Event organiser resource guide: How We Move

Participant and spectator travel is the single largest contributor to an event’s environmental impact, frequently accounting for more than 95% of a race’s total carbon footprint. While energy use at the race village is visible, the invisible emissions of hundreds or thousands of individual cars driving to the start line dwarf all other categories combined. Even a small event (such as a 20-person 5km) can suffer from a 0% transport score if travel is treated as an afterthought.

Influencing participant behaviour

Runners default to driving because of convenience and habit. To change this, organisers can restructure the choice architecture of registration:

• Upfront commitment: incorporate travel questions directly into the registration and volunteer sign-up forms. By requiring participants to answer “How do you plan to travel to the event?” at the point of entry, you leverage ‘implementation intentions‘, a psychological mechanism where committing to a concrete plan makes them significantly more likely to follow through. Operationally, this yields near 100% response rates and gives you predictive logistical data.
• The default option: instead of asking “Do you need parking?” as an optional add-on, make public transit, train station shuttles, or carpooling the default recommendations. Whenever possible, charge a fee for single-occupancy vehicle parking.
• The ‘social proof‘ nudge: during registration, display a simple live graphic or message: “XX% of runners in your post-code area are carpooling/arriving by bus. Join them!”
• Incentive bundling: bundle a local public transit pass or event shuttle ticket into the entry price. If transport is free or pre-arranged, barriers to entry drop significantly.

Lateral and cost-effective solutions: facilitating collective travel

Rather than simply providing bus routes, organisers can actively facilitate community-led transport:

Facebook ‘lift share’ threads (zero cost)
If you operate a race page or Facebook group, create a pinned, high-visibility “Car Share / Lift Swap” post. Provide a simple template for runners: “Brighton to London, 2 spare seats, leaving at 7:00 AM from Green Park.” Encourage runners to connect directly in the comments.

Open-access Google Carpool Sheet (zero cost)
Create a read-only Google Sheet (with a writeable tab) linked in the pre-race newsletter. Organisers can pre-format columns for “Driver Location,” “Departure Time,” “Seats Available,” and “Contact Details.” Runners self-coordinate their logistics for free.

Run-commute & cycle-valet initiative
Actively encourage participants to run or cycle to the starting line. Facilitate this by providing a baggage shuttle (or using a single volunteer’s car trunk) to collect runners’ dry bags from local transit hubs early in the morning and deliver them directly to the finish line. Offer secure, volunteer-staffed bike parking at the race village.

‘Train buddy’ matchmaker
Organisers publish a simple schedule of target trains or transit connections (e.g., “The 06:45 departure from Main Station arriving at 07:15”). Runners opting for public transit add their names or join a designated chat group for that route. This turns solo transit journeys into social club experiences, encouraging nervous public transport users to leave their cars behind.

Data Safety & Privacy Controls To protect participant safety and personal privacy, organisers must ensure travel coordination is strictly controlled. Travel databases, carpool lists, or event groups must never be publicly searchable on the open web. Access must be restricted strictly to registered participants via a password-protected runner portal or verified registration system.

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Key Resources

Integrated Smart Travel Planners

Carpooling and ridesharing integrations

Group transport and shuttles

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We hope these travel solutions spark great ideas for your event. We’d love to hear how you get on implementing them; and if you have any feedback or alternative transport strategies that worked for your race, please get in touch.