Community Rail Lancashire is pleased to be able to announce another funding success. Car or Nah is a project designed to encourage young people to swap from car usage to public transport.
90% of young people view car ownership as essential. In the UK, 56% of 17-24 year olds regularly drive a car. Car ownership for young people is financially straining – with the cost of lessons, purchasing the vehicle and high insurance costs. In addition, driving is one of the most dangerous activities young people engage in. Drivers aged 17-24 are up to 4 x more likely to be killed or seriously injured than those over 25. We would like to show young people there is an alternative to driving a car and change their view that a car is essential. Using public transport is cheaper, safer, better for the environment and healthier too. Those who don’t have a car have a lower body weight, reduced mortality ( a 30% lower risk of death from heart disease). If more people ditched their cars for public transport the air quality would also improve
Working with i-creation, a trusted partner from previous projects, we would develop a web based application that could be used by 13-24 year olds (and younger too!) to show how the stats really do add up and that delaying the purchase of their first car, or waiting until they are 25 years old before they drive will be cheaper, safer and better for the environment. The gamified application could be used individually by young people on their own mobile devices or shared in schools as part of a Community Rail Officer led activity. Young people could then discuss and debate their findings with their peers and have some useful stats to take home to share with their parents.
This project has received funding from the Community Rail Development Fund a source of funding manged by the Community Rail Network on behalf of the Department for Transport.