Leicester man takes on bus route air quality challenge

Air quality campaigners challenge Adham Fisher to travel all city bus routes in one day to draw attention to air pollution

A Leicester man will attempt to travel on as many city bus routes in one day as possible in order to raise awareness of the role of public transport in tackling air pollution.

Adham Fisher, who has attempted various public transport Guinness World Records around the world, was asked by the Healthy Air Leicester and Leicestershire campaign to take on the challenge.

Adham Fisher will attempt to ride all of Leicester’s bus routes in one day

The rules set by the campaigner group for Mr Fisher’s challenge are:

• The aim is to travel on as many bus routes as possible in one day, using a flexi-day ticket.
• Adham must collect evidence of each journey, either by taking a photo or asking a member of the public to sign a log sheet.
• Each bus route number will count only once, even if Adham makes multiple journeys on it, with the exception of a route having two operators, e.g. route 14 will count twice if Adham takes both Arriva and First buses on it.
• During the day, Adham must travel on each of the major companies covered by the flexi-day ticket: Arriva, Centrebus, First, Kinch Bus and Stagecoach.

Mr Fisher said: “Air quality is important. Bus travel is important. Collaboration with both can be made.”

He has previously travelled around the world to cities such as Paris, New York, Toronto and Nottingham, travelling on local public transport systems with the aim of visiting all stations on the system in the shortest possible time.

Hannah Wakley from Healthy Air Leicester and Leicestershire said: “Air pollution causes 250 premature deaths every year in Leicester. Public transport has an important role to play in tackling the problem because if many people take the bus, it reduces the number of vehicles on the road. We hope that Adham’s challenge will demonstrate the potential of public transport in Leicester.”

David Shelley, Commercial Director of Centrebus, said “The bus is a great way to get around Leicester and the County and investment in modern, low pollution vehicles means that public transport is playing a big part in helping make the air cleaner.  It is great that more people are now finding out how convenient and cost effective travelling this way can be. “