Slow Ways

Slow Ways

The Guardian: Volunteers map 10,000 routes in Great Britain to help make walking accessible

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The Guardian: Volunteers map 10,000 routes in Great Britain to help make walking accessible

“For millions of people, these routes give the psychological security and confidence that they would not have had otherwise. They do not want to take the risk of not knowing whether a route is right for them, or if it is something they will enjoy.”

We started Slow Ways in 2020 to make it easier for people to walk between neighbouring towns and cities, a story the Guardian covered in December of that year.

In this new story The Guardian shares the news that we’re now working to make Slow Ways radically more inclusive. Our plan is to work with community organisations and nonprofits from across the UK and Ireland to find routes that meet people’s diverse range of interests and needs.

You can out more on our crowdfunding page here.

Slow Ways

The Guardian: Walk the walk: the app mapping 140,000 miles of public right of way

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The Guardian: Walk the walk: the app mapping 140,000 miles of public right of way

“The Victorians left us street trees and parks. National parks were the legacy of the second world war. What will our legacy be?” he says. “What if 75 years after the creation of national parks, our politicians created their own legacy for future generations – a proper national walking and wheeling network that’s as easy to understand as the road and rail network but far more joyful, healthy, green, relationship-building and community-connecting and inspiring? What’s not to like?”

Photo: Fabio De Paola for the Guardian

It was a pleasure to walk Slow Ways from Kidsgrove to Macclesfield with Patrick Barkham for the Guardian. It was a great hike that celebrated Slow Ways and included no less than four kingfishers!

You can read the full story here.

The Slow Ways team is now working on a new citizen-geography project called Make Ways. While Slow Ways shows good ways to go, Make Ways will enable people to map ways they’d like to go… but can’t. You can find out more about Make Ways and back the project here.

Slow Ways

BBC News: Slow map – Mapping Britain’s intercity footpaths

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BBC News: Slow map – Mapping Britain’s intercity footpaths

“Would you know the best way to walk from Leeds to Manchester? From Tring to Milton Keynes, or Carlisle to Inverness? If not, then you’re not alone.

We live in a time when our phones will show us the quickest route to almost anywhere – if we are driving, that is. Walking? Well, that’s a different matter.

Geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison is offering a solution; a new map created by volunteers during lockdown to show the best walking routes between all of Britain’s main towns.

All that is needed now is 10,000 keen walkers to test out the routes on his “slow map”. David Sillito

Read the whole article on BBC News.

Slow Ways

The Guardian: How the Slow Ways network could change walking in Britain

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The Guardian: How the Slow Ways network could change walking in Britain

“Once you’re allowed to visit family or friends around the UK, why not ditch the car or train and go on foot instead? That’s what the creators of Slow Ways want to encourage. It’s an ambitious new project to create a network of walking routes between all of Great Britain’s towns and cities, as well as thousands of villages.

The brainchild of geographer and explorer Dan Raven-Ellison, and supported by Ordnance Survey, the idea is to get people walking between locations they might otherwise drive or take public transport to – via existing off-road paths and bridleways – and to promote slower types of travel.” Jane Dunford

Read the whole article on The Guardian’s website.

Slow Ways

National Geographic: How you can help plot the future of UK walking – from a standstill

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National Geographic: How you can help plot the future of UK walking – from a standstill

“Walkers, your country needs you – and the inability to walk very far at the moment needn’t be a barrier.

An ambitious new project led by a National Geographic Explorer is recruiting an army of 500 volunteers to create the most comprehensive network of walking routes in Great Britain – linking every village, town and city via the nation’s intricate web of public rights of way.

The Slow Ways project is the brainchild of geographer and explorer Daniel Raven-Ellison, who is seeking to find a silver lining to the cloud of coronavirus lockdown. With the population confined to home, his intrepid routes-without-boots scheme requires nothing more than a computer, map-reading skills and a galvanised public spirit. His goal is to plot more than 4,000 walking routes on an online map, using the 200,000km of footpaths and bridleways that trace their way between village, town and city.”

Read the whole article on National Geographic.