The Walk4Life website www.walk4life.info is now live! It is linked to the Change4Life initiative working to encourage people to live healthier lives.
The website includes thousands of walks already but more are needed. In particular there aren't many walks in Lancashire on there yet. All walks can be added, what might be a walk to school for one person, is a dog walk for another, is a trip to the shops for a third person, a led health walk another day, and at the weekend might become part of a circular leisure ramble! So all ideas are welcome.
People can search for walks by place name or postcode, and print out the mapped route. Once they have completed a walk they can record this on the website, and build up a log of their activity and track their improving fitness. In the next few weeks a new feature will be added to the site called "challenges" - this way a group of people could all walk together to reach a goal, for instance to walk 100 miles in January. Ideal for New Year's Resolutions! You could have "The Lancashire Challenge" and people's activity on your walks would all contribute to reaching that goal!
The website provides a great way of promoting walk routes to more people, as well as being able to clearly illustrate a whole route on a map. You can add a link to your own website for people who would like more information or details or contact you directly. The site is aimed at the general public, it is easy to use and has lots of help to get started.
In addition to general walks the site will have 2,012 waymarked Walk4Life Miles, designed to help people know how far a mile is to walk, and to encourage them to walk short journeys. On some of these miles, people will have an opportunity to take a walking fitness test.
The Walk4Life website uses interactive OS mapping (including Street View at the closest scale) which is proving very popular. Focus groups with inactive adults were very positive about the website and its motivational aspects of setting challenges and joining groups.
It is quite easy to get the hang of mapping a walk, there is a also you-tube video tutorial to watch the first route you plot. As a supporter, your organisation can have a username and password that can be shared throughout the team. In return, if you wanted some regular statistics on the numbers of people downloading your routes and completing them, that would be no problem!
If you would like to know more, become an official supporter, or need any technical tips or help, contact abi.mansley@walkengland.org.uk or 07914 273271