Everyone is encouraged to leave the car at home and try walking and cycling to get where you need to be this week.
This encouragement to get out of your car is being touted as ‘active travel’, and is all in aid of Better Journeys Week with a view to more people doing it more often.
New signs have been placed around St Peter Port to try and help, showing how long it takes to walk or cycle from key locations into the town centre.
The initiative is run by the Better Journeys Project and sponsored by Appleby. This year marks the first time Guernsey and Jersey have come together under one banner to promote more sustainable travel.
The organisation’s aim is to help people realise their daily commute might be quicker, and healthier, than they think.
“We’ve all experienced that moment stuck in traffic where we think we could have walked this route quicker,” said Rollo de Sausmarez, Director of the Better Journeys Project in Guernsey.
“The new signage shows you exactly that – how short many of these distances really are. We hope it prompts more islanders to leave the car at home and take a better journey to work, school or to activities.”
In Guernsey, the signs show that it’s just a 15-minute walk from the Grange to the Town Church, an 18-minute walk from China Red to the Town Church, a four-minute cycle from the Halfway to Admiral Park, and a six-minute cycle from Muse to Admiral Park.
The overall aim of Better Journeys Week is to encourage residents, schools, charities, and businesses to try different modes of travel, including car sharing, public transport, walking or cycling.
The focus this year is on long-term behaviour change and the positive impacts of better travel habits.