Tauranga Boys College teacher Rob Leslie says he's loving his Wednesday Challenge of walking 55 minutes to work. Photo /Mead Norton
Tauranga Boys College teacher Rob Leslie says he's loving his Wednesday Challenge of walking 55 minutes to work. Photo /Mead Norton
At 64, Tauranga teacher Rob Leslie could be forgiven for choosing the comfort of a warm car on a cold winter morning rather than a 55-minute walk to work each Wednesday.
But Leslie is having no part of that.
Tauranga Boys College teacher Rob Leslie says he's loving his Wednesday Challenge of walking 55 minutes to work. Photo /Mead Norton
Leslie is among more than 9000 people taking part in theWednesday Challenge. He has been since it launched in March this year.
The challenge aims to get 20 per cent of Tauranga people to use alternative modes of transport each Wednesday to help reduce the city's congestion and carbon footprint.
And just weeks before a new carpooling app is expected to be made available, the challenge is experiencing a surge of demand.
Leslie walks from Ōhauiti to Tauranga Boys' College each Wednesday morning. It takes about 55 minutes and the walk has replaced what would have been a regular gym session that morning.
"I am really enjoying it."
Wednesday Challenge director Heidi Hughes says more and more people are realising the benefits of different modes of transport. Photo / George Novak
Leslie said he was often busy with other commitments throughout the week but found that by swapping his traditional Wednesday morning gym session for the walk, he was not only removing a car from the roads but he was helping be part of a wider change.
"If there is a groundswell of people doing, even just once a week, it will make a difference to congestion," he said.
Leslie said he had noticed more people on bikes since the challenge started.
There was about a 50/50 split on whether Leslie walked home or got a ride from his wife on Wednesdays. Like walking, carpooling was also an option on the Wednesday Challenge.
Asked if his friends thought he was a bit nuts or, instead, a little inspiring, Leslie replied: "Probably a bit of both."
Leslie admitted that he hadn't planned on still walking to work in the middle of winter "but I am quite enjoying it still".
"Having made the decision to do it, it has been surprisingly easy, really. I didn't think it would be but it has been quite enjoyable as well."
The Wednesday Challenge has funding from Tauranga City Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. As of Tuesday, it had registered 9355 people who had done 63,357 journeys.
Wednesday Challenge director Heidi Hughes said the first couple of months had been "challenging".
"We basically launched right on the Covid wave. We had a lot of businesses on board beforehand which went into emergency mode. Now we are finding they are starting to re-engage," Hughes said.
The challenge consists of teams, businesses, individuals and neighbourhoods collecting points for each non-single-occupancy car journey made. Prizes are regularly rewarded to those scoring high.
Morning tea shouts, free coffees and other incentives were also on offer to people "simply for taking part", Hughes said.
As of Tuesday, there were 63 business teams, 74 organisational teams and 51 school and college teams taking part.
"It's really starting to take off. It's actually snowballing. It's really great," Hughes said.
The next milestone for the challenge was a carpooling app available to team members in the challenge. By sharing the app this way, it prevented "stranger danger" while also helping to build a community of commuters, Hughes said.
The app works by matching drivers and passengers from the same area, heading in the same direction as others.
Another arm of the challenge gaining traction was riding groups, in which people keen to bike to work but potentially not confident could ride with a group to help show the best routes and safest options.
Such riding groups have already begun in Ōmanu and Welcome Bay to the CBD and there were hopes of getting more happening around the city.
Hughes said there had been a lot of feedback from people taking part who had not realised how easy it was to catch a bus from their place or others, like Leslie, who were enjoying the health benefits of creating a new habit.
"There are a whole lot of people doing little things themselves but they're also doing it collectively," she said.
"It is reflecting on them what good looks like and that together we can make a change. We are getting real excitement from people."
The Wednesday Challenge is expected to run for a year. If anyone wants to learn more, they can find it and a live list of top performers on the Wednesday Challenge website.
