We have today (4/5) published a joint response to the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) Scottish Government consultation on National Walking and Cycling Infrastructure with Transform Scotland and Cycling UK Scotland.
Helen Todd, Ramblers Scotland campaigns & policy manager, said: “Together we’re calling for a transformative investment in our national path network, to make walking and cycling the most attractive, safe and easy options for short urban and rural trips. Most journeys in Scotland are under 5km, so there’s a huge opportunity to help many more people permanently shift to walking and cycling for their local transport and leisure journeys. Major investment in paths would also be an important step towards ensuring Scotland hits our sustainability and health targets – particularly as transport still accounts for 37% of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions.”
Active travel funding has increased over recent years but is still just over 3% of the overall transport budget.
For many people leisure walking or cycling is the main way they are able to keep active, and the evidence is clear that there are huge benefits to health and wellbeing of being active in nature.
We suggest that the active travel elements of this project are predominantly funded by adjustments to the transport budget, and specifically the Scottish Government’s trunk road and motorways budget over the next 10 years.
Given the situation, we are calling for phased annual increases of active travel funding over the next decade to go beyond 10% and by 2030 to aim for an allocation of up to 20% of transport budgets on sustainable transport (excluding investment in buses and trains) to bring infrastructure up to the required standard.
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Posted On: 04/05/2020