The popular interactive game Beat the Street is returning to Paisley this autumn.
The giant active travel competition encourages residents of all ages to explore their local areas by walking, wheeling, scooting or running. The game has been played by more than 2m people in 180 locations in the UK, including 25 games in Scotland. The previous Beat the Street Paisley game took place in 2022 where 9,453 people took part and clocked up a total of 81,327 active travel miles.
Beat the Street encourages communities to move more and to make small lifestyle changes, such as walking or cycling to school or work every day. As well as increasing physical activity among adults and children, the game helps reduce congestion, improve air quality and encourage families and communities to spend more time outside together.
This time, the free game takes place from Wednesday 16 September to Wednesday 28 October. Children use a card and map which will be provided by participating schools, and adults can pick up a free card from one of the distribution points listed on the Beat the Street Paisley website which will go live shortly at www.beatthestreet.me/paisley
Alternatively, players over the age of 13 can download the free Beat the Street app to play the game with their phone.
Players can play individually, or join a school, community or workplace team with prizes such as vouchers for books and sports equipment available for the teams that travel the furthest. For schools and community teams, there is a total points leaderboard and an average leaderboard, so opportunities for teams of all sizes to win prizes.
Once the game is underway, players find their nearest “Beat Box” which will appear on lampposts around the town. There will be 84 of these sensors that record each player’s point tally. Visit two Beat Boxes within an hour and collect 10 points for each Beat Box, then keep going!
Beat the Street Paisley has been commissioned by Renfrewshire Council and is funded by Transport Scotland. It is being delivered by Intelligent Health.
Provost Cameron said, "Beat the Street is a great initiative that invites people of all ages and abilities to participate in active travel. The competition provides motivation to leave the car at home and walk, cycle or wheel around the town while having friendly competition with each other."
"I'm excited to see how many people take part in this year's competition and how many miles can be travelled between us all."