Active Travel challenge opens

Northern Ireland has opened registration for its 2026 Active Travel Challenge, a month-long June campaign to get people out of cars for everyday trips. (nibusinessinfo.co.uk) The free challenge runs from June 1 to June 30 and asks participants to log journeys made by walking, wheeling, running, public transport or car sharing instead of driving alone. (atc.getmeactive.org.uk) Registration is live through the Active Travel Challenge platform, which offers both a personal competition and a group challenge for workplaces, organisations and community groups. (atc.getmeactive.org.uk) The 2026 campaign is being delivered by a partnership that includes Translink, Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, the Public Health Agency, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast City Council, Derry City and Strabane District Council, and the Western Health and Social Care Trust, with support from Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure. (nibusinessinfo.co.uk) Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure defines active travel as transport focused on walking and cycling, and the challenge broadens that idea by also counting public transport and shared trips for routine journeys. (infrastructure-ni.gov.uk, atc.getmeactive.org.uk) Organisers are leaning on last year’s numbers. The 2025 challenge drew more than 1,600 participants, who logged more than 27,000 journeys, saved over £22,000 in travel costs and cut more than 18,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions. (saferhighways.co.uk) That gave the 2026 launch a ready-made pitch: lower transport costs for households and employers, more physical activity built into daily routines, and fewer short car trips in a region where transport policy has been pushing walking and cycling more aggressively. (saferhighways.co.uk, infrastructure-ni.gov.uk) The challenge has been running for years in Northern Ireland, with Translink promoting it as far back as 2022 and earlier reports showing the campaign was already in place by 2019. This year’s registration opening on April 23 gives businesses and community groups a little over five weeks to sign up before June begins. (translink.co.uk, 4ni.co.uk, nibusinessinfo.co.uk) For participants, the ask is simple: swap short car journeys for another mode, log the trip, and keep doing it through June. For organisers, the test is whether a one-month competition can turn a temporary switch into a daily habit. (atc.getmeactive.org.uk, nibusinessinfo.co.uk)