Table 1. Motivations and barriers to engagement with Beat the Street.

Superordinate Theme	Subordinate Themes	Evidence
1. Collective Reward	Points	“I went to three markets I hadn’t been to in years. They had double points boxes.”–Female, involved directly
	Charity	“It was about Wolverhampton benefiting from the total. Compton Hospice would get a donation. Work did say about friendly competition but for me it was more personal, health and Compton.” Female, involved directly
2. Social Influence	Child reinforcement	“Doing the Beat the Street, me and my daughter went from one to another. She's six. For her and me to walk a distance, it was good. She loved it. She said it was really good. For her to do it, we had a good feeling about it.”–Male, involved through child(ren)
		“You’d never catch my dad walking but he was doing it because of my sister and niece.”-Female, involved through child(ren)
	Community reinforcement	“I became addicted to it and wanted to tick off as many as I could. I liked going to new places and meeting people. It was so friendly. Watching other families take part in it, it was such a good feeling.” -Female, involved directly
		“More or less the same. Every night we’d have people ringing us, ‘Are you going out tonight?’ My dog loved it. Walking the dog has never been my job, but that’s something that’s continued.”–Female, involved directly
	Family Reinforcement	“Family was a big one for me. Engaging in any task on your own, you can do it but you feel separated. When we did it together it was more motivating. It kept us all going. We all have to stay connected to get something done.”–Male, involved through child(ren)
	Parental reinforcement	“She [daughter] dragged me to Beat the Street, I drag her to spin. We couldn’t walk for the first week, we were in agony but it’s got easier.”–Female, involved through child(ren)
3. Game Reinvention	Role playing	“To go with them. Our kids, we don't want them to get lost. So it’s good for me to show them the local areas and show them how to map read. We changed it into an army thing. We made it fun.”–Male, involved through child(ren)
	Escapism	“For the kids it’s like a mini adventure or a treasure hunt. My daughter found adventure in the whole thing. I got excited about it as well. It wasn’t dull. For such a simple thing, it became an adventure. It was really good.”—Female, involved through child(ren)
	Challenge	“Just to get out. It was twenty minutes then half an hour then 40 minutes. I managed to do five hours non-stop on the art gallery day.”–Female, involved directly
		“I’ve set myself more goals. I’m going to walk in Hawkstone Park near Shrewsbury. I want to do Snowdonia someday. I’m trying to aim high.”–Female, involved directly
4. Exploration	Orienteering	“I did round Newbridge Way. When I visited my mum there I looked at the map and found some boxes so did a route there.”–Female, involved directly
		“My little boy was looking at the map, marking it off and circling where he’d been.”–Female, involved through child(ren)
		“Being involved in a successful day, it becomes habit. You come home thinking you’ve had a good day. So that's an addictive feeling. Once we knew we could map up which ones we were going to, then we could do that on the way to other places.” -–Male, involved through child(ren)
	Collection	“Once I got the map and saw where they were, my objective was to visit every one. I did that in about three weeks then had a week off. Then I picked up again to accumulate points”–Male, involved directly
		“There's the collecting side of it. With Beat the Street, you're collecting posts. It’s a tally. You can show how much you’ve achieved”.–Male, involved through child(ren)
		“It was trying to get around as many as we could.”—Male, involved directly
		“We didn’t want it to beat us. We wanted to beat it. We tried to get as many as we could.”–Male, involved through child(ren)
	Discovery	“Getting to discover places I didn’t know. We did Cupcake Lane and the abandoned station is a teashop. One day I thought, ‘Let’s try going a little further.’ I hadn’t realised there was a massive park at the back of Newbridge. I walked all around there and found the Wolves training ground.“–Female, involved directly
		“I went to parts of Wolverhampton I’d never been to before. Why would I go for a walk the other side of town and discover canals and cemeteries?”–Female, involved directly
5. Accessibility	Low physical demand	“It gave you the time with your family, doing something different. You weren’t likely to get an injury.”–Male, involved directly
	Convenience	“There's nothing more accessible than walking around. Clubs usually have a membership or some kind of cost involved. This is accessible for anyone.”–Male, involved directly
		“You’ve got family and work commitments. You can play the game on your doorstep.” Male, involved directly
	Active Travel	“I travel to town from where I live to do my shopping and I usually catch the bus. Since then I've been walking rather than catching the bus. I walked a route to the town centre that went past all the boxes. It’s a bit out of the way but doesn’t take that much longer, and I still walk that way.” -Male, directly
		“If I go to Asda in Wolverhampton I do walk down there and catch the bus back. With Beat the Street, there was the incentive to carry my shopping and walk back.”–Female, involved through child(ren)
6. Awareness	Exercise	I’ve started swimming as well as continuing with the walking. I want to get back into Zumba.”- Female, involved directly
		“We’ve started gardening again and have made a little veggie patch.”—Female, involved directly
		“I went back to the gym. It prompted me to think about how important it was. We live too far from the school to walk the whole way. With Beat the Street we started walking partway. I felt healthier, more toned and it reminded me how I used to feel. I never used to care about people looking at me and I’d started to care so I wanted to get back to how I used to feel.”–Female, involved through child(ren)
		“I hadn’t ridden a bike for years. It prompted me to do it. My mum lives probably just less than a mile away. Instead of driving I get on my bike.”–Female, involved through child(ren)
	Nutrition	“I’ve recently changed my attitude to the way I’m eating. I used to think, ‘What’s the point in doing any exercise if I’m not eating right?’ Now I think I need to eat right because I’ve been exercising. If you eat fish and chips after exercising you realise you’re undoing the good work.”—Female, involved directly
		“My attitude towards food has changed. I eat better. I’d rather go in and have a bowl of fruit salad. I do miss Cadbury’s though!”–Female, involved directly
7. Barriers to Engagement	Technology	“Sometimes the little ones would fight to tap my card. Sometimes they didn’t all work. Some of the boxes didn’t work.” Female, involved directly
	Safety	“If I was on my own I felt a bit uncomfortable about going to certain places. Maybe have groups going to some of the boxes.”–Female, involved directly
		“I think they need to think about where the boxes are situated. The canal is lovely for adults but not so good for children.”–Female, involved directly
	Visibility	“The boxes were the same colour as the lamppost and you'd go past it. Put fluorescent tape on it.”–Male, involved directly
		“I had that. One of them was in the trees. I've seen people come down the road looking for the box and not paying attention to the road.”–Male, involved directly
	Practicality	“I don’t know how the boxes were put together. There seemed to be a lot in one place and not many in others. I don’t know what the rationale was. More of an even spread. Maybe look at who’s used it over the last two years. The maps were complicated.”–Female, involved directly
		“Some of them were too high up, and the kids want to swipe them themselves.”–Male, involved through child(ren)
	Understanding	“Getting the points. I used to feel sorry for them in the morning outside the school. They’d tap their machine before they went into school. They weren’t getting the points. You have to tap a machine and then tap another one. They thought if they tapped the machine and then went into school they’d get points. My motivation was to get points for those children who couldn’t get them.”–Female, involved through child(ren)