Chamber and committees

The current financial year marks a very significant change in our delivery model for active travel behaviour change initiatives, being the first year the Scottish Government has allocated grant funding for this purpose across all seven Region Transport Partnerships (RTPs) under the umbrella of a new Active Travel People and Place programme.

The grounds for the creation of this programme are the increased scale and pace of the government’s ambition in active travel, which has already brought wholesale reform of the delivery model for active travel infrastructure through the creation of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) working primarily with Local Authorities through a new tiered system.

Similarly, the previous active travel behaviour change delivery model whereby Transport Scotland continued to centrally grant fund several national third sector partners across 30+ projects and programmes also needed to be reformed to deliver at scale.

For 2024-25 we therefore developed a new regional approach whereby this funding has instead been invested in RTPs, who in turn have designed programmes of active travel behaviour change initiatives which are more responsive to local circumstances and suit their needs. This is a more streamlined, scalable, and strategic model, with strong alignment to wider Scottish Government priorities and ways of working. This includes delivering on STPR2 Recommendation 6 that we build on existing behavioural change initiatives, and the Verity House Agreement principle that public responsibilities should be exercised by authorities closest to the citizen, with presumptions in favour of local flexibility.

STPR2 recommends that these initiatives are likely to be most effective if they raise awareness of new infrastructure and services. In taking a behaviour change approach we want to ensure that interventions tackle the individual, social, and material (ISM) factors that influence people’s travel choices. We have therefore developed four ‘themes’ that sit across the Active Travel People and Place programme that address long-term social trends, target our largest trip generators, help secure a Just Transition, and systemically strengthen delivery, as well as providing structure for our overarching monitoring and evaluation framework. These themes are: Schools and Young People, Workplaces, Accessibility and Inclusion, and Capacity and Capability Building.

We recognise that these programmes of behaviour change initiatives, some directly linked to infrastructure development, do require an appropriate blend of capital and revenue funding. Of overall spend across our legacy behaviour change / access to bikes programmes in 2023-24, capital accounted for 82%, and revenue 18% of funding. Of spend on the RTP Active Travel People and Place programmes in 2024-25, capital accounts for 63% (£12m), and revenue 37% (£7m) of funding. This has been achieved in the context of a particularly challenging budget and resource spending review, which has required, and will continue to require, difficult decisions to be taken across government.

We do not currently record data across our behaviour change programme in a way that would allow us to establish how many different schools or what proportion of schools have participated in projects.

This is possible, however, on an individual project basis. For example, in the academic year 2022-23, Bikeability Scotland training was delivered in 66.7% of schools covering over 60,000 pupils across 30/32 local authorities. Living Streets’ Walk to School / WOW programme has run for over 25 years and was introduced in Scotland in 2014. A total of 463 primary schools, 23% of the total number of primary schools in Scotland, have had active participation in WOW at some point between 2012 and 2022. 160 schools participated in WOW in 2022-23.

A new model for delivery of active travel behaviour change interventions has been introduced for 2024-25. The People and Place programme will be delivered by Scotland’s seven Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs). To support this new model we are developing a monitoring and evaluation framework which will improve our understanding of the performance of the projects that we fund and enable us to make better informed funding decisions across the active travel behaviour change programme.

The Scottish Government funds a range of projects throughout Scotland that deliver on recommendation 1 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) to create connected neighbourhoods. This includes funding provided to local authorities via the Sustrans Places for Everyone programme, the new Active Travel Infrastructure fund, and directly through the Cycling Walking Safer Routes (CWSR) grant.

All active travel grants are assessed and awarded against the criteria set in the Active Travel Framework | Transport Scotland . Programmes delivered by partners are monitored and evaluated against the framework using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to evidence the impact and confirm delivery of Active Travel outcomes. This includes monitoring the growth in active travel within the study area.

In response to the UK Climate Change Committee’s recommendation, by the end of 2024 we will publish an Implementation Plan identifying the key actions to be taken to deliver our Vision for public EV charging.

There is a known and growing gap when it comes to active travel modes to travel to school between primary and secondary school pupils in Scotland. Sustrans’ Hands Up Scotland Survey, that looks at how pupils travel to school and nursery, shows that in the past 15 years walking and cycling to school are declining when it comes to secondary school pupils, with cycling to school only accounting for around 1% of the total trips and skating/scooting stagnating at around 0.1%.

Whilst walking levels are also declining for primary school children, it is still at a higher level than for secondary school pupils, and cycling and skating/scooting has been increasing with much higher levels than for secondary school pupils (cycling stands at 5-6% of all trips for primary school age pupils).

Since 2021, Cycling Scotland have conducted a cross sectional evaluation of Bikeability Scotland. This evaluation shows that Bikeability Level 2 training has a positive impact on cycling behaviours, knowledge and skills, and that pupils who receive Bikeability training in primary school have higher rates of bike ownership and cycling frequency in Secondary school compared with those who did not receive training.

Nestrans and its partners Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and the North East Bus Alliance, are working to develop the business case for Aberdeen Rapid Transit (ART). Building on work undertaken to support the Regional Transport Strategy and the second Strategic Transport Projects Review, Nestrans is drafting the business case which includes detailed planning to understand how ART could be implemented. This includes work on transport corridors identified as being potential routes for ART to identify opportunities for transport improvements, including bus priority.

Scottish Government funding for active travel projects is not allocated based on STPR2 recommendation delivered. We fund a range of projects throughout Scotland that deliver on recommendation 4 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) to connect towns by active travel. This includes funding for the National Cycle Network programme, investment in active travel infrastructure on the trunk road network, and funding provided to local authorities via the Sustrans Places for Everyone programme and the new Active Travel Infrastructure fund, and directly through the Cycling Walking Safer Routes (CWSR) grant.

The strategic case for investment in Recommendation 2 (see recommendation-2-active-freeways-and-cycle-parking-hubs.pdf (transport.gov.scot) has already been met through the STPR2 appraisal process.

Work is ongoing under this recommendation, but it remains the responsibility of local authorities to deliver active travel lanes on local authority owned roads.

As with any transport investment, schemes will follow the standard business case and design processes. After which, Local authorities can submit to the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund for delivery costs.

There are no plans for Transport Scotland to replace the Energy Savings Trust e-bike loan scheme. Through the Active Travel Transformation Project (ATTF), support for grass-roots community groups and charity-led projects is being decentralised, with acknowledgement from everyone involved in active travel that decisions about how to support grass roots behaviour change work needed to be taken closer to communities, and in a way that’s more joined up with local and regional transport strategies.

It is a matter for Local Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships to make decisions on which projects are supported through their funding under the new active travel delivery model.

In response to the UK Climate Change Committee’s recommendation, by the end of 2024 we will publish an Implementation Plan identifying the key actions to be taken to deliver our Vision for public EV charging. The key findings of the study will be published as part of the Implementation Plan.