Go Jauntly’s Green Routes increased the likelihood of walking by 36%

Bristol City Council’s transport engagement team commissioned Go Jauntly and Tranquil City to explore how a bespoke ‘Green Routes’ app feature can encourage healthier and more sustainable walking journeys. 

The app feature offers citizens of Bristol alternative routing options calculated using multiple environmental quality benefits, including greener, quieter, less polluted and more appealing journeys.

 The project was measured against global and city-specific performance metrics, including the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals ‘Good Health & Wellbeing’ (3), ‘Sustainable Cities & Communities’ (11) and ‘Life on Land (15).

Process

Tranquil City used its machine learning model to produce relevant datasets that make up the Tranquil City Index for Bristol. The result was an innovative dataset specially created for the city. 

The Tranquil City Index dataset was then integrated into the Go Jauntly routing algorithm and tuned to balance various other aspects including providing a reasonable trip length. The feature was shown to provide routes that had on average 15% more greenery and spent 20% more time in quiet areas. 

Anyone using the Go Jauntly walking map in Bristol is provided with a score beside the route duration. In addition to suggesting the greenest way vs. the fastest way, users can now see the benefits of taking the greener route before they set off.

Impacts

 The impacts included:

• 70% of people felt more relaxed as a result of taking the Green Route.
• The Green Route increased the likelihood of choosing to walk by 36%.
• 100% of participants found the routes offered increased exposure to more natural elements.
• 80% of participants found they offered a quieter, less polluted experience.
• 50% of people felt happier as a result of taking the Green Route. 

Wider Potential

If scaled to the entire Bristol population, predictions indicate that it could increase time spent in nature by 2.9 million hours, significantly reduce pollution emissions and reduce carbon emission by 50,000 tons.

This pilot study demonstrates the opportunity and benefits of providing greener, quieter, less polluted routes to encourage more walking and cycling.

Get in touch to find out how you can better understand the tranquillity rating of your local streets.