The WALK30 Challenge, presented annually by BEST Mobility, is a free, community driven initiative that promotes healthy, active living, and encourages walking as a sustainable form of active transportation. Each year, participants are encouraged to walk 30 minutes for 30 days in the month of April while building community and rethinking their own transportation habits along the way.
Started in 2016 by New Westminster’s Walkers Caucus, as a friendly walking competition between the City of Burnaby and City of New Westminster, the challenge has grown significantly with numerous municipalities, organizations, and school districts joining from all across Metro Vancouver, turning the challenge into a regional initiative.
The 2025 edition saw over 590 active participants from 3 municipalities, 2 organizations, and 1 school district, walk over 550,000 minutes covering a distance of over 30,000 kilometres, with Vancouver Coastal Health taking home the win.
2026 is the challenge’s 10th anniversary and BEST is aiming to make the 10th edition the largest edition yet by opening the challenge up to any municipality in Metro Vancouver with participants having a chance to win exciting prizes along the way!
Interested in joining? Registration begins March 1st and stay tuned for our group walk schedule to meet new people, chat, and increase your walking minutes together!
Walk30 Challenge - Previous seasons
2016: The volunteer-run group, New Westminster’s Walkers Caucus created the Walk30 Challenge as a way to encourage walkability in New Westminster.
2017: The City of Burnaby joined in and it became the Walk30 Challenge to see which city could walk the most in a 5-week span. The goal was set to walk at least 30 minutes a day.
#of participants over the years
2018: Over 3200 people participated, from the two communities. Overall, participants logged over 700,000 minutes of walking an amazing turnout. This was the inaugural year for the Walk30 Challenge Cup. And with 1.2% of the population walking 362,198 minutes in total, the City of New Westminster clinched it.
2019: New Westminster has walked its way into winning the Golden Shoe for the second year in a row. Participants walked 40 minutes per day, compared to 27 minutes per day during last year’s challenge. A win-win for both communities and for ‘walkability’ in Metro Vancouver.
After the 2020 season was canceled due to the uncertainties brought in by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Walk30 Challenge returned with all the zeal in 2021.
2021: A total of 1.96 million minutes was recorded by 1,492 active participants during the five-week challenge. Remarkably, the results were too close to call and the competition was declared to be a tie.
2022: North Vancouver joined the WALK30 as a pilot edition. More than 1 million minutes were recorded by one thousand participants from the 3 municipalities.
