The results of the recent Beat the Street East Kilbride have shown that the game encouraged people to be more active, used their cars less and caused less congestion.

Players were surveyed before and after the game to measure the impact across the town’s levels of physical activity, mental wellbeing and active travel. Highlights of the findings included:

• 24 primary schools took part and 19 community teams comprising charities, workplaces and sports clubs
• 41.63 tonnes of CO2 were saved during the game
• 11% reduction in car use
• 62% of adults who took part became more active
• 42% of less-active children who took part became more active
• 91% of adult players and 87% of children reported positive effects from playing the game.
• 74% of adults said they felt more connected to the local community thanks to playing the game

Beat the Street East Kilbride is delivered by Intelligent Health on behalf of the council with support from South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture, Smarter Choices, Smarter Places and the Scottish Government.

Councillor Robert Brown, the Chair of the council’s Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, said: “The results of the post-game survey confirm what we have been hearing anecdotally which is that the game helped people of all ages to swap the car for healthier modes of transport.

“As a council, we are committed to helping more people make active travel the easy choice for short, everyday journeys to improve health, air quality and the environment.

“We are delighted with the return of the Beat the Street East Kilbride game which once again has been successful in increasing active travel reducing physical inactivity and reaching people from areas of deprivation.

“We will continue to work with the schools, groups and individuals who took part in the game to help them maintain their active travel levels and will also work to ensure there is an active travel offer for residents.”

The results also showed that there was an 11% decrease in adults’ daily car travel (dropping to 31% from 42% before the game). In addition, the proportion of adults walking rose by 2% (23% from 21%).

Of those people who registered, 31% of adults and 40% of children self-reported being inactive or less active at the start of the game.

There was also a 12% increase in the number of adults who now meet the Chief Medical Officer’s recommended guidelines for physical activity of 150 minutes per week.

A six-month follow-up survey will be sent out to players in March 2023, which will look at long term behaviour changes.