Policy paper

Active Travel – Active England: the third cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS3)

Published 12 June 2026

Applies to England

The third cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS3) sets out the government’s vision and objectives for active travel. The strategy outlines plans and actions to make walking, wheeling and cycling a safe, easy and accessible option for everyone.

Foreword

Walking, wheeling and cycling deliver benefits across every aspect of life – improving physical and mental health, boosting economic growth, cleaning up our air, and giving people of all ages real, affordable transport choice to cut the cost of living. That’s why we are setting a vision that walking, wheeling and cycling is a safe, easy and accessible option for everyone and that by 2035, 55% of all short stages in towns and cities will be walked or cycled.

This won’t be easy. The previous government cut £200 million from the national active travel budget, signalling that people walking, wheeling and cycling would not be prioritised in spending and planning decisions, decimating local authority capacity to plan for and deliver active travel schemes and making their own targets unachievable.

This government is taking a different approach, and this strategy sets out a long-term, strategic plan for making active travel choices an everyday reality. We will work across government to integrate active travel into health, planning, physical activity and cost of living policies. And backed by £4.5 billion of investment, we will empower local authorities across England to embed active travel into their local transport systems, so the benefits can be felt by everyone.

We’re moving to a target for trip stages because integration with other modes of transport is fundamental to active travel. Many walking, wheeling and cycling trips are complete journeys, but many more are to or from a bus or tram stop, or a metro or train station. It’s important that we capture these trip stages to truly understand the extent of active travel in our communities.

We will need to build this new approach from the ground up – which is why we’re setting ambitious targets for 2035, with realistic aims for the first 5 years that will set us on the right path.

Between 2025 to 2026 and 2029 to 2030 – the period covered in CWIS3 – we will prioritise building safe, coherent networks around schools, giving children the confidence and freedom to travel independently. We will also invest in building regional capability – ensuring local authorities have the skills, leadership and delivery confidence required to turn their ambition into infrastructure on the ground.

Alongside this, England needs a proper national active travel network – with every safe route mapped and accessible on route planning apps and consistent signage and road markings across the country. So, we will deliver this in this CWIS period, conducting all the planning and mapping work and beginning to roll out wayfinding updates, with this process being completed as schemes are refreshed or created in the following years.

We know that the Department for Transport (DfT) has sometimes been slow to support local authority innovation in the past – for example, when councils have been eager to trial side road zebras to make people walking and wheeling feel that they have priority on our streets. We want to change this, so alongside this longer-term work, we are launching a new £10 million Streets Innovation Fund to support trials of innovative measures intended to encourage active travel and improve road safety.

Our aim is that by the end of this CWIS period, we will have laid the groundwork for a more strategic approach to active travel investment, with innovation supported and encouraged, good progress on walking, wheeling and cycling to school, a consistent national network to frame future investment decisions and local authorities that are empowered to expand the network to meet our 2035 targets.

Together, we will build health back into our lives and a more attractive, healthy, sustainable transport choice into our streets and public spaces.

Heidi Alexander
Secretary of State for Transport

Lilian Greenwood
Local Transport Minister

A 10-year target for active travel

Vision

Our vision is for walking, wheeling^{[footnote 1]} and cycling to be safe, easy and accessible choices for everyone. To help achieve this, we are setting a target for 55% of all short stages in towns and cities to be walked^{[footnote 2]} or cycled by 2035^{[footnote 3]}.

Objectives

This vision is underpinned by 3 strategic objectives:

1. Enable more people, particularly the least active, to benefit from physical activity through active travel

Walking, wheeling and cycling are the most accessible and cost-effective ways to meet the chief medical officer’s physical activity guidelines for adults, children and young people. The greatest benefit can be achieved through enabling the least active to do some activity.

2. Make active travel the easy and integrated choice

Public transport and active travel are intrinsically linked: every public transport journey begins and ends with a walk, wheel or cycle stage. This document complements Better Connected, our wider strategy for integrated transport.

3. Improve safety for people walking, wheeling and cycling

Safety remains the main barrier preventing more people from walking, wheeling and cycling, especially for women and children. This strategy complements our road safety strategy, which sets a target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads in Great Britain by 65% by 2035, 70% for children under 16.

Meeting our target objectives

Meeting our target and objectives will provide the following outcomes by 2035:

• 60% of children aged 5 to 16 will usually walk or cycle to school by 2035^{[footnote 4]}

• decreased fatalities and serious injuries per billion miles walked and cycled in line with the Road Safety Strategy targets to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65% and 70% for children by 2035

• decreased percentage of people citing personal safety concerns when walking, wheeling and cycling^{[footnote 5]}

• 5.3 million more people being physically active through active travel, including inactive people^{[footnote 6]}

• 2.2 billion more short walking^{[footnote 7]} stages in towns and cities

• 600 million more short cycling stages in towns and cities

Progress on the delivery of the target and objectives will be provided through statutory reports to Parliament.

By 2030, people across England will see visible changes locally on the journey to making walking, wheeling and cycling the safe, easy and accessible choices for everyone:

• every mayoral strategic authority (MSA) and large local authority will have a funded, phased active travel network plan aligned to growth, housing and health commitments, with connected urban networks in delivery

• a national ‘safe routes to school’ programme will be underway at visible scale

• millions of people will be enabled to walk, wheel and cycle through school- and community-focused programmes

• ATE will ensure that new housing and development plans include high-quality active travel provision from the outset

A new cross-government approach

Getting more people active every day benefits not only our health but helps to cut the costs of living while supporting our economic growth and environmental aspirations. We will collaborate across government more closely than ever before to ensure this strategy supports and is supported by other government activity.

Increasing active travel is DfT’s most direct contribution to the government’s 10-year health plan, and the corresponding government national plan for physical activity in development, which recognises that physical activity is good for physical and mental health and has a measurable positive impact on relieving NHS pressures, worth an estimated £10.5 billion in savings a year.

Achieving the target set out in this strategy will involve an additional 5.3 million people being physically active in towns and cities by 2035. This will result in 45,000 years of life gained through reduced risk of premature death and prevent over 4 million sick days every year.

DfT and ATE will convene a cross-departmental working group to track progress against the targets and objectives in this strategy and coordinate activity to deliver:

• improved mental and physical health
• increased physical activity and tackling inactivity
• economic growth, healthy high streets and housing delivery
• supporting net zero and environmental improvement
• breaking down the barriers to opportunity and cutting the cost of living
• increasing personal safety

A locally-designed national strategy

This strategy marks a fundamental shift in how active travel ambition is set, delivered and integrated into local transport networks. It is the first locally-designed national strategy – delivered in line with our ambitious programme of English devolution.

Record multi-year funding is, for the first time, providing the means and the certainty to enable MSAs and local authorities to take a long-term approach to developing and delivering local active travel networks.

In this strategy and wider guidance and advice, we will set the framework through which authorities must deliver high-quality, accessible, active travel routes that form coherent, local networks, making active travel a safe and easy choice. Our aim is for authorities to have the freedom to plan local networks that meet national quality standards.

ATE will provide oversight, act as a delivery partner to devolved bodies, and serve as a funding body to support MSAs and larger local authorities to develop and deliver phased, funded active travel network plans aligned with growth, housing, and health commitments. This includes administering more than £760 million of devolved funding for walking, wheeling and cycling schemes.

This new approach is working. Mayors receiving both integrated settlement and mayoral transport funding have already signed a landmark joint agreement with DfT and ATE to provide more than 3,500 miles of safer routes linking schools, neighbourhoods, high streets and transport hubs – giving millions of children greater transport independence, improving health, reducing congestion and lowering household costs.

The first 5 years

Connecting schools to homes and high streets

Over the 5 years of this strategy, we will focus first on enabling millions more children to walk, wheel and cycle to school by providing safe, coherent networks that connect schools, high streets and homes. Giving children the freedom to walk, wheel and cycle in early life will set habits and deliver health benefits for generations to come.

In 2024, 10% of stages to and from school under a mile made by children aged 5 to 16 were made by car, increasing to 51% for stages of between one and 2 miles. This means millions of children are losing out on health benefits and millions of miles are being driven at peak time every day.

We know that the provision of well-maintained footways, safe crossings, school streets and high-quality segregated cycle infrastructure on routes to school make a difference. They also make it possible for local people to access local shops, bus stops and health centres. Achieving this provision is an ambition ATE will support through the development and implementation of a national safe routes to school programme, working with mayors and local authorities.

ATE is providing £135 million of revenue funding over the course of the strategy to support schools and community-focused programmes that will:

• train and support millions of children to walk, wheel and cycle to school
• support people to start cycling or ride again
• help schools develop travel plans

ATE and DfT have published school streets guidance and over the coming year will publish further advice on using good design and the planning system to support active travel.

Over the next 5 years, to support the connection of schools, homes and high streets, we will:

• Tackle the problem of vehicles blocking pavements, which is particularly a barrier for disabled people, older people and parents with young children. The government will provide new devolved powers that allow local transport authorities to prohibit pavement parking in their local areas, subject to exemptions. As a first step, we will regulate in 2026 to make ‘unnecessary obstruction of the pavement’ civilly enforceable, giving uniformed civil enforcement officers the ability to address the most antisocial cases. We will also implement powers allowing local transport authorities to prohibit pavement parking in their areas, contained in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, as soon as possible.

• Update the Traffic Signs and Regulations General Directions (TSRGD) by 2028, which legislates how traffic signs and road markings are used, to include changes such as new, simpler zebra crossings, which can be used on side roads to make walking and wheeling more accessible

• Launch a £10 million Streets Innovation Fund to support trials of innovative measures intended to encourage greater uptake of active travel and improve road safety.

• Update the Manual for streets, which will highlight the importance of design that puts people first which will apply to new and existing streets. We expect local authorities to use and will work with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to embed this within the planning policy and guidance framework.

• Provide local leaders with the power and guidance to deliver well-managed shared cycle schemes through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, which will increase transport choice and tackle the problems of shared cycles blocking pavements, particularly for disabled people.

• Publish a new edition of the best practice guidance Setting local speed limits, following research and publication.

• Update the local transport plan guidance

• Deliver a High Speed Two (HS2) active travel legacy in and around the route of HS2, which includes an uninterrupted active travel route between London and Birmingham, away from traffic, with local networks connecting towns and villages along the route.

• Ensure that cycle parking is maintained, and where demand exists, new cycle parking or new security features are actively considered when Great British Railways (GBR) develops its business plans. This will be supported by an ATE developed framework for assessing the quality and connectivity of walking, wheeling and cycling routes to rail stations, as well as cycle parking provision, in line with best practice approaches for safety and accessibility.

• Support local authorities with funding and guidance to ensure electric vehicle pavement channels run safely across pavements from residential homes without driveways to parked vehicles, enabling normal pavement access and avoid creating obstructions or trip hazards for those who are walking or wheeling.

• Develop the automated vehicles regulatory framework and statement of safety principles in line with the Automated Vehicles Act. These principles must be framed with a view to ensuring that self-driving vehicles are at least as safe as careful and competent human drivers. This standard is well above that of the average driver, which will deliver improved safety for people walking, wheeling and cycling.

• Undertake a review of powered mobility devices, seeking views on changing the rules for using powered mobility devices, including powered wheelchairs and mobility scooters, the use of hand cycle attachments and the use of cycles as a mobility aid.

• Maintain close collaboration between National Highways and ATE through a memorandum of understanding to ensure our plans for operating, maintaining and improving the strategic road network (SRN), as outlined in the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), support wider active travel networks.

Mapping a national network

Safe, convenient and coherent networks linking homes, schools, high streets and transport hubs are essential if walking, wheeling and cycling are to become everyday choices. But infrastructure alone is not enough – people must also be able to understand their local network easily, navigate it confidently and trust that routes will connect beyond local boundaries.

By 2030, ATE will establish the basis for a national active travel network by connecting the high-quality local routes already built, funded or planned.

This means treating existing programmes as parts of one system rather than separate initiatives – bringing together:

• local cycling and walking infrastructure plans (LCWIPs), which already identify around 20,000 miles of planned routes
• almost 7,000 additional or improved miles across the national cycle network and wider local routes identified through rights of way improvement plans
• programmes delivered by partners such as National Highways

By aligning these programmes as a single national network, funding can be directed more strategically, priorities can be clearer and delivery can build towards one coherent outcome.

This approach will bring together both urban and rural networks linking towns and villages across England. ATE will update LCWIP guidance to help develop local networks, and develop rural design guidance to support appropriate walking, wheeling and cycling routes in rural areas. ATE’s collaboration with English national park authorities to develop LCWIPs will further enhance local routes and promote greater access in rural areas.

To make an active travel network that is usable at a national scale, it must also feel legible. More than 60 years ago, we created that certainty for driving: a nationally understood system of signs, symbols and information, now reinforced digitally, that allows people to travel almost anywhere in the country with confidence. Walking, wheeling and cycling networks now need the same clarity.

A signing system for active travel already exists, but delivery has been inconsistent. Routes are often poorly signed, fragmented and less intuitive than those for driving.

Over the next 5 years, we will, therefore, plan, pilot and begin delivering a national wayfinding system that turns signs, symbols, naming and information into a practical tool for everyday movement.

This will allow thousands of existing and planned local routes to function as one network people can understand instinctively – with the same logic, cues and expectations, whether in a city centre, suburb, town or village.

To achieve this, we will:

• by 2026 launch local pilots for wayfinding and innovative street designs to reinforce the evidence base of what works

• by 2026 publish a vision and outline business case for a consistent national approach to active travel wayfinding

• by 2027 publish a new local cycling and walking infrastructure plan guidance, with enhanced walking network planning and support authorities to update and integrate with local transport plans 

• by 2028 update TSRGD and the traffic signs manual to include signing for active travel

• by 2030 develop the foundations of a national network by bringing together existing, planned and proposed schemes into a single digital platform

In practice, this means that by 2030, a national walking and cycling network will be accessible through standard route mapping websites and apps, in the same way that the road network is today.

New on-street wayfinding standards will be finalised and will have begun to be rolled out across the country, with signage and road markings being brought up to the new standard as schemes are updated or developed over the following years.

Financial resources

Section 21 (3a) of the Infrastructure Act 2015 requires the government to set out the financial resources which are to be made available by the Secretary of State for Transport to achieve the objectives of a CWIS.

The financial resources available, outlined below, align with Spending Review 2025 and covers the period from 2025 to 2026 to 2029 to 2030.

Funding for active travel over the period of this strategy comes from 2 main sources.

1. Funding provided to ATE by DfT.

2. A proportion of funding from a range of funding streams within DfT and other government departments, including:

• transport for city regions
• highways maintenance
• city region sustainable transport settlements (CRSTS)
• pride in place programme
• National Highways
• local transport grant/integrated transport block

In line with the government’s devolution agenda, a proportion of ATE funding for local authorities is allocated to local authorities as part of a wider local transport settlement. This is delivered through 3 funding streams:

• integrated settlements for the 6 MSAs
• mayoral transport fund for newly established MSAs
• integrated transport fund for local transport authorities

Whilst we expect local authorities to continue to use the active travel portion of these funds for active travel, local areas now have the flexibility to invest active travel funds into other local transport priorities. Conversely, local areas will also have the flexibility to invest funding from other transport funding streams into active travel.

If there is a material change in the financial resources provided by the Secretary of State to ATE as specified in this CWIS, the Secretary of State for Transport will comply with the process outlined in section 21(5-6) of the Infrastructure Act 2015 and vary this CWIS.

Table 1 provides a projection of the total financial resources across government that may be invested in active travel over the 5-year CWIS3 period between April 2025 and March 2030. The projected investment has been calculated using a range of evidence and data sources, including the CWIS evidence review, which reviewed funding over both the CWIS1 and CWIS2 periods.

Other sources include:

• funding allocations previously announced
• successful funding proposals from local bodies
• previous research
• historical trends
• an assessment of the proportion of investment into active travel projects and programmes from wider government funds

These figures will be updated in future statutory reports to Parliament to reflect further investment from future funding streams, which may be spent on active travel.

Table 1: Total financial resources available, 2025 to 2026 and 2029 to 2030

Funding source	Projected investment (£ million)
ATE funding	£1,107
Funding streams within DfT and other government departments	£3,448
Total	£4,555​

ATE: local partner, national coordinator

ATE is an executive agency of DfT. Its role is to help create safer, more accessible streets, routes and places so more people can walk, wheel and cycle as part of everyday journeys.

ATE supports local and mayoral authorities to:

• deliver high‑quality networks that meet local needs
• raise design standards
• integrate with wider transport and spatial development plans

It operates as a delivery accelerator by building capability, ensuring quality through its statutory planning and design assurance functions and providing hands‑on support so public investment delivers better outcomes for communities.

ATE will also provide oversight and assurance of the investment in this strategy and reporting on progress and likelihood of meeting the targets and objectives.

ATE’s delivery plan contains more information on how ATE will deliver this strategy, but priorities include:

• Build local capability by providing training, professional development and technical support across the active travel investment programme and running the local authority active travel capability ratings to inform future funding.

• Use new statutory planning powers to secure high‑quality active travel provision in new housing, development plans and spatial strategies in line with departmental design guidance.

• Increase participation of under-represented groups across investment programmes by making programmes and the physical environment more accessible in line with departmental design guidance.

• Enable local authorities to deliver effective programmes by offering products and services to improve routes and streets connecting homes to schools, to parks and high streets and preparing authorities to use new powers such as side‑road zebras and pavement‑parking measures.

• Improve scheme monitoring by providing a consistent approach to the use of traffic counters to strengthen appraisal, evaluation and sharing evidence and best practice.

• Enable better network planning through improved tools and data standards so authorities can track the development of walking, wheeling and cycling networks as part of a national system provided locally.

• Strengthen delivery against devolved funding outcomes by helping authorities measure progress, including stages and miles of new and improved routes, aligned with their agreed outcome frameworks.

• Prevent duplication and improve efficiency by exchanging delivery data with authorities and disseminating lessons learned through national training products, research and guidance (including updated LCWIP guidance).

Cross-government working

Improving mental and physical health

The 10-year health plan prioritises prevention and the shift to an expansion of neighbourhood health services.

Safe, accessible walking, wheeling and cycling routes make it easier for people to reach local GP practices, pharmacies and community health services, helping embed physical activity into everyday life and supporting healthier communities.

Increasing physical activity and tackling inactivity

The 10-year health plan also outlines the importance of physical activity for physical and mental health and the challenge that inactivity levels remain high for adults and children with inequalities across the country.

In response, the government has set out its plan to develop a national plan for physical activity led by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). This will reflect the government’s commitment to ensuring everyone, regardless of background, can be active. The priority will be to support people and places with the greatest need, where inactivity is highest. Making low-cost, active travel options appealing and safe will be especially effective in areas where inactivity levels remain stubbornly high, while also tackling wider inequalities. A place-based approach – bringing partners together locally – will embed these changes.

As part of the government’s place-based approach to physical activity, Sport England annually invests up to £250 million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions, including walking, wheeling and cycling. As part of this, Sport England invests in active partnerships, local organisations which take a place-based approach to reducing inequalities.

The UK government is providing £32 million in funding to support the provision of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes Grand Départs in 2027. Hosting the Grand Départ is about more than just the race; it’s an opportunity to inspire participation, boost cycling infrastructure, and enhance cycle tourism.

A dedicated social impact programme (Joy) is being developed to provide lasting impact beyond 2027, focusing on 3 essential pillars:

• tackling inactivity and improving mental wellbeing
• making our country more productive
• supporting our communities to thrive

Delivering economic growth, healthy high streets and housing delivery

As well as improving health outcomes, being bold and ambitious on active travel also supports economic growth and boosts local businesses by increasing high street footfall. Research shows that people who walk to the high street typically visit twice as frequently and spend up to 40% more compared to those who drive. It also provides transport choice in new housing developments while reducing congestion and pollution.

Active travel makes our neighbourhoods healthier, safer and more connected. Investing in active travel boosts economic growth and supports the work of MHCLG by encouraging more people to use the high street and increasing the attractiveness of new housing developments through the provision of safe and attractive active travel infrastructure.

The opportunity is outlined in this government’s Pride in Place strategy, which includes a £5.8 billion Pride in Place programme which is delivering up to £20 million of funding and support over the next decade into 284 places from across the UK. This will enable more communities to choose to invest in high-quality public realm, including footways and cycle routes, where it is a priority for the community.

Through the Plan for Change, the government is set to deliver 1.5 million new homes this Parliament. By ensuring that new homes are well supported by active travel infrastructure from the outset, we build in modal choice, which in turn can reduce congestion, pollution and other negative environmental consequences.

Supporting net zero and environmental improvement

Achieving the 2035 target set out in this strategy will result in an estimated 700 million fewer vehicle miles, which will reduce emissions and congestion. This government’s 10-year infrastructure strategy and the latest report by the Committee on Climate Change recognises the contribution of active travel to the government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.

Investment helps reduce both greenhouse gas and air pollutant transport emissions by enabling people to choose more walking, wheeling and cycling, coupled with public transport for longer journeys. This supports the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) commitments in the environmental improvement plan and contributes to meeting statutory air quality targets.

Investment in active travel also supports the government’s ambitions to unlock access to nature as outlined in Defra’s environmental improvement plan 2025 and the proposed access to nature green paper.

Accessible, high-quality active travel routes will increase access to green spaces, including national parks and national landscapes, through measures such as the ATE-led programme of support to national parks, including the development of local cycling and walking infrastructure plans and the design of priority schemes.

Defra and ATE will continue to identify opportunities for joint work, including in the development of the new river walks in England.

Breaking down the barriers to opportunity and cutting the cost of living

This strategy will enable more children to walk, wheel and cycle to school and help to increase social mobility. Investment in active travel also supports increased public transport use, particularly bus patronage, enabling people to access jobs, training and spending opportunities across wider economic geographies.

DfT and ATE are working closely with the Department for Education in the development of guidance for local authorities to support the delivery of safe, accessible, high-quality walking, wheeling and cycling routes. This applies to schools, colleges, other educational settings and employment to provide low-cost, accessible travel options for pupils, students and staff.

Thereby, contributing to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and the work of DfE.

This increases the range of jobs and skills opportunities available and access to services and healthcare, especially to people without access to a car, or with poor public transport options, including people on low incomes and young people. This supports the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and aligns with the work of DfE to improve access to education, training and wider family services.

The provision of these routes, supported by safe crossings and the roll out of school streets, help to expand access to learning, skills development and extracurricular activities – particularly for children and young people from disadvantaged families, those without access to a car, or those living in areas with limited public transport. They also promote healthier lifestyles and improve attendance by making the journey to school safer and more reliable.

Increasing personal safety

Achieving the objectives of this strategy will improve personal safety – especially for women and girls – by creating safer streets and other routes and making roads safer through better design and lower speeds, especially around homes and busy areas.

The government’s mission to take back our streets, led by the Home Office to increase personal safety, halve violence against women and girls, strengthening neighbourhood policing, tackling anti-social behaviour and making town centres safer, will all tackle concerns about personal safety when walking, wheeling and cycling.

This is supported by investment through ATE for local places to deliver investment in well-lit, safe, high-quality walking, wheeling and cycling routes, which increases personal safety and perceptions of safety. It also includes improving road safety through advice and design guidance for local authorities, including the forthcoming update of the manual for streets.

Summary of commitments

This strategy includes a range of new commitments and previously announced commitments, which will support walking, wheeling and cycling.

This includes:

• a vision for walking, wheeling and cycling to be safe, easy and accessible choices for everyone

• 55% of all short stages in towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2035

• strategic objectives to: enable physical activity through active travel, make active travel the easy and integrated choice and improve safety for people walking, wheeling and cycling

• descreased fatalities and serious injuries per billion miles walked and cycled in line with the road safety strategy targets to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65% and 70% for children by 2035

• decreased percentage of people citing personal safety concerns when walking, wheeling and cycling

• 60% of children aged 5 to 16 to usually walk or cycle to school by 2035

• a national ‘safe routes to school’ programme

• delivery of school and community-focused programmes

• legislation to tackle the problem of pavement parking

• update the Traffic Signs and Regulations General Directions (TSRGD)

• £10 million Streets Innovation Fund to support trials of innovative measures

• legislation to deliver shared cycle schemes

• publish a new edition of setting local speed limits

• publish updated local transport plan guidance

• deliver a High Speed Two (HS2) active travel legacy

• improve cycle parking and connectivity at rail stations

• support the delivery of electric vehicle pavement channels

• develop the automated vehicles regulatory framework and statement of safety principles

• undertake a review of powered mobility devices

• maintain close collaboration between National Highways and ATE

• establish the basis for a national active travel network by 2030

• publish a vision and outline business case on a consistent national approach to active travel wayfinding and launch local pilots to collect the evidence base of what works by 2026

• publish new local cycling and walking infrastructure guidance with enhanced walking network planning and support authorities to update and integrate with local transport plans by 2027

• develop the foundations of a national network by bringing together existing, planned and pipeline schemes into a single platform for the benefit of local delivery partners by 2030

• update the traffic signs manual to include signing for active travel by 2028

• project investment of £4,555 million across the government

1. Wheeling includes people who use wheelchairs and mobility scooters who may not identify with walking. ↩

2. The National Travel Survey definition of walking also includes people using non-motorised wheelchairs. ↩

3. Progress towards this target will be measured using the annual National Travel Survey, which will monitor the proportion of all stages under 5 miles that are walked and cycled by residents within towns and cities. A new stage is defined when there is a change in the form of transport or when there is a change of vehicle requiring a separate ticket. ‘Towns and cities’ include both rural and urban areas and are defined using the official census rural-urban classification and include urban: nearer to a major town or city, urban: further from a major town or city, larger rural: nearer to a major town or city and larger rural: further from a major town or city. ↩

4. Progress towards this target will be measured using the annual National Travel Survey, which will monitor the proportion of a child’s usual mode of travel to school as reported by a person aged 16 or over. This is for children who make a daily journey to school. Mode based on the longest part of journey, by distance. ↩

5. Progress will be monitored through the annual National Travel Survey, National Travel Attitudes Survey and future research. ↩

6. These projections are based on data from the CWIS Investment Model and Active Modes Appraisal Toolkit and are cumulative across the period between 2025 and 2035. The projection shows the maximum possible impact on physical activity as it does not account for displacement of other activities or the proportion of new walkers and cyclists that are already physically active since neither of these are known. Progress towards this outcome will be monitored annually through the Active Lives Survey through the proportion of the population who both take part in active travel at least twice in the last 28 days and are considered active. Intervention-specific evaluations will be required to understand the impact of investment in active travel on physical activity. ↩

7. In line with the National Travel Survey, walking includes all travel on foot. It is also used when people use non-motorised wheelchairs, prams or pushchairs, as well as when they ride toy bicycles, roller skates, skateboards, non-motorised scooters or jog. ↩