I welcome this opportunity to update Parliament on the cycling action plan for Scotland and the work that we are doing in partnership to realise the active travel vision. The Government remains strongly committed to delivering an active nation, and the vision of Scotland’s communities being shaped around people, with walking and cycling the most popular choices for everyday short journeys.
The “Cycling Action Plan for Scotland” was originally published in 2010. It set out a shared vision that, by 2020, 10 per cent of all journeys in Scotland would be by bike. That vision was intended to be bold, aspirational and challenging. We have seen significant progress in some areas, such as cycle commuting in Edinburgh, which is now at 9.8 per cent. However, progress towards the overall figure has been slow, and it is unlikely to be met by 2020. We recognised some time ago that the speed of change was not good enough. That is why, last year, we doubled Transport Scotland’s active travel budget from £39 million to £80 million.
In order to make best use of that investment to bring about the transformative change that is needed, we are working with our partners to develop a monitoring framework. It will define a range of important outcomes, including to ensure that cycling is accessible to all, and to improve safety, health, the economy and the environment. The framework will be a key new measure to drive forward active travel policy, and it will inform on-going work with our partners on developing a reliable and nationally consistent way of measuring progress towards 2020. We are also undertaking a broad programme of analytical work and engagement with our delivery partners to better understand where we and others are succeeding in making progress, and to apply those lessons elsewhere.
With the doubling of Transport Scotland’s active travel budget, we have levels of investment in active travel that match our ambitions. Including match funding from local authorities, Scotland’s investment in walking and cycling in 2018-19 was £135 million, which is more than £25 per capita. That is far more investment than there is in the rest of the United Kingdom, and a similar level of investment to that of our northern European neighbours, such as the Netherlands and Denmark.
As well as our £80 million of active travel funding, we have allocated a further £5 million for sustainable travel behaviour change projects. We also offer £950,000 worth of loan funding for electric bikes, and we have secured a further £7.6 million from the European regional development fund for low carbon and active travel hubs. We have used those increased budgets to step up support for local authorities to build safe, segregated walking and cycling infrastructure, and to expand and improve our behaviour change programme. That integrated approach is crucial—evidence shows that combining training and advocacy with high-quality infrastructure and places that are designed for people is the best way to enable more people to walk and cycle for everyday journeys.
We see some signs of progress. As well as the increase in cycling in Edinburgh, we have seen similar increases in Glasgow, Moray and Highland council areas, and 10 per cent of people who live in small remote towns cycle at least once a week as a means of transport.
Since 2011, more than a quarter of a million schoolchildren have participated in Cycling Scotland’s bikeability Scotland cycle training. The percentage of schools participating has risen from 29 to 42 per cent, and nearly 500 schools have received cycling friendly status through Cycling Scotland’s cycling friendly scheme.
All that is before the effects of our record capital investment are truly being felt.
It will take time to build the quality, transformational places and infrastructure that we need. It is important that we take the time to work with communities to ensure that the projects are right, but we will look at ways to streamline the process.
Last year, we invested £36 million in Sustrans’ community links programme and a further £9 million to commence the design of six larger, ambitious and high-quality segregated cycling infrastructure projects. I look forward to seeing the first of those—the south city way in Glasgow—being delivered in 2019.
This year, I am delighted to announce that we are allocating a record £51 million from our active travel budget for 2019 to our new, combined infrastructure programme called places for everyone, which is administered on our behalf by Sustrans. As part of the programme, 10 ambitious projects are being considered for large-scale, multiyear funding. So far, Sustrans has received funding bids from 30 local authorities for segregated paths, improvements to the public realm and projects that would make our towns and cities safer and friendlier places in which to live, work and spend time. We hope to announce those projects in the next few months.
However, it is important to recognise that investment in active travel facilities and behaviour change projects will not, on its own, bring about the step change that we want. In all this Government’s work—on bus services and public transport more generally, health and wellbeing, planning, the environment and climate change—we need to consider how we can support active travel.
The broader, more strategic approach will be supported by the national transport strategy and the second strategic transport policy review. Both will set out a compelling vision for the transport system that we want for Scotland over the next 20 years and the type and scale of interventions that we will deliver to achieve that.
The draft national transport strategy, which we will consult on this summer, sets four priority areas: taking climate action, improving our health and wellbeing, promoting equality and helping our economy prosper. Those priorities recognise the importance of enabling people to make active travel choices to improve their health and wellbeing.
The Transport (Scotland) Bill will be an enabler of change. It aims to improve journeys for people across the country by supporting the development of a cleaner, smarter and more accessible network. By seeking to improve bus services and introducing low-emission zones, it promotes active and sustainable travel and, for cyclists, the prohibitions on double parking will assist in keeping roadways clear.
In addition, we have agreed to support a Scottish Greens’ amendment to the bill to enable local authorities to introduce workplace parking levy schemes. That would be a discretionary power. It has the potential to encourage modal shift towards public transport and active travel, including by supporting improvements to transport infrastructure and services in local areas to provide alternatives to car use.
Better integration between modes is important. Buses have a key role to play in joining up active journeys and in spreading the benefits of active travel more widely. If integrated active travel infrastructure and bus routes offer people faster, easier, healthier and more sustainable means of getting to their destination, they are much more likely to use them, and I am keen to see how the new internal bike racks introduced by Borders Buses earlier this year will be taken up.
On rail, ScotRail has delivered more than 1,500 additional cycle spaces at stations and provided bike & Go cycle hire facilities at 12 stations across Scotland. Overall, 97 per cent of stations have cycle parking, with more than 5,000 customer cycle spaces in total.
On climate change, this Government reacted to the declaration of a global climate emergency with amendments to our Climate Change (Scotland) Bill to set a net zero target for 2045 and to increase the target for 2030 to 70 per cent.
Scotland already has an ambitious agenda for decarbonising transport, but transport is Scotland’s biggest emitting sector, and it is clear that further action will be required to meet the new targets.
The Scottish Government is committed to making Scotland an active nation, and we are now matching that ambition with record levels of funding. There are positive signs of progress, but less than we would like and there is much more for us to do. I am confident that our ambitious programme of active travel investment will play a key part in delivering the greener, safer, happier and healthier Scotland that we all want to see.