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Travel Awareness News and Events
Travel Awareness News and Events
Family Treasure Hunt
On Father’s Day, Sunday 15 June, there will be a fantastic family event taking place in Hook. At 12 o’clock a walking treasure hunt will depart from the grounds of St Paul’s Church on the Hook Road, following a trail of mystery which is anticipated to last approximately one hour.
The benefits of gentle exercise are well known. It’s good for your heart, it’s good for your lungs, it’s good for muscle and bone growth - especially for children, and it’s good for your feeling of wellbeing!
With us all being so reliant on the car for getting around, we see an increasing problem of obesity within children locally. The event is intended to raise awareness of the health benefits offered by walking on a regular basis.
Following the treasure hunt the crowd will return to Rose Gardens, off King Edward’s recreation ground, where there will be a celebratory atmosphere amongst a variety of stands including face painting, a cycle stunt display team and a variety of healthy foods, ideal for a family picnic!
National Lift Share Day - Monday 9 June
After paying high prices for ever-scarcer fuel, a driver has to encounter congestion, breathe fumes, battle for a parking space...
Along with walking, cycling and public transport, being part of the massive expansion in car sharing is a practical way to help tackle the irritations of driving and start to address the twin problems of peak oil and climate change.
Liftshare is a national website-based car share matching service which aims to help you make better use of the estimated 38 million empty seats on the UK’s roads every day, whether you own a car yourself or not.
Hannah Smith, from the Sustainability Team at Kingston University, said ‘The University has a dedicated group on the Liftshare website which makes it even easier for our staff and students to find someone going their way. But Liftshare’s not just for commuters – registering a one-off or occasional journey is just as simple.’
Tempted? Live or work in the Royal Borough of Kingston? Then join Liftshare and enter the prize draw to win lunch for a carful of people at a Kingston town centre restaurant!*
Just sign up at www.liftshare.org before the end of National Liftshare Day on Monday 9 June - thenforward the confirmation email that they send you to travel.plans@rbk.kingston.gov.uk . Please include your postal address or workplace and a contact telephone number.
* Lunch for five people at a restaurant to be decided – including everything except alcohol
Students campaign for road safety
Representatives of the RoadSTARS, Kingston’s Road Safety and Travel Awareness Student Council, have created a hard-hitting poster campaign targeting the safety of pedestrians in the borough. The campaign is unique as it focuses on the ways both pedestrians and motorists can take responsibility for their safety and the safety of others.
In 2007 representatives from the borough’s secondary schools gathered at the Guildhall to discuss road safety concerns, and as a result a working group developed their ideas into two high impact posters. The posters, which draw from the recognition of Police incident boards, have been designed by students from Richard Challoner, Southborough, Tiffin Girls’ and Coombe Girls’ schools and will be displayed at roadside locations in spring.
Fourteen-year-old Tanya Chopra, Communications Officer for the Road Safety and Travel Awareness Student Council, said "We feel that road safety messages often target the driver, when sometimes it is poor road crossing behaviour by pedestrians that can result in tragedy. The two posters make it clear that all road users have a part to play in stopping injuries from happening."
The Student Council was set up by the Kingston Council’s Road Safety and Travel Awareness team and is formed of Year 10 and 12 pupils from schools across the borough. The group gets together regularly to come up with new and exciting ways to spread the message of road safety and greener travel to their fellow students.
Safe and sustainable travel at night
All bus timetables, including night buses, are available by following the link below. Up-to-the-minute information can be accessed through Transport for London's online Journey Planner, also linked below.
London Travel 24 hour Information
- 020 7222 1234 (phone)
- www.tfl.gov.uk
- 020 7918 3015 (txt)
- travinfo@tfl.gov.uk
Kingston Black Cab Service
- 020 8546 1993
London Journey Planner
- www.journeyplanner.org
- text A to B to 60835 (A and B can be postcodes / stations / bus stops)
- text HOME to 60835 to get your nearest taxi numbers
Some charges may apply.
Night buses
- N87 (Kingston - Wimbledon - Aldwych)
- 57 (Kingston - Wimbledon - Tooting - Streatham)
- 65 (Kingston - Richmond - Ealing Broadway)
- 85 (Kingston - Roehampton - Putney Bridge)
- 281 (Tolworth - Surbiton - Kingston - Twickenham - Hounslow)
- 285 (Kingston - Feltham - Heathrow Airport)
- N213 (Kingston - Sutton - West Croydon)
Also see:
Related External Links:
Cyclist Instructors Needed
Kingston Council is looking for more people to join its pool of supply Cyclist Instructors.
Interested? It is essential that you are able to cycle competently and confidently and have regular experience of a variety of traffic conditions. You should also understand principles of safe cycling and be familiar with current theory of safe cycling and / or express willingness to learn. It’s desirable that you have experience in a teaching, training or instructing role or experience of cyclist training as an assistant or volunteer.
You must also have a love of cycling, a fun and enthusiastic personality and real desire to help adults and children of all ages cycle more!
If selected you will be trained on a 4-day programme that provides a comprehensive grounding in how to run a safe and effective cyclist training course. On completion of this course, you will be accredited to National Standard and able to deliver cyclist training at Levels 1, 2 and 3 as a freelancer.
Rate of pay: £9.28 per hour.
For more details and an application form contact Eric Chasseray on 020 8547 5826.
Debra the Zebra's Walking Charter Relay -- Tuesday 2 October 2007
Schoolchildren from over ten schools across the borough joined Kingston’s best-loved mascot, Debra the Zebra, in a two-day ‘walking relay’ this week to celebrate International Walk to School month this October. During the month, thousands of schoolchildren across the UK will be joining over 40 countries worldwide to celebrate the benefits of Walking to School.
Starting at Fern Hill school, pupils walked with Debra to their next nearest school, Latchmere Primary, carrying a Walking Charter for every school to sign. Teacher and pupil ‘walking ambassadors’ from Fern Hill read and signed the charter, pledging their commitment to walking to school at least once a week. The charter was then handed on to Latchmere pupils to continue the relay on to their nearest school.
Debra the Zebra was able to walk with pupils from more than ten schools in Kingston, much to the delight of youngsters. ‘It was really difficult to select pupils to carry the charter – the whole school wanted to walk with Debra!’ said Nikki Noboa of Park Hill School. ‘The Walk to School campaign is something we really support. Getting more pupils walking together isn’t only healthier and more social, but it also cuts congestion and pollution near school.’
This October, the Walk to School campaign will highlight the benefits of getting to your local area safely and sociably by walking to school. Research has shown that people living on busy roads feel less connected to their local communities and know fewer of their neighbours than those on quiet streets. As 1 in 5 cars on the road at 8.45am is on the school run, encouraging children to walk to school will not only get cars off the road, but also introduce people to their neighbours.
The more people explore their area, too, the more likely they are to discover quieter roads to walk that avoid busy ‘as the car drives’ routes.
Andrew Fielding, National Campaign Coordinator for the Walk to School Campaign, said: “The more children walk to school, rather than viewing the streets as a backseat observer, the greater the benefits for them, and for the whole community.”
When all the charters from each London borough have been signed, Kingston schools will join the other London schoolchildren to present their scrolls to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, at City Hall.
In Town Without My Car Day -- Friday 21 September 2007
Surbiton’s Maple Road may have been closed off to traffic but it certainly wasn’t closed to fun as Kingston residents joined hundreds of towns across Europe in celebrating ‘In Town Without My Car’ Day. The leafy street in the heart of Surbiton came to life as the usual streams of cars and lorries were replaced with street theatre, live music and plenty of art activities to promote more environmentally friendly forms of transport for Kingston.
Over 100m of Maple Road was kept traffic free and transformed into a green, social space with lots of comfy sofas, outdoor drinks and giant games to tie in with this year’s ‘Streets for People’ theme.
‘The idea is to let local people experience what urban streets could be like without traffic, and if car journeys around town were replaced by more sustainable alternatives such as cycling, walking and public transport,’ says James Parker, Kingston Council’s Road Safety & Travel Awareness Manager. ‘It was great to see so many residents pledging their commitment to travel ‘green’, getting their bikes fixed by ‘Dr.Bike’ as well as enjoying the music and atmosphere.’
The day kicked off early with pupils from Maple Infant School and parents joining up to create the school’s first ‘Walking Bus’ – an initiative to encourage children and parents to do the school run by foot. The ‘bus’ picked up pupils en route, getting children walking together safely to school without cars.
‘It’s a simple idea but so effective’, enthused mother of two from Maple Infant School, ‘Sometimes the school entrance is swamped with parents’ cars, each individually dropping off their one child. Getting parents together to share the walk to school is far safer – and more fun. I just hope we can keep it up for the rest of the term!’
Pupils at Maple Infants’ and St. Andrew’s and St. Mark’s schools were treated to a special outdoor Theatre-in-Education show about travelling to school safely and interactive workshops to learn about street trees and recycling. Local mural painter and artist, Michelle Groombridge, helped younger pupils meet the challenge of ‘greening up’ a scrap car donated by Maypole Motors, decorating it with a giant wildlife mural, the car’s wheels covered with turf and plants from Chessington Garden Centre.
After school, many parents and children stayed out to visit the ‘Sustainable Transport Road show’ and explore the ‘eco-home’ set up by Kingston’s Environmental co-ordination team along with other families in the borough. The worshipful Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames, Cllr Shiraz Mirza arrived by rickshaw to present Level 3 Cycling certificates to the borough’s youngsters and congratulate the twelve prize-winners of the borough’s recent Road Safety and Travel Awareness Student Council Calendar competition.
The evening saw street performances of ‘Bottom Gear’ from freewheeling comedy duo Nick and Jebb of the Unicycle Theatre. Alcohol-free ‘mocktail’ drinks were whizzed up by Rubicon cocktail bar and a number of local restaurants set up tables on-street for customers to enjoy dinner al fresco.
‘More and more residents in Kingston are actively supporting the council’s work to encourage people out of their cars and onto their bikes or public transport’, says James Parker, Kingston’s Road Safety & Travel Awareness Manager. ‘Events such as today’s are an ideal opportunity to listen to residents and hear their views on sustainable travel.’