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

  • Siemens enforcement solution for London primary schools made permanent
    October 18, 2018
    Siemens Mobility says a pilot scheme to improve road safety outside three UK primary schools has been made permanent. Siemens is monitoring newly-created pedestrian zones outside schools in the London borough of Croydon by deploying an solution which is more commonly used to enforce bus lanes and moving traffic contraventions. The system, which uses automatic number plate recognition technology and features Siemens ITS LaneWatch cameras, operates during the morning and afternoon school runs. It appears
    Read More
  • US DOT announces funding opportunity to improve bus service nationwide
    March 31, 2016
    The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced the opportunity to apply for approximately US$266 million in competitive grant funding for bus programs nationwide. The funding consists of US$211 million in grants for buses and bus facilities projects, as well as US$55 million specifically for FTA’s Low and No Emission (Low-No) bus program, which promotes technologically-advanced and environmentally-friendly buses. These investments will help advance the President’
    Read More
  • Encouraging cycling: small outlay and big returns
    May 8, 2015
    Pete Zanzottera explains why considering cycling in urban planning is a win-win situation. The Cycling Delivery Plan published by the UKs Department for Transport (UKDfT) contains 13 mentions of ‘cycle proofing’ a term that has been growing in use, but what does it mean, and have we got the wrong word? Should we instead be proving that we can create infrastructure that invites cyclists into the transport network?
    Read More
  • Switching Atlanta onto MaaS
    May 9, 2019
    It’s easy to talk about MaaS in the abstract – but MaaS isn’t going to work if it’s just a theory. Colin Sowman speaks to one woman about the practical benefits - and difficulties - of getting out of her car and switching to public transit in Atlanta, Georgia One of the first goals of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) inventor Sampo Hietanen is that MaaS should persuade households they don’t need a second car. This is starting to happen - even in the car-dominated US. Last year, authorities in the state of Ge
    Read More

Highlighted Content