Between September 24 – October 12, travel on foot, by bike, bus, train, ferry or even carpool – and each of these street-friendly trips gets you points in the challenge.

Once you and/or your team are registered, visit www.springtothestreet.org.nz to log all your one-way trips each day between September 24 – October 12. You earn points according to your mode of transport and the distance you’ve travelled (see points overview below).

Prizes are up for grabs for the following categories:

• Highest scoring individuals (Overnight stay for two at Kapiti Island, Macpac daypack)
• Highest scoring teams (Vineyard tour of Wairarapa, Lunch at Logan Brown)
• Highest percentage of employees participating (Blue Carrot morning tea for participating staff)
• A bonus prize for a randomly drawn organisation - each employee taking part is one more entry in the draw (Kona bike for your workplace)

Spot prizes will be handed out during the announcement of the winners at 12.30 on Monday October 15, under the sails at Queens Wharf in Wellington City.

NB. In the case of a tie, winners will be randomly selected.

Why not? There are so many reasons!

• You’ll be competing for major prizes.
• Walking or cycling, even if only to a public transport stop, adds exercise into your busy day, improving your physical and mental health
• It’s WAY more fun to be out and about on the streets, on the buses, trains and ferries or travelling in a full car than driving alone.
• You’ll probably save money. Walking and cycling are free, carpooling can halve or quarter your costs and by the time you add up petrol, car maintenance and parking, public transport’s a cheap option too.
• You’ll avoid the hassles of driving in circles looking for a carpark.
• You’ll be making the region a cleaner and healthier place to live. 

You’ll get  an extra 5 points for every day you work from home.

An example day:

Philippa walks to work in Courtenay Place from Thorndon (2.5km) and catches the bus home. Later in the evening she walks down to the supermarket to get some groceries (800m away) and back:

1 x 2-5km walk (7 points) 1 x 2-5km bus (5 points) 2 x 800m walks (12 points) = 24 points!

When Philippa enters that day's log it will look like this:

If you'd like to find the best route for walking your journey, the online walking and cycling journey planner can help you: www.journeyplanner.org.nz

For public transport information contact Metlink www.metlink.org.nz  or phone 0800 801 700

To find your carpool match go to www.letscarpool.govt.nz

1. Only journeys with a transport purpose can be included (e.g. trips to work, school, shops, between workplaces, public transport or taking children to sports/clubs). Recreational walking and cycling trips can't be logged

2. Teams must be between 2 and 6 people, individuals can register separately. 

3. All team members must enter at least one daily log during the challenge.

4. The system is based on honesty, please be honest otherwise the challenge will not work. If there is any evidence of cheating the whole team will be disqualified

5. Only people living and working in the Wellington region can participate in the challenge

• How do I register? You can: a) register as an individual by following the link on the home page b) designate a team leader to set the team up. All they need to do is fill in the team registration and invite, add and remove members.

Registrations will open from August 27, 2012. The challenge begins on September 24.

• Does a return journey count as one or two trips? Two. When you fill in your daily log, you enter the number of one-way trips you’ve done. So commuting to work and back is two trips, as is walking to and from the dairy.

• Can I create trip purposes, like going to the dairy twice to get supplies instead of just once, to help rack up points?No. The spirit of the challenge is about using sustainable transport for everyday trips – not inventing reasons to create new trips. 

• How are the scores calculated? The scoreboard is split into categories. It will calculate and rank the total points accrued by individuals and teams and it will rank workplaces by the percentage of Wellington staff participating. .

• How do I register my workplace? If your workplace is not already registered, you can send your workplace name, logo image and number of employees in the Wellington region to spring@gw.govt.nz and you will be added to the workplace category. This means every employee that registers for the challenge will add to your chances of winning the overall workplace prize.

• What team sizes are allowed? Teams can be from 2-6 people. If you have more than 6 people wanting to take part, you can split and form two teams, then see if you can beat each other.

• If I live/work outside of the Wellington region, can I participate? Unfortunately not. This challenge is only for people in the Wellington region. Talk to your regional council about running something similar.

• Can I team up with people from another workplace? Yes. If you want to team up with people from another organisation, or come from a very small workplace, you can form a team with others. Choose an organisation as representative of your team, to add to the competitive flavour. This can be where the majority of the team members come from or just a social group.

• Do I need an email address to participate? Yes. The competition is run completely online and updates, scores etc are linked to email addresses. You can set up a free internet based address if you do not wish to register your work email.

• When do registrations open and close? You will be able to register a team from August 20 2012 and log your daily trips from September 24. The last date for entering daily trips will be October 12 2012.

• Can I log trips I plan to take in the future? No, you can only log trips that you've completed, so we recommend logging at the end of the day, or the next day.

• What about mixed-mode trips - ie, I walk to the train station, catch the train and then walk to work? As long as each trip is over 500m, you can count them all separately. 

• Why can't I count recreational trips? The aim of the challenge is to encourage people to travel sustainably as part of their everyday journeys and reduce their reliance on private vehicles. Many people enjoy walking and cycling recreationally and can spend many hours doing so. Including this would significantly disadvantage people who do not walk or cycle for recreation but who are doing these regularly every day.

• I have been doing lots of errands on one single outing, is this one trip or several? A trip is counted as a one-way journey that has a purpose. Therefore your trip to work counts as one and the return is a second trip. A journey where you walk to the shops, then walk to work, then walk home would count as three trips. However if you simply stop in at a dairy on your way past, to work, this is still just one trip.

• Does walking or cycling to and from public transport count as extra trips? Yes, as long as its over 500m.

• Do my trips in the weekend count? Yes. Log your weekend days in the same way as you log your week day trips.

• If I drive my children to school or after school activities, does that count as carpooling? Only if you also pick up other children or adults who would normally be driving in another car.

• How do I delete a team? Your team leader needs to sign-in and click the 'Invite/remove team members' link on the dashboard. At this bottom of the Team Builder page they will find an option to 'Delete this team'.

•  How will my privacy be protected? Your privacy is important to us. Your information will not be provided to any outside entities for any commercial purpose. Any reporting will be anonymous and your home address details will be deleted at the end of the challenge evaluation.  When you register for the Spring to the Street Challenge, you can opt to enter a nearby intersection or your suburb rather than your full home address. By entering the Spring to the Street challenge, you agree that Greater Wellington    may   contact you for programme promotion, evaluation and feedback purposes.    
• What would happen if I left the region for a few days? As long as you normally work and live in the Wellington region, you can continue to log any sustainable transport trips you do while you're travelling outside of the region.

Ask us a question. If you have a question that isn't answered here, please email us at spring@gw.govt.nz and we will post the answers here. You can also contact us at (04) 830 4333. 

Terms and Conditions

• The Spring to the Street challenge starts at 6am on September 24, 2012 and ends at 11.59pm on October 12, 2012

• The last trips must be logged for the challenge by midnight on Friday October 12, 2012

• Winning teams for each category will be announced online on October 15. Winners will be contacted by email.  

• By accepting a prize, prize winners agree that their names and photos may be posted on the Greater Wellington Regional Council website, and used in publicity about the Spring to the Street challenge.

• If the winning teams are found to have logged trips they did not travel they will be disqualified from the competition and their prizes will be awarded to the next best team in that category.

• Entry is open to residents of the greater Wellington region, New Zealand. The promoter reserves the right to verify that entries are genuine and that participants have walked the distances logged.

• The promoter is not liable for any loss or damage whatsoever which is suffered during the course of the challenge or of accepting or using a prize, except which cannot be excluded by law.

• The promoter’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Email the Spring to the Street team at spring@gw.govt.nz or call (04) 830 4309