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That was the pitch dreamt up by Centre for Public Health researcher, Dr Ruth Hunter, who wanted to see if people would walk more if they were able to collect “reward” points along the way.
“People really buy into the concept of air miles, even though they’re expensive to accumulate,” says Ruth “So I thought ground miles, which are free and better for you, would be ideal.”
And so did more than 400 civil servants from the city’s Stormont Estate (home to the Northern Ireland Assembly), who last summer volunteered to test her theory of pounding the pavements for points that could be exchanged for shop vouchers. Each was given a “loyalty card”, fitted with a radiofrequency tag, and maps of suggested walks near their offices. Dotted around the routes were posts equipped with sensors, which workers swiped with their cards.
The scheme, funded by a group of research councils and charities called the National Prevention Research Initiative, was so popular that by the end of the three-month trial, participants – two-thirds of them women, with an average age of 43 – asked for more sensors and longer routes.
More information on the Physical Activity Loyalty (PAL) Card Scheme can be found at Intelligent Health and in The Telegraph.