Married to the Motor competition

Nottinghamshire County Council has been running a "Married to the motor" competition with their staff, as part of their 10th birthday celebrations. The competition sought out the self confessed petrol heads; those employees who drive around the corner to buy a pint of milk, or would rather pay £10 in car park fees than catch the train into the City Centre.

Five competitors came forward and were asked to complete travel diaries of their current travel behaviour. They were then given all the help they need to reduce their car use before repeating the diary exercise a few months later. A panel of judges came together to decide which contestant had made the best progress, and the winner won a short break in London, including first class return rail tickets courtesy of Midland Mainline.

The "before" diaries were very revealing and there were some very obvious examples of where the car was not the best choice of transport for the journey. Two of the contestants lived one mile from their workplace, and were both willing and able to cycle this distance, but don't because of a lack of planning. "I've never bothered to find the best route," said one, who regularly drove home from work to then go out for a cycle ride in the evening "to get fit". The other contestant hadn't ridden her bike for a while and wasn't sure if the tyres were pumped up. "I used to cycle everywhere," she said, "but since having my car I've just got lazy."

The diaries also proved that on several occasions, trips between work bases would be much better done on public transport, but the contestants who were essential car users never considered this option. A bit of awareness and promotion started to have an affect; "I went to get the bus into town today," said one car driver, "but got to the bus stop and realized I'd forgotten my purse so came back and jumped in the car!"

Without the aid of a diary, most of us would never add up the time spent sat in the driver's seat. One contestant spent four and a half hours of her week driving her family around; another spent an hour a week driving the dog to its walking spot and one competitor made five separate shopping trips in seven days, taking up nearly two hours of driving time. Another made a special trip to drive to the petrol station, and another drives home in her lunch break.

The "after" diaries showed a marked improvement in travel behaviour. The shopping addict acted on advice to try an online shop, one contestant lost four pounds in weight by replacing his car trips with bike rides, one contestant went to the lengths of selling her car, buying a bike and also walking to work every day. The train was utilised for a few work journeys and a couple of commuting trips for the contestant who lived quite a distance from his base, and he also cycled to friends houses nearby rather than driving there.

The judges were made up of environmental champions and sustainability officers from Notts County Council, as well as the public transport operators. They took everything into account; so it didn't matter whether some had kids, others were essential car users etc. The judges based their decision on two key factors:

• which contestant best converted the advice into practice
• which contestant's changed travel behaviour was most sustainable in the long term

The winner will be announced at a prize giving ceremony and lunch in October, and the runners up will also received special prizes of public transport tickets and cycle vouchers as a reward for their efforts in the competition.