UK government publishes long-term plan to increase cycling and walking

The UK government has published its US$1.5 billion (£1.2 billion) long-term plan to make cycling and walking the natural choice for shorter journeys. The government wants cycling and walking to become the norm by 2040 and will target funding at innovative ways to encourage people onto a bike or to use their own two feet for shorter journeys. Plans include specific objectives to double cycling, reduce cycling accidents and increase the proportion of five to 10 year-olds walking to school to 55 per cent by 20
April 24, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The UK government has published its US$1.5 billion (£1.2 billion) long-term plan to make cycling and walking the natural choice for shorter journeys.


The government wants cycling and walking to become the norm by 2040 and will target funding at innovative ways to encourage people onto a bike or to use their own two feet for shorter journeys.

Plans include specific objectives to double cycling, reduce cycling accidents and increase the proportion of five to 10 year-olds walking to school to 55 per cent by 2025.

The funding will be allocated to schemes to provide cycling proficiency training for a further 1.3 million children and improve cycling infrastructure and expand cycle routes between the city centres, local communities and key employment and retail sites. It will also go to improvements to 200 sections of roads for cyclists; safety and awareness training for cyclists, extra secure cycle storage, bike repair, maintenance courses and road safety measures. Local councils will receive funding to invest in walking and cycling schemes and local growth funding to support walking and cycling.

In addition, the government is investing extra funding to improve cycle facilities at railway stations, along with a Living Streets’ outreach programmes to encourage children to walk to school and Cycling UK’s ‘Big Bike Revival’ scheme which provides free bike maintenance and cycling classes.

Under the Infrastructure Act 2015, the government is required to set a cycling and walking investment strategy for England. This is the first of a series of shorter term, five year strategies to support the long-term ambition to make walking and cycling the natural choice for shorter journeys by 2040.

Urban Traffic Control

Related Content

  • March 26, 2013
    £25 million boost to tackle UK highway bottlenecks
    Ten schemes to remove bottlenecks on the local UK highway network and support economic growth have been given the green light by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin. This £25 million in funding, the first allocation from the US$258 million Local Pinch Point Fund programme, will enable early delivery of these schemes and will help support employment while unlocking development sites to help local businesses and communities.
    Read More
  • March 17, 2017
    Better websites build smarter transport participation
    Transport initiatives are gaining traction through well-designed websites. Four European smart transport-oriented websites have gained honours in the 2016 .eu Web Awards, an online competition inaugurated in 2014 to recognise the most impressive sites within the .eu internet domain in terms of their design and content. The four were among 15 finalists across all five categories of the scheme, giving the transport sector a high profile for its proactive use of sites as communications tools for driving major
    Read More
  • May 10, 2016
    New York sees a boom in cycling
    According to New York City Department of Transportation’s (NYC DOT) 2016 Cycling in the City brief, New York City has seen a recent dramatic increase in cycling, with the claim that the city has seen a 320 per cent increase in daily cycling between 1990 and 2014 and a 68 per cent growth in daily cycling between 2010 and 2014. The brief uses data collected by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) as part of its annual Community Health Survey, where 25 per cent of adult New Yorkers (almost 1.
    Read More
  • August 10, 2016
    Mileage based charging offers secure future for funding
    HNTB’s Matthew Click sets out why a move to mileage-based pricing is inevitable. Infrastructure is the most neglected yet the most critical engine of our society, and our continued indifference could lead to a dystopian future. Our roads, bridges and highways have been largely passed by in the digital age—marginalised in an era when funding is limited and stewardship of physical assets has given way to our preoccupation with technological innovation and data—the stuff of the virtual realm.
    Read More

Highlighted Content