Children who walk or cycle to school receive rewards in Aveiro | Mobility

On Thursday or Friday, depending on the school, there are several children from Aveiro who walk or cycle to class accompanied by volunteer parents. The initiative comes within the scope of Ciclaveiro’s PéPedal active school mobility program, launched in November 2023 and which is being implemented for the first time in partnership with the Aveiro School Group, having already culminated in 1,015 trips. These are children between 3 and 10 years old, who will now have the opportunity to see their efforts rewarded. The program now has a network of friends made up of several commercial establishments in the city who will give prizes to children who usually travel on the PéPedal Trains.

“Each participant now has a pass validating the trips they make and adding points”, explains Maria Miguel Galhardo, president of the Ciclaveiro association. Then, simply exchange the points for products or services in the network of friends. It could be a pencil in exchange for three points or a bag of cookies made from natural ingredients and a discount on the purchase of bread for four points. There are several possibilities offered to travelers on these special trains, and “the network is open” and “any commercial, cultural or sporting establishment can sign up and join”, adds the Ciclaveiro director.

There are, for now, 14 establishments that are part of the network, committing themselves “to collaborate in promoting these active travel habits in the city and to contribute to a safer, more comfortable and child-friendly city, recognizing and rewarding the effort of the children who, once a week, walk and cycle to school on the PéPedal Trains”. “They recognize that when we walk and cycle around the city everyone benefits, not only in physical and mental health, increasing our individual and collective well-being, valuing and humanizing public space, but also that we benefit local and social dynamics, creating proximity and more conscious consumption habits, essential to the valorization and activation of local commerce and the pulse of local sporting, social and cultural agents”, highlight the association’s directors.

These trains have 12 active lines, nine of which are on foot and three by bicycle, to the four schools of the Aveiro School Group. All of them are accompanied by volunteer parents who, in the role of train drivers, guide the children to school and validate their journeys on individual passes.

Working with the youngest

PéPedal arises as a result of several experiences that Ciclaveiro has developed over the years, including CicloExpresso, with safe routes for three schools, and the mobility game Serpente Papa Léguas. “We also did a pilot month of school mobility, with several initiatives, but everything was very focused on time and then the effects would wear off”, notes Maria Miguel Galhardo. The challenge was, therefore, to “develop a project that would last the entire year”, he adds, regarding the creation of PéPedal, a program whose actions go beyond walking or cycling to school.

For Ciclaveiro’s leaders, it is extremely important to “work on this issue from an early age in schools, infecting families, involving the community in building a better city to live in, with citizens who are more aware and critical of the choices they make and their important role. in collective change”.