BetterPoints East Herts is all about inspiring greener and healthier journeys. Can you help to create a cleaner, greener district by choosing travel options that benefit your health, the environment and your community, as well as helping your bank balance? Please see our Frequently Asked Questions below and get in touch if the answer you're looking for isn't there.
What is BetterPoints East Herts?
BetterPoints East Herts is a free rewards programme for anyone who lives, works or studies in East Herts. It is designed to help you get active, travel in greener ways, and support local traders and charities. It rewards walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport.
Why should I take part?
BetterPoints is an award-winning app that encourages people to reduce their car usage and walk, wheel, run, cycle and take public transport more. Taking part means you earn rewards for travelling in greener and healthier ways. You can support local traders and charities with the BetterPoints you earn. The secure and anonymised data your participation provides will also help East Herts District Council to improve provision for active and sustainable transport, helping to make East Herts a cleaner, greener, more liveable district for everyone.
How much does it cost to use?
Nothing, it's free!
How can I get take part?
Check out the What is BetterPoints East Herts for all the details or scan the QR code at the bottom of the page to download the app straight away.
How can I earn points or win a prize?
You can earn points and win lots of fantastic prizes when you walk, wheel, cycle or take public transport. You can see the list of rewarded activities on the What is BetterPoints East Herts page.
What are BetterPoints and BetterTickets?
You earn BetterPoints for rewarded activities and spend them in the voucher catalogue - or donate them to charity. We also run prize draws. You earn BetterTickets for the prize draw and winning tickets are drawn at the end. Prizes can be BetterPoints or items. Information about active prize draws is available at the top of the app home screen by tapping the ticket icon.
What can I spend my points on?
In the app, tap Rewards 🎁 to browse charities and the rewards catalogue, which includes vouchers from local, independent businesses as well as high street brands.
Can I take part if I use a wheelchair, and if so, how do I record my journeys?
Yes! All kinds of wheelchairs can be recorded as 'wheeling' in our app. Due to the motion sensors in your device, and our algorithms in the app, it may assume you are cycling, rather than wheeling. You can change this from your activity timeline. You will be awarded the same amount of points/tickets as walking, running or cycling trips.
How has BetterPoints East Herts been funded?
BetterPoints East Herts is funded by East Herts District Council (EHDC) using UK Shared Prosperity Fund from the Ministry of Housing, Community, and Local Government.
Is the programme an effective use of public funds?
Typically, BetterPoints programmes deliver carbon savings worth more than the contract value according to BEIS’ carbon valuations and added value through increased physical activity, which saves the Council and local NHS money. The Return on Investment can be as high a £4 for every £1 spent on a BetterPoints programme.
Do I have to keep the app running all the time?
No. You can turn GPS recording on and off at the beginning and end of each trip if you prefer. We recommend leaving it on to ensure you receive rewards for all your car-free journeys.
How much battery does the app use?
BetterPoints have done a lot of work on battery optimisation. On most handsets, the app uses a modest amount of battery power and compares favourably with other apps using the same functions on your device.
Does the app record individual user’s movements, and what data about individual users will BetterPoints and East Herts District Council be able to obtain?
Whether and how individual users share data is up to the individual user. Users need to record trips to earn BetterPoints and prize draw entries but if users don’t want the app to record all of their movements, they can simply turn tracking on and off at the beginning and end of trips. Any GPS data users choose to share is only used in anonymised and aggregated form. The purpose is to improve sustainable transport options in the local area, and to help BetterPoints refine and improve the platform.
No personally identifiable data is shared with anyone, including EHDC. If individual users do choose to share their anonymised data, they will be helping to make East Herts a better place to walk, wheel and cycle in the future.
Why are you rewarding people for walking and cycling?
Walking, wheeling and cycling builds physical activity into peoples’ everyday lives. This can improve physical and mental health while saving the NHS money by reducing the strain on its services. What’s more, wheeling and cycling can grant independence to some people and enable them to travel to places that otherwise might be inaccessible. Encouraging people to leave the car at home also reduces congestion and pollution, making the environment better for everyone.
Is the programme punishing people who legitimately need their car to get around?
We know that lots of people need to use their cars – the BetterPoints programme is all about helping them to use other modes of transport when they can. People who drive stand to benefit because the programme will remove cars from the road – meaning that there’s less traffic for those who need to use their cars.
Is the programme just rewarding people for doing what they are doing already?
People who walk, wheel, cycle and use public transport are travelling in ways that minimise impacts on their community and the environment. The programme is a way to recognise their positive contribution, as well as to try and encourage other people out of their cars.
Is the programme open to abuse?
BetterPoints have robust procedures in place to identify users who abuse the system. This is extremely rare.
Can people say they took the bus when they actually took the car?
Yes, but the BetterPoints system uses open-source bus route data to verify trips and identify users who deliberately misclassify trips and recoup fraudulently earned rewards.
Do you have any more questions?
Then please refer to the general BetterPoints FAQs here. If you have any other questions that are not covered on either of these pages, please contact [email protected].
Ready to start earning?
Download the free BetterPoints app today!
