What is active travel?

Active travel is using walking or cycling as an alternative to motorised transport for everyday journeys (such as travelling to work, school, college and visiting friends and family). Walking and cycling can also be used as a form of exercise in addition to these routine journeys and is likely to contribute towards meeting the recommended levels of physical activity for all age groups. Find out https://active-travel.uk/

Many of the journeys people make by car are under 5 miles and can be easily replaced by walking or cycling, as well as other forms of public transport, such as buses and trains. Encouraging more of these journeys to be made using walking or cycling, instead of by car, can have a number of benefits including improved health and wellbeing (through increased levels of physical activity), reduced congestion and air pollution and higher local productivity and economic sustainability.

Greenways and Urban Growth: How Path Infrastructure Drives Economic Development

NIHR-funded research has highlighted the key factors that influence an individual’s decision to walk or cycle for their daily travel and how to successfully implement and deliver effective local active travel interventions. These include infrastructure interventions such as cycle lanes and footways, reallocation of road space to support walking and cycling and promoting behaviour change through targeted campaigns, such as Beat the Street. These are often cost-effective and can be delivered at a community level by combining infrastructure with novel behaviour change techniques, such as gamification. NIHR-funded research has also identified that the most important thing is to build strong local partnerships.