download the free BetterPoints app and start tracking their journeys, with the app available at www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/leavethecar.

 

Beat the Street Paisley has been commissioned by Renfrewshire Council with support from Paths for All’s Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme. It is being delivered by Intelligent Health.

 

There are total and average points leaderboards for schools, community teams and charities with vouchers for the teams that travel the furthest and bonus points to be won just for taking part!

 

More information on how to get involved can be found at www.beatthestreet.me/paisley or search for @BTSPaisley on social media.

Author

Founder of Paisley.org.uk in 1998 and constantly strives to change peoples attitudes to the town, Brian is a self described Paisley Digital Champion who promotes Paisley via any means necessary. You can also follow me on X