About the Organisation
Slow Ways is an initiative to create a national walking network that connects all of Britain’s towns, cities, and national parks.
In the UK, we have national road and rail networks that are accessible, easy to understand and underpinned by good data. Slow Ways CIC (Community Interest Company) was established to create a national walking network that makes it easy for people to imagine, plan, enjoy and share walking journeys. It has been supported by a number of funders, most significantly the National Lottery Community Fund.
71% of Great Britain’s population live within a 10-minute walk of a Slow Ways route and 99% live within 5km.
Slow Ways is not just a walking network. It is infrastructure for lengthening lives, mental wealth, physical health, wellbeing, joy, climate action, connecting communities, saving people money, creating memories, investing in local economies, strengthening relationships and all the great things we know walking does for people and society.
The Slow Ways network has been drafted and is currently being grown and developed by thousands of people. So far, our volunteers have shared over 9,000 routes that stretch for more than 130,000km. 1 in 5 of these routes have been verified (peer-checked on the ground), with over 1.5 million words being shared in reviews for fellow walkers.
We want to inspire and support more people to walk and wheel more often, further and for more purposes. Trusted routes, good data and culturally supportive invitations such as signage are key to making that happen.
Request details:
Slow Ways CIC would like to estimate the cost of signing the entire Slow Ways network, to a similar standard as the road network.
This will allow them to bid for government funding with options for paying for the upgrade.
They would therefore be grateful for offers of pro bono support to help with this work to estimate the costs.
Timeline
Ideally, Slow Ways would like to have an idea of costs by March 2024