Heriot-Watt University volunteers ensure easy travel for all

Heriot-Watt University has long promoted sustainability initiatives including liftsharing to and from campus, and last week, their community group Transition Heriot-Watt took out to the cold to talk to staff and students about sharing their trips.

Of course, as with many large campuses, there’s often big events taking place that can disrupt normal parking facilities. In this case, Heriot-Watt had graduation ceremonies booked, which mean that several car parks would be unavailable to staff and students.

However, student volunteers for the Transition project were on-hand to help – offering personalised travel plans to suggest alternative transport methods, and finding those struggling for arrangements lifts to and from site through the Heriot-Watt University Liftshare scheme. Their great work helping those travelling meant that those who would be disrupted could easily switch to an alternative mode of transport, and in lots of cases, a more sustainable one – encouraging behavioural and habitual change.

Incentivising people to stop and chat by offering out free chocolate bars, the volunteer team successfully helped a wide range of commuters – spanning staff and students, from all over the country.

Rizki Fitria, Project Development Officer for Transition Heriot-Watt University, said “We really value our volunteers, and the work they’ve done during times of travel disruption has helped to ensure everyone can still get to campus easily and on-time. By offering a whole range of transport modes, personalised through myPTP travel plans, Heriot-Watt is in the best possible position to protect everyone’s commute, and to instigate behaviour change to more sustainable methods where possible”.

If you’d like marketing advice on how best to promote your Liftshare scheme, you can download a number of resources from your Liftsharing monitoring dashboard. Or, if you’re not already a Liftshare customer, but think personalised travel planning or car sharing could work for your organisation, get in touch with our Business Team.