Active Travel

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Overview

The Council adopted Glasgow's Active Travel Strategy 2022-2031 at the City Administration Committee on 24^th February 2022.

As part of a step change to how we move around Glasgow, the Active Travel Strategy (ATS) aims to achieve significant modal shift across the city to walking, wheeling and cycling and to deliver on its vision that:

"walking, wheeling and cycling will be the first and natural
choice for everyday journeys, for people of all ages and ability, to
travel locally to schools, to shops, to work, or to the city centre."

The ATS further defines how active travel contributes to the transport needs of the city, while helping deliver on carbon neutrality and social equity.

The strategy supports the City's ambitious commitments by 2030 to:

A minimum 30% reduction in car kilometres travelled.
'Vision Zero' of no deaths or serious injuries on our roads, streets, footpaths or cycle ways.
Achieve Net Zero Carbon.

The strategy is framed by three policy and action areas:

Connectivity: people and place: rebalancing our streets and spaces - with a focus on networks and infrastructure in our street environments.
Unlocking Change: enabling everyone to walk, wheel or cycle - focussing on training and education and working collaboratively.
Thinking Differently: encouraging, motivating and sustaining change - focussing on communication and promotion and inspiring people through larger events and other activities.

City Network

A key activity strand of the strategy is the development of the City Network, which will provide an accessible, safe, coherent and direct active travel network across Glasgow. To be delivered by 2030, the City Network will connect key amenities and drivers of travel such as education, business, retail and culture.

The Connectivity, People and Place: Interim Delivery Plan for the City Network sets out how the City Network will be designed and rapidly delivered over a 10 year period. The Final Delivery Plan for the City Network sets out the phasing of key sectors of the network, allowing GCC officers to prioritise design and delivery across the city. As the overarching network document for the GCC delivery teams, it will also be used to direct funding applications.

The development of the more informal Neighbourhood Network will focus on improvements for walking and wheeling to enable easy everyday active journeys within neighbourhoods, and to make easy connections to the City Network and public transport networks.

The City Network and Neighbourhood Network will be co-created as part of the Glasgow's Liveable Neighbourhoods programme at a multi-neighbourhood level.

Travel Behaviour Change Strategy

Responding to the Unlocking Change theme of the ATS and to Policy 97 of the Glasgow Transport Strategy, is the Travel Behaviour Change Strategy. Approved by the City Administration Committee in June 2023, the strategy aims to encourage more sustainable travel choices.

The TBCS uses the Scottish Government's Individual, Social and Material model (ISM) of Behaviour Change as a framework for its policies and actions within. The ISM helps us to understand how people make their travel choices, and then proposes how these choices can be influenced to deliver improved outcomes from transport, in line with the policies of Glasgow's suite of transport strategies.

The strategy sets out a series of short-term priority actions under the 'Action Areas' of I, S and M, as well as a fourth area focusing on Communications. The strategy further acts as overarching guidance for design teams within GCC requiring a behaviour change plan as part of their project delivery."

Cycling and Urban Sports Strategy

Glasgow's Cycling and Urban Sports Strategy was approved at the City Administration Committee on 30^th November 2023, following a period of public engagement during the summer of 2023. The new strategy responds to the Thinking Differently theme of the ATS while also acting as a successor to the Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016-2025.

The Cycling and Urban Sports Strategy (C&USS) is pioneering in its inclusion of wheeled urban sports, such as BMX, skateboarding, skating and push-scooting, alongside all forms of cycling. As wheeled urban sports move more into the mainstream, their cultural appeal and greater financial accessibility broadens our audience for participation in activities.

Partnering cycling with wheeled urban sports will therefore help deliver on the outcomes for the city from transport, as defined within the Glasgow Transport Strategy. Enabling more people to be more active will help to improve the health and wellbeing of Glasgow's residents. By considering these activities as we continue to develop the city we can help unlock vibrant community spaces for all. Linking these places together for easy access by our active travel networks will help incorporate them into people's everyday journeys and lives.

The delivery framework for the C&USS is People, Place, Programme and taking an overarching Partnership approach. The principles of equality, diversity and inclusivity are embedded throughout. People refers to the staff, volunteers, coaches, etc, who deliver cycling and wheeled urban sports activity programmes. Place refers to the safe and accessible spaces and facilities providing opportunities to participate. Programme is about the training and other activities that improve skills and boost the confidence people require to participate. Partnerships is the overarching approach to delivery as GCC and Glasgow Life must work together and with other partners to deliver the people, place and programme elements of the strategy.

Next Steps: An action plan will be developed for delivering the strategy.

Glasgow's Transport Strategies

The Active Travel Strategy and the Liveable Neighbourhoods Programme are both part of a suite of transport related plans and documents which will:

Create a modern, resilient and sustainable transport system for Glasgow.
Help transform the city into a more inclusive, liveable and attractive place for residents, businesses and visitors.

The suite of transport related documents includes:

Glasgow Transport Strategy 2022
Active Travel Strategy 2022
Liveable Neighbourhoods Programme 2022
City Centre Transport Plan 2022

Walking and Cycling Index

The Glasgow Walking and Cycling Index (formerly known as Bike Life) is produced by Sustrans in collaboration with Glasgow City Council. The Glasgow Index forms part of the biggest study of walking and cycling in the UK and Ireland, now incorporating 23 cities and urban areas. The report, produced every two years, contains a wealth of data on provision within the city to facilitate walking, wheeling and cycling and also incorporates the attitudes of local residents towards these travel modes.

All three of Glasgow's reports can be accessed via the Sustrans Glasgow Walking and Cycling Index site: the 2023 and 2021 Index reports and the 2018 Bike Life report. The website highlights key facts and case studies from the most recent report, and the 2023 and 2021 reports are available to download as text-only.

Sustrans have also produced a Walking and Cycling Index Data Tool, split into separate dashboards looking at 'peoples attitudes' and 'people's behaviours'. The dashboards, which enable comparison between years and cities, currently include some 2019 and 2021 Index data.