Overview

The Active Travel Framework published in 2019 sets out the national ‘2030 Vision’ for active travel, whereby communities in Scotland are shaped around people, with walking and cycling the most popular choice for shorter everyday journeys. It also sets out a series of key indicators by which progress towards the 2030 vision will be measured. Following the publication of the framework, discussions with stakeholders revealed an appetite to further develop the proposed indicators. This resulted in the move from the initial 15 indicators as set out in the 2019 framework document to the proposed 27 indicators discussed in this report. The majority of the new indicators use the same or similar data sources as the previous ones. The updated list of indicators (see below) offers further detail by distinguishing by mode of travel and other characteristics of interest. (see Annex A for a complete breakdown of previous and new indicators).

The aims of this report are to present the new indicators and to update the evidence from the original baseline data report (2019) providing a narrative of changes between 2019 and now. For the refreshed indicators associated with the Active Travel Framework, this report will provide further detail of new data sources being included. The report is structured by outcome and the indicators have been grouped by topics to aid the narrative of associated data sources.

Similar to the 2019 baseline report, this report uses secondary data from a variety of sources. The extent and quality of existing data is variable across indicators. Where available, previous trends will be reported, and current gaps in data will be highlighted. Nine out of 27 indicators use data from the Scottish Household Survey. Due to methodology and sampling changes across the years, for this data source, only changes that are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level are described as differences in the text of this report, unless stated otherwise.

For the majority of data sources used in this report, 2020 and 2021 data will be excluded. This is because either there is no data available for those years or when available, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data is not comparable to other years. Therefore, for the purposes of this report, the most recent data as of July 2026 (for most data sources this will be data referent to 2024) will be compared to pre-pandemic figures (i.e. 2019). Throughout the report there are different terminologies used in reference to sex and gender. For consistency across data sources, where an original dataset uses the term ‘sex’, this terminology is used, and where a dataset uses the term ‘gender’, this terminology will be used.

A full list of the data sources used to monitor each indicator is available in Annex B.

Updated list of Indicators for Active Travel Framework

Outcome: Increase the Number of People Choosing Walking, Cycling and Wheeling in Scotland

1. Proportion of journeys under 2 miles by walking
2. Proportion of journeys under 5 miles by cycling
3. Aggregation/ trends of Active Travel counter data
4. Propensity to cycle
5. Proportion of journeys to school by walking and wheeling
6. Proportion of journeys to school by cycling
7. Frequency of walking and wheeling for pleasure/exercise
8. Frequency of cycling for pleasure/exercise

Outcome: High Quality Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Infrastructure is Available to Everyone

9. Km of traffic-free walking and cycling facilities
10. Evidence people are satisfied with the quality of walking infrastructure
11. Evidence people are satisfied with the quality of wheeling infrastructure
12. Evidence people are satisfied with the quality of cycling infrastructure
13. Urban households connected to cycling routes
14. Rural households connected to cycling routes

Outcome: Walking, Cycling and Wheeling is Safer for All

15. Walking and wheeling casualties by distance travelled
16. Cycling casualties by distance travelled
17. Perceived safety while walking in relation to traffic
18. Perceived safety while wheeling in relation to traffic
19. Perceived safety while walking and wheeling in relation to non traffic factors
20. Perceived safety while cycling in relation to traffic
21. Perceived safety while cycling in relation to non traffic factors

Outcome: Delivery of Walking, Cycling, and Wheeling is Promoted and Supported by a Range of Partners

22. Distribution of projects proposed through ATIF Tier 2 funding
23. Investment in Active Travel (TS & Delivery Partners)
24. Proportion of primary schools delivering on-road cycle training

Outcome: Walking, Cycling and Wheeling is Available to All

25. Household access to a bicycle (with focus on regional and socioeconomic variation)
26. Perception of urban areas’ suitability for walking or wheeling
27. Perception of urban areas’ suitability for cycling