The Big Walk and Wheel – March 2026

The Big Walk and Wheel takes place this year between 16th and 27th March.

The purpose of this event is to encourage school children and staff to use active travel such as walking, cycling and scooting for their school commute.

The objective is to promote active travel as an enjoyable option to improve air quality around their schools, increase their physical fitness and gain an understanding of small changes they can make to benefit their local environment.

Why not take advantage of this event to talk about active and sustainable travel in the workplace.

Parents of school aged children may already be aware and possibly already participating with their children. This is an opportunity to build on that momentum.

The Big Walk and Wheel site has a host of suggestions and resources which could be useful to adopt to work setting, these include suggestions such as FRideday Bike Bus. This could be easily adapted to just FRideday, a day when everyone either walks, cycles or takes public transport to work.

If you use a cycle to work scheme, why not use this event to share how the scheme works. Promote the known benefits of cycling such as:

• increased metabolic rate, useful for maintaining a healthy weight
• increased muscle tone, particularly good for older people as a useful way to prevent future fall risks.
• Better overall fitness, with regular cyclists statistically being as fit as an average person 10 years younger.

Let’s not forget walking, you may have employees who already walk to work, why not ask them what they enjoy about their walk. Could they buddy up with other employees in their area who don’t usually walk for the week. Sharing the journey and boosting their mental and physical health at the same time.

It’s important to recognise participation, so why not create an achievable challenge for all to take part and celebrate success. Encourage employees to share their experience and work towards making it a regular or long term change.

If you don’t already have a sustainable transport policy why not use this event to look at creating one. The GHAW blog from November 2025 regarding sustainable transport is a useful starting point to think about why sustainable travel is important and what you should consider when writing a sustainable travel policy.

But most of all, have fun and get outside and active.