More than 40 teams have entered this year’s Operation Transportation, the Westport Smarter Travel challenge that encourages participants to rethink their daily commute and to choose smarter travel instead over the Lenten period. Now in the third year of Operation Transportation, the challenge was changed slightly to open it up to more participants. Previously is was business and community group focused, however this year, all members of the community can participate by entering a team of four to six people. Families, workplaces, community groups, friends and schools have all entered teams this year making for a very diverse challenge.
The weather was quite changeable over week one of Operation Transportation but the feedback has been consistently positive with the social aspect of commuting sustainably highlighted repeatedly by participants: “The challenge has encouraged me to make more of an effort to carpool. I’m really enjoying the experience, it’s very social and I’m saving money,” said Hilda Carroll, from team Second Walkers Up. Merial Donaghy from the Vert-I-go team said: “We met some friends while cycling into town along the greenway. That wouldn’t have happened if we were travelling by car.”
Fresh air, exercise, more energy and feeling more invigorated were some of the other benefits highlighted by participants. “By carpooling I am now a lot less tired in the evenings as I don’t have to drive as far,” said Francesca Smith from Sancta Maria College.
With six weeks of the challenge left and a lot more smarter travel journeys to go, there are sure to be lots of changes before Westport’s Smartest Travel team is named. The winning team will win a day’s activities with Clare Island Adventure. There are also runners-up prizes and spot prizes throughout the challenge. There is still time to register your team by emailing [email protected].
