Beat the Street
Free 6-7 week walking and cycling game played across a town. Contactless RFID Beat Boxes are mounted on lamp posts across the playing area; players (children, families, workplaces, voluntary groups) tap cards on boxes to score points. Over 1.9 million participants have played in 5,000+ schools to date.
Public dual leaderboards: schools (and workplaces/community teams) compete against each other in the same town. Two leaderboards (total points and average points) so small areas can still win. Towns themselves also compete for engagement records year over year.
All pupils, staff and families tap for their school; individual taps automatically aggregate into the school's score with no formal team setup needed. Schools coordinate group walks, classes go out together, and families are recruited to boost the school's standing. Strong intra-school pride and mutual recruitment.
One of the clearest, longest-running examples of geographic team competition built around physical infrastructure. The RFID-tap mechanic is a clever way to verify movement without needing an app, and the school-as-team unit creates strong intra-area solidarity that BelongHub-style community catalogs should study.
Others in the same family
Beat the Street
A whole-town real-life game turning lamp-posts into 'Beat Boxes' (RFID sensors). Players tap cards at boxes while walking/cycling to score points. Run as time-limited campaigns (4-6 weeks) covering an entire town or city zone. Over 2 million participants across 200 communities.
Beat the Street (Intelligent Health)
Physical 'Beat Box' RFID sensors mounted on lampposts across a town. Walkers/cyclists/wheelers tap them with a card or phone app to earn points for themselves and their team. Each deployment is town-wide and time-boxed (~6 weeks). 5,000+ schools have participated; reached 2 million people in 200+ places.
Beat the Street
Town-wide gamified active travel intervention created by GP Dr William Bird (Intelligent Health Ltd) where residents tap RFID 'Beat Boxes' on lampposts while walking/cycling/wheeling between them within an hour windows to score team points. Runs as 6-week community-wide tournaments. 1.9M+ participants across UK and abroad. Multiple peer-reviewed pilot evaluations (Coombes & Jones 2018, Harris et al. 2023 in Health Promotion Practice).
Beat the Street
Free 6-week town-wide walking/cycling game where residents tap RFID 'Beat Boxes' on lampposts. A whole town's beat-the-street game pits schools, workplaces and community groups in that town against each other on dual leaderboards (total points and average points). Each game becomes a town/borough-wide health intervention commissioned by NHS ICBs, councils, or active-travel partners (e.g, Reading Borough Council, Hammersmith & Fulham, South Derbyshire, Wokingham). Over 1.9m participants across 5,000+ schools in 10 years.
Cycle September / Love to Ride workplace + city leaderboards
Annual September cycling challenge run by Love to Ride. Riders log trips via app; workplaces compete on regional and global leaderboards segmented by size bracket. In 2023 Philadelphia alone, 412 riders from 56 workplaces logged 4,898 trips.
Beat the Street
Intelligent Health turns a whole town into a 6-week board game. ~60 contactless 'Beat Box' sensors are mounted on lampposts; residents tap an RFID card/fob between boxes (must be within 1 hour) to score points. 1.9-2M players to date across 200+ places; £321.80/adult social value (2025).