Supporting faith communities to walk, wheel and cycle to worship
We have been working with Newham Council to engage with people of different faiths in the borough, encouraging them to switch to active travel. Travel planning has been a key part of this.
After some initial engagement work with a variety of places of worship, we teamed up with two mosques, two Sikh temples and nine churches to take the sustainable transport message to a variety of faith communities in the borough.
Newham Council’s aim is to reduce congestion on the streets in this part of east London and improve the borough’s air quality to make it a healthier and cleaner place to live and work. A contribution to this is to support people to switch from traveling by car to walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport between home and their place of worship.
Looking at London more broadly, this work is part of the council’s contribution to the Mayor of London’s goal for 80% of trips in London to be made on foot, by cycle or by public transport by 2041. The UK government’s aim is for 50% of all journeys in towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030.
Active Travel England announced in July 2025 a coalition of 12 of England’s combined authority mayors jointly pledging to deliver an initial 3,500miles of safer routes to schools, shops and high streets, workplaces and transport hubs.
This Travel for Worship programme aligns with the council’s priorities set out in its Climate Action Strategy and its aims to clean up the borough’s air and reduce motor traffic congestion.
The challenge
A significant number of the borough’s residents need to travel at least once a week to their church, mosque or temple. These trips involved many car journeys at certain times of the week, with increases in vehicle traffic on Friday afternoons and on Sundays.
What we did
We designed and delivered a travel plan for each place of worship. We talked to people about their current travel habits to establish their preferred transport, the routes they took and the reasons behind their choices. We also spoke with the various faith communities to find out what was preventing people from choosing a sustainable way to travel to their mosque, temple or church.
Finding out why people don’t choose sustainable transport
We found that barriers to sustainable travel options (walking, wheeling, cycling, public transport) included:
- Distance (25%)
- Weather (19%)
- Public transport issues
- Public transport issues (16%)
- Inability to cycle (13%)
- Not owning a cycle (11%)
Designing bespoke Travel Plans
We received over 560 survey responses.
Following our analysis of all the responses, we designed 12 bespoke travel plans, listing barriers to moving to an alternative transport option, current transport of choice and how far people needed to travel to get to their place of worship.
In our plans, we included a specific target for each place of worship to work towards, to change the travel habits of their worshipers from car to walking, wheeling, cycling or public transport.
Being active is better for our mind, body and planet
Information in the Travel Plans includes clear links between how being more active in the way we travel makes for better mental and physical health, less traffic congestion, cleaner air and better quality public space.
The plans include useful and practical information on times of services, cycle facilities, public transport provision and the condition of the roads. Also included in the plans are short-term and long-term actions the congregations could take to make journeys more sustainable and active.
Given one of the barriers to active travel was not owning a bicycle, it was important to include information about Newham Council’s cycle training initiative and subsidies for cycle hire.
Encouraging people to change their habits
Using the data from our surveys alongside behaviour change techniques published by University of College London (UCL), we used the following as tools to support people to change their travel behaviour:
- Share car journeys with neighbours
- Gamification
- Incentivisation
- Social modelling
Green Stewards of Newham’s faith community
While we were talking to worshippers, some were interested in becoming sustainable travel champions to promote the health and environmental benefits of sustainable travel to their fellow worshippers.
Recruiting worshippers to champion sustainable travel helped to create an environment where people felt comfortable about changing their travel habits.
This was particularly helpful in Newham, where the champions provided a trusted voice to promote and share the positive reasons to travel more actively. This social modelling behaviour change technique proved to be highly influential and was helpful in places where congregations spoke a number of different languages.
Faith values and looking after the environment
We recognised that nurturing planet Earth, looking after the environment and caring for your neighbour are values that all the faiths share. With this in mind, the community champions were called Green Stewards, adhering to the idea that it is everyone’s responsibility to look after the world and its resources.
Aligning active travel with values connected to faith has been central to helping many people consider sustainable transport and change the way they make their journey to and from their place of worship.
Through this valuable network of local advocates, the council is supporting communities to commit to lasting change in travel habits.
Getting in the steps with tech
We worked with Newham Council to use incentivisation and gamification techniques to further support changes in people’s transport choices. This has led to the borough introducing the BetterPoints app. The app is a digital rewards platform that incentivises active and sustainable travel choices.
Residents of Newham and areas on the borough’s borders can download the app for free. They can switch on the tracking so it behaves like a FitBit or a Garmin, and they can count their steps, measure the distance they cycle or journeys travelled by public transport.
Points make prizes
In another example of incentivisation and gamification, congregation members can earn points for walking, cycling or using public transport. These can be redeemed for a voucher of monetary value to be exchanged at most stores. It is also possible to donate the voucher to support their place of worship too.
Widening community engagement about the benefits of sustainable travel
Through consistent support and targeted engagement, Travel for Worship is helping to transform how seldom-heard communities view and adopt active travel.
As we extend our work to more places of worship in the borough and expand its network of Green Stewards, it continues to build a sustainable, community-driven movement for healthier, more environmentally-friendly travel options.
Contact us
Get in touch with us if you would like us to work with your place of worship to encourage people to walk, wheel and cycle their journey to their pace of worship: info@mpsmartertravel.co.uk