Solutions to the Barriers to Young People's Active Travel

Solutions to the Barriers to Young People's Active Travel
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As part of my research, I had to encourage and facilitate discussion to encourage young people to come up with solutions in response to the barriers to active travel that can be taken to people in positions of power, like Leeds City Council, to enact.

The main solutions that stuck out to me, following the focus groups we conducted with the young people, was the idea of incentivising active travel - whether that be in the form of an app that tracks the distance you travelled using active travel which is then converted to credit or a discount on a cinema ticket, for example, or trails that might interest young people, encouraging them to use active travel. The young people were also quite firm on the idea that if they were given a space to be in, this would promote active travel within them as well as minimise the potential barriers to active travel amongst younger young people who may find them threatening when they are hanging out in large groups in parks that were meant for them. Also, the young people want to be able to speak about the root of the issues and explain their perspective on why they are not doing active travel and to be heard by the council, for example, in which they can bring forward their ideas for change, making it a two-way street of communication. They all said that they would be willing to walk or cycle more provided that there was something in it for them, or if there was something worthwhile going to, or if they were provided with financial help to purchase a bike or a scooter to help them travel actively. 

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