Behaviour change

Creating a Culture of Sustainable and Active Travel

Evidence shows that transport infrastructure and services on their own are not always enough to increase the number of people choosing walking, wheeling, cycling, and public and low-carbon transport.

People also need the right support to confidently use these options, and make long-term habits out of them. That’s why Transport Scotland currently supports three strands of work focused on sustainable and active travel behaviour change:

We are investing in initiatives that build knowledge, skills and confidence, helping people make the most of our expanding sustainable travel infrastructure networks and services. These interventions encourage more people to walk, wheel, cycle and use public and low-carbon transport for their everyday journeys.

Sustainable and active travel not only supports healthier lifestyles, but also delivers wider economic benefits, reduces air and noise pollution, and helps to ease traffic congestion.

People & Place (P&P)

People & Place (P&P) is the Scottish Government’s flagship portfolio of investment in support of Regional Transport Partnerships’ (RTPs) and Local Authorities’ (LAs) capacity to provide for, and directly deliver, sustainable and active travel behaviour change programmes.

That means holistic packages of community-led, person-centred, and place-based interventions that remove the personal and socioeconomic barriers to choosing walking, wheeling (using wheelchairs and other wheeled mobility aids), cycling, and using public and low-carbon transport for everyday journeys.

These transport and public health behavioural interventions work hand-in-hand with capital investment in sustainable and active travel infrastructure, and community and public transport services, to create a culture that supports strong and equitable levels of public uptake, and a just and inclusive transition to net zero.

The P&P portfolio is delivered through dedicated Transport Scotland grant funding to the nation’s 7 RTPs and 32 LAs, who in turn work with each other and large range of delivery partners across the private and third sector.

In providing funding to RTPs and LAs to design and commission their own programmes of work, P&P ensures that projects are coordinated and informed by regional and local transport strategies and respond to specific community needs.

The total 2026-27 P&P budget is £21.8m, with £18.7m awarded to RTPs and £3.1m awarded to LAs.

The portfolio’s place-based and community-led ethos, broad purpose, and national coverage, mean that it supports a very wide variety of different projects and initiatives, such as:

  • Cycle repair and maintenance, including socially targeted access to bikes and cycle training employability and training opportunities,
  • Community, school, and workplace-based active travel hubs, travel planning, supported walks and rides, ‘gamification’ projects and challenges, maps, apps, real time passenger information, and guides.
  • Action kits, guidance, accreditation schemes, and public communication campaigns,
  • Capacity and capability support such as employing Active Travel Officers, developing active travel strategies and plans, and undertaking quantitative statistical surveys and qualitative research and evaluation,
  • Infrastructure support such as school streets, bike stands and storage, and maintenance.

P&P Regional Programmes

P&P is led at regional programme level by each of Scotland’s seven RTPs as statutory bodies with responsibility under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005 for producing regional transport strategies, supported by delivery plans setting out when and how projects and proposals will be delivered.

They have a statutory responsibility to have a Regional Transport Strategy for their area. These strategies are approved by Scottish Ministers, and Local Authorities must have regard to them when they are prioritising spend on transport in their areas.

The RTP’s P&P programmes therefore bring responsibility for sustainable and active travel behaviour change alongside their existing strategic and operational responsibilities. The primary strategic drivers are the Regional Transport Strategies, and the cross-cutting policy and delivery work led by each of the RTP’s People & Place teams, who are accountable to Partnership Boards whose membership includes elected councillors representing their constituent local authority areas.

To learn more about the activities of each RTP and how they are delivering their regional P&P programmes, visit their individual websites:

P&P Local Programmes

P&P is led at local programme level by each of Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities (LAs) as the holders of many relevant cross-cutting powers and duties in areas including transport, road safety, planning, economic development, social care, climate change, and environmental health. The primary strategic drivers at this level are the Local Transport Strategies, area-wide emissions plans, and the cross-cutting strategy and delivery work led by different Local Authority teams, who are accountable to Council Leaders and relevant council committees.

P&P supports LAs through a ‘Direct Award’ (P&P LADA), which does not require an application, but does require updates on the roles and projects they have chosen to support via a 6 month and 12 month report, and ongoing discussions with Transport Scotland.

For more information on P&P LADA contact PPLADA@transport.gov.scot

Outcomes and Themes

Designed to maximise the return on investment, P&P supports the strategic outcomes of the National Transport Strategy 2, the Active Travel Outcomes Framework, and the First Minister’s priorities for Scotland. It is organised around several key themes. These themes have evolved as P&P has developed as a portfolio since its establishment in 2024-25. They have come to encompass three ‘behaviour change’ themes (‘Schools and Young People’, ‘Workplaces’, and ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’), two ‘delivery scope’ themes (‘Communities’ and ‘Sustainable Travel’), and one ‘underpinning’ theme (‘Capacity and Capability’). In practice there is some ambiguity and overlap between themes, but in general they are defined as:

Schools and Young People

This covers interventions focused in and around schools that deliver holistic solutions for creating an environment where sustainable and active travel choices are not only an option, but the most desirable way to travel for young people and families.

Workplaces

This covers interventions focused in and around places of work (including further and higher education), that make sustainable and active travel choices a realistic solution for commuting and reaching trip-generating business locations.

Communities

This covers interventions focused on involvement with, or led by, community groups and grassroots organisations delivering locally tailored interventions.

Accessibility and Inclusion

This covers interventions focused on supporting accessibility and inclusion and creating opportunities for everyone to make the choice to travel actively and sustainably.

Sustainable Travel

This covers interventions focused on facilitating joined-up journeys and providing accurate travel information, including building links to public transport, Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI), Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), shared transport, mobility hubs, and resources to cover Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms. These support people to make more of their daily journeys by bridging the gaps between active travel and the public transport network with options that are more sustainable than the private car.

Capacity and Capability

This covers systemic interventions focused on building the knowledge base and delivery capacity and capability of the sector itself (RTPs, LAs, the third sector, and beyond), and also personal capacity and capability aspects that support individual behaviour change such as skills training.

Measuring the impacts

Increasing levels of sustainable and active travel has many direct and indirect benefits, including boosting our health, leading to better quality of life and longer life expectancy. Reducing car travel also results in avoided costs from fewer road accidents and cleaner air. The value of total co-benefits emerging from shifting car journeys to active travel in line with the Seventh Carbon Budget across 2025 to 2050 is estimated at over £12bn.

National Active Travel Indicators

At the national level, the Active Travel Framework sets out a series of key indicators by which progress is measured. Transport Scotland published an updated baseline report in October 2026 that explores the evidence against each indicator.

The Walking and Cycling Index

The Walking and Cycling Index is the biggest assessment of walking, wheeling and cycling in the UK and Ireland. It is delivered by Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (formerly Sustrans) in collaboration with 22 regional and local partners. The work in Scotland is funded and supported by Transport Scotland and currently covers eight Scottish ‘index cities’ (Aberdeen, Dundee, Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth, Stirling).

Every two years each area reports on the progress made towards making walking, wheeling and cycling a more attractive, everyday way to travel. The latest Walking and Cycling Index Scotland Report can be found here, with an accompanying Data Tool for exploring the figures.

National Modal Monitoring and Open Data

Transport Scotland funds Cycling Scotland to support Local Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships to monitor modal shift, conduct annual 48 hour Traffic surveys as part of producing an Annual Cycling Monitoring Report, and providing mode share data at local, regional and national levels.

Counters measure long term changes in cycling levels in every LA area, and an Open Data Portal is used by almost all LAs and RTPs with real time cycling data from 14 LAs recorded and shared.

Evaluation

A full assessment report of P&P’s initial delivery year was published in March 2026. It highlights strong evidence showing continued positive impacts from individual sustainable and active travel behaviour change projects, and that early evidence indicates that greater regional and local control over commissioning these projects increased cross-portfolio value and strengthened the overall impact of the Support for Sustainable and active Travel budget.

Bikeability

Bikeability Scotland

Bikeability is the national cycle training programme for school children in Scotland. It is delivered by Cycling Scotland in partnership with local authorities and helps develop the next generation of confident, responsible cyclists.

What Bikeability Does

The programme supports children to build the skills and confidence needed to cycle safely on the road — from childhood through to adulthood.

What the Training Covers

Bikeability Scotland provides a comprehensive training programme, including:

  • Pre-ride safety checks
  • Basic bike handling skills
  • Road positioning and signals
  • Hazard awareness
  • On-road cycling confidence

Find out more at the Cycling Scotland website

Transport to Employment (TTE)

We are investing up to £11 million in 2026/27 in parallel with People & Place to help improve access to transport for low-income parents who want to take up training or move into work. Funding is delivered to Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) to support local solutions that meet the needs of communities.

This forms part of a wider £20 million Transport to Employment programme within the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026–2031. The programme focuses on removing key transport barriers—such as affordability, accessibility and availability—that can prevent people on low incomes from getting to work or training.

By improving access to transport, we’re helping more parents take up work or training, grow their skills and increase their income—supporting families and helping to reduce child poverty across Scotland.