"Keep fit by getting around your campus in a sustainable way". This is the motto of the active travel strategy developed by the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) which today has been officially inaugurated to coincide with the start of European Mobility Week.  This strategy has involved the research group for  the Promotion of Physical Activity for Health ( PAFS) directed by professor Susana Aznar Laín; the Vice-chancellor´s office for Health Sciences; the Castilla-La Mancha Parliament and the councils for Albacete, Almadén, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Talavera de la Reina and Toledo, where the most significante initiative of the project,  "Metrominutos-educa", will be implemented.

Ground-breaking in nature,  ‘Metrominutos-educa’ are pocket-sized  urban maps in the format of a poster  which show the time it takes  to complete different itineraries between the campus and university sites on foot or by bicycle and the cities in which they are located. In collaboration with the councils, ‘Metrominutos-Educa’ will be installed in the bus shelters and other places around the city. Moreover, at each campus and university site a totem will be placed which will likewise show travelling times on foot and by bicycle for different points of the city.  

In a similar vein, the UCLM has developed healthy and sustainable routes on campus and  all those interested  in these may register ; as well as some active mobility analysis days which will be held at the Toledo Faculty of Sports Sciences on 22nd and 23rd of September.

Raising awareness
At the inauguration of the first healthy route on the Ciudad Real campus, the chancellor Julián Garde, explained the fundamental aim of all strategies lies in “raising public awareness about the positive effects of active transport on one´s own health and on the environment”; while encouraging the university community to endorse the initiative.

The project will also be used to “nurture a feeling of citizenship”, as  Susana Aznar, the professor in charge of the project put it  who also trusts that  “these walking or cycle route routes will become an essential part of our lifestyles”. 
The Vice-chancellor´s office for Health Sciences, Alino Martínez, has stressed the issue of raising awareness, emphasising the advantages of “moving around in a way that is good for our own  health and that of the city”

Lastly, the mayor of Ciudad Real, Eva María Masías, thanked the UCLM for providing a strategy that was “aligned with the Objectives of Sustainable Development 2030”,  which she is already actively working on at the Ciudad Real council.

UCLM Communication Office Ciudad Real, 16th of September 2021