Active travel!

Active Devon says that travelling actively is great for our health, wellbeing and the environment – and, indeed, around the county there have been projects to advance just that: for example, Exmoor National Park has secured funding for walking and cycling upgrades and a new strategy is set to transform travel in the South West.

The county council is asking us to ‘have our say’ with the draft Countywide Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) by the end of the month. Do join the consultation!

The Climate Outreach group is also promoting active travel, with a blog piece this week showing that investment in active travel is popular: most people want more options for walking, wheeling and cycling – together with other initiatives to promote ‘active travel’:

A new report by Sport England has found that being active is good for us and good for society – and unequal access to physical activity harms our nation’s health and wellbeing. Addressing this isn’t just about organised sport. It’s about more opportunities to be active day-to-day. We’ve been looking through our Britain Talks Climate 2024 data to bring you what we’ve learnt on active travel.

Investment in active travel is popular: most people want more options for walking, wheeling and cycling

Here’s 5 things we learnt about public opinion around active travel:

1. Most people travel actively every day or every other day

2. Investment in active travel is popular

3. Where we live shapes how actively we can travel

4. For more than a third of us, active travel is the most freeing travel option

5. But cars feel safer for many

There is a very positive story to tell when improving people’s options for walking, wheeling and cycling. Active travel can help make our country – and our planet – healthier. And it’s genuinely popular: most people are keen to have more options to travel more actively.

But there’s a crucial ‘watch-out’. Active travel needs to be safe, and feel safe, for more of us, more of the time. For people to feel able to embrace the wellbeing boost that active travel brings, it has to be a safe option and it has to feel like one.

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