Impact evaluation

This section primarily draws on information gathered under the People & Place Monitoring and Evaluation Framework showing evidence of outputs and impact under key ‘themes’ and with reference to the Active Travel Framework (ATF). Transport Scotland provided the framework to help baseline and standardise data collection through surveys across the programme.

The programme ‘themes’ were created to help provide narrative structure to reporting and focus attention on key behavioural inflection points (i.e. times in people’s lives when they are most likely to form or change habits). There were three overarching behaviour change themes: ‘Schools and Young People’, ‘Workplaces’, and ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’, and an underpinning systemic theme: ‘Capacity and Capability’. The purpose of survey data collection was to evaluate the impact of the active travel interventions being delivered and demonstrate how they directly contribute towards the following selected ATF ‘Active Travel Outcomes’ and ‘Active Travel Outcome Indicators’:

Outcome 1 - Increase the number of people choosing walking, cycling and wheeling in Scotland. Indicators:

• Proportion of short everyday journeys by walking/wheeling and cycling.
• Attitudes towards/propensity to walking, cycling and wheeling.
• Proportion of journeys to school by walking, cycling and wheeling.
• Frequency of walking and cycling for pleasure / exercise.

Outcome 3: Walking, cycling and wheeling is safer for all. Indicator:

• Perceptions of safety of walking, wheeling and cycling.

Outcome 5: Walking, cycling and wheeling is available to all. Indicator:

• Proportion of people identifying barriers to walking, cycling and wheeling.

Depending on the project or activity, a range of other data collection methods were often appropriate (e.g. headcount data, focus groups, case studies, observation). M&E guidance focused on surveys to ensure there was a foundation of common principles and questions, and set out the minimum requirements for data gathering when using surveys. Within each of the three themes (Schools and Young People, Workplaces, Accessibility and Inclusion) Transport Scotland provided survey questions to ask to help RTPs demonstrate the impact of their intervention against the ATF outcomes and indicators.

P&P Theme: Schools and Young People

What is the ‘Schools and Young People’ theme?

This theme covers interventions focused in and around schools that deliver holistic solutions for creating an environment where active and sustainable travel choices are not only an option, but the most desirable way to travel for young people and families. It provides a relatively well-defined and targetable community for RTPs and LAs to focus on working with.

The theme is key both in terms of ‘place’, because schools collectively are one of the largest trip generators in Scotland (there were over 705,000 children attending school in Scotland in 2023 with about 50% of their journeys being made actively, which represents a considerable number of daily car trips), and also ‘people’, because there is strong evidence to show that social norms play a crucial role in behaviour change, and that helping children establish healthy travel behaviours should be a core activity of programmes seeking sustainable travel behaviours.

This theme supports interventions such as Living Streets’s Walk Once a Week challenge, for example, where participating schools have markedly higher rates of walking to school journeys compared with schools not engaged with the programme.

“Findings support this pathway: The Theory of Change for this theme posited that early interventions (e.g. cycle training, infrastructure, travel plans) would build confidence, increase active travel to school, and instil lifelong habits.

The emphasis on early intervention and environmental change is validated; however, long-term tracking of behaviour into adolescence and adulthood remains a gap that is beyond the scope of this particular evaluation to address.” – SEStran evaluation report, assessment of their theme-specific theory of change.

Schools and Young People – Selected numbers

Cross-RTP Results

‘Schools and Young People’ was a strong area of every RTP programme, reflecting both the range of very well-established projects and delivery partners already working in this space, and that the relatively structured nature of education settings present readily available opportunities around which to build interventions. Initiatives focused on increasing access to cycles, improving cycling confidence, installing light infrastructure (mainly cycle storage), and embedding behaviour change through education and engagement.

The evaluations collectively underscore the importance of early intervention, school-based engagement, and community partnerships in fostering long-term behaviour change. A common issue identified was practical difficulties associated with supporting projects across the academic year (mid-August to June) with a funding and delivery cycle tied to the financial year (April to March), which Transport Scotland sought to facilitate as far as possible within administrative constraints.

Tactran

Across their four clusters Tactran engaged delivery partners including Living Streets, CycleHub, Cycling Scotland, FEL, Recyke-a-Bike, and The Bike Station, and focused on three project areas:

• Promoting active travel within schools, including education and awareness campaigns on the benefits of active school travel which include incentivisation schemes and gamification projects;
• In school cycling training such as Bikeability, and;
• Providing cycle within schools, distributing new and refurbished cycles to children who may otherwise face barriers to cycling.

In general, they found it was not possible to carry out detailed comparative analysis of the schools data as there was a different sample group for the pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys, and a low response rate overall. Nevertheless, from the results that could be discerned, self-confidence in the ability to walk, wheel, and cycle increased by 77% where access to cycles was made available; with 64% increase related to active travel promotion activities. Rates of perceived safety also increased significantly, with 25% increase in parents’ confidence to allow children to walk, and 46% in allowing children to cycle.

HITRANS

HITRANS engaged National Delivery Partner Living Streets to continue the Walk Once a Week (WOW) programme and School Travel Tracker in schools across Moray and Highland, with a new school joining the programme in the Western Isles. They also made grants to partner local authorities and third sector organisations to deliver projects. Projects included:

• Living Streets WOW and Travel Tracker
• Outfit Moray Bike Revolution & Inclusive Cycling
• Moray Council: West End Primary School Cycle Parking
• Orkney Islands Council: Papdale Nursery January Walking Challenge

Common Initiatives included Bikeability training (Learn to Ride and Bikeability Level 1), Learn to Cycle sessions, school infrastructure like shelters, and walking challenges. HITRANS found that all of the projects were able to positively evidence some or all of the outcome indicators around proportion of journeys to school by walking, wheeling and cycling, perceptions of safety of walking, wheeling & cycling, and proportion of people identifying barriers to walking, cycling and wheeling.

ZetTrans

ZetTrans ran a small project with Rock Up & Ride that engaged with 12 young people in Shetland. Through the project they researched, identified, and learned valuable lessons around the practicality of delivery in Shetland that will lay the groundwork for future years. The project team partnered with the Active Mobility Hub in Strathclyde University to support the evaluation of the national Rock Up & Ride programme, with the participant feedback below taken from the final report for the project delivered in Shetland:

• “Their Cycling skills and knowledge improved,”
• “They enjoyed the skills sessions and coaching course,”
• “Their confidence in cycling on their own has increased.”
• “They are excited to further develop skills through RUAR and support their community using their new skills and knowledge”

SEStran

SEStran categorised 27 of their 93 projects as falling under the ‘Schools and Young People’ theme, accounting for around 44% of their total spend. They reported positive results right across outcome indicators with its projects. For example, 54% of participants said they were cycling more outside of school after the Kids Bike Life cycle training sessions.

FEL Scotland has since delivered an extensive programme of activities, events, and encouragement to try out different active modes, all linked to the school curriculum and Learning for Sustainability framework.

SPT

SPT’s projects delivered interventions that primarily offered cycling training for children and young people, increased families’ confidence in traveling actively to school, improved access to cycles, and encouraged children to walk to school.

A total of 16 projects were delivered by councils, Cycling Scotland, Living Streets, Paths for All, Sustrans, Scottish Cycling, and TravelKnowHow. Collectively these projects engaged 385 schools, reached 70,133 children, provided 1,332 new or refurbished cycles, installed 44 cycle shelters, or secure cycle parking facilities, delivered cycle training sessions to 1,927 people, and organised 803 led rides.

Two key areas of work facilitated or delivered through councils were “gamification” activities such as Beat the Street, and also “access to cycles”. East Dunbartonshire Council were awarded £50,000 to purchase 156 cycles for primary and secondary schools, requested for Bikeability and Sustrans I Bike training. The schools can now integrate cycle maintenance, road safety, and environmental education into the curriculum.

SWestrans

SWestrans highlighted a positive of the programme was that it created opportunity for detailed discussion with Dumfries and Galloway Council’s education team leading on Bikeability, allowing them to align programmes more closely and create a new streamlined single point of contact for all interventions working with schools. They emphasise how this helped overcome the problem of schools being “overloaded” by approaches from multiple external organisations, uncertain what to prioritise or what was aligned with existing Local Authority support – creating a single point of contact.

SWestrans projects included Sustrans IBike work and Scottish Cycling’s Rock up and Ride work, delivering intervention across schools and communities, supporting social prescribing, community projects, infrastructure development, adaptive cycles and free cycles and accessories.

Nestrans

Nestrans work with delivery partners including Sustrans Cycling Scotland, Live Life Aberdeenshire, Adventure Aberdeen, and Huntly Development Trust. They supported the continued funding of Sustrans’ I Bike Schools for both Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. A total of 371 I Bike activities were logged in 33 schools. These activities had a total of 10,023 pupil attendances, 697 school staff attendances, and were supported by 133 volunteer attendances. Cycling Scotland through its Access to Bikes for Young People engaged with 45 schools, with Sustrans supporting children and young people in 21 Schools.

P&P Theme: Workplaces

What is the ‘Workplaces’ theme?

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

The theme is key because places of work are significant trip generators, with the latest statistics showing ‘Commuting’ as the second most frequent reason for personal travel, at 21% just after ‘Shopping’ at 23% (Transport and Travel in Scotland 2022). There is a strong societal drive to get the private sector to do more to take climate action (businesses taking responsibility for their Scope 3 emissions, for example) and protect the wellbeing of their employees.

This theme supports interventions such as workplace travel planning that enable businesses to do that. The UK Department for Transport’s research found that even basic Travel Plans can reduce driver-only car journeys to work by 3% to 5%, and Travel Plans with large public transport fare discounts and car parking measures could achieve 15-30% reductions or more.

“Findings partially support this: This Theory of Change assumed that workplace-focused interventions (e.g. travel plans, infrastructure, campaigns) would shift commuting behaviours and embed active travel in organisational culture.

However, limited quantitative data from workplace projects constrained the ability to fully test the Theory of Change. Many of these projects, such as workplace travel plans, were still in development and impact data was not yet in a usable form for meaningful analysis. Future evaluations should prioritise baseline and follow-up data collection in this theme.” – SEStran evaluation report, assessment of their theme-specific theory of change.

Workplaces – Selected numbers

Cross-RTP Results

Across regions, ‘workplace’ interventions included things such as cycle parking, pool bikes, Dr Bike sessions, travel planning, and ‘walking challenges’. Although there were notable successes, in some regions workplaces proved a more challenging theme to engage with, particularly when reaching out to the private sector. While in some cases there was limited ability to assess impact, in other cases reported outcomes included increased cycling confidence, improved perceptions of safety, and modest modal shifts from car to active travel.

Reporting highlighting the importance of workplace culture in enabling change, and the effectiveness of initiatives such as workplace travel planning, peer-led walking groups and the value of pairing infrastructure with engagement. Overall, the theme showed that practical support, visible leadership, and tailored engagement are essential to embedding active travel in workplace settings and achieving long-term modal shift.

Tactran

With a strong focus on cycling (access to cycles and confidence building and cycle parking and storage), Tactran saw significant intersection between the ‘workplace’ and ‘accessibility and inclusion’ themes, with workplaces providing opportunities for delivery partners to engage with people facing barriers to cycling due to costs or wider life challenges, and those wanting to learn to ride or build confidence for on-road cycling.

HITRANS

Making use of their in-house team, HITRANS made grants for cycle parking provision at workplaces and Dr Bike sessions, offered a Sustainable Travel Grant to employers in Highland, and engaged Travelknowhow to carry out workplace engagement and travel planning at three large employers in Highland as part of the national programme.

HITRANS’ experiences reiterated that while practical support (e.g. cycle shelters, repairs) helped increase access and reduce barriers, infrastructure alone is not sufficient, and pairing this with engagement and incentives was key to increasing levels of walking, wheeling and cycling. Dr Bike sessions in particular provided tangible benefits with minimal investment and were highly valued by staff, while travel planning highlighted barriers and supported targeted behaviour change efforts.

ZetTrans

ZetTrans’ funded Paths for All to deliver a programme focused on supporting employees to walk more during the working day (e.g. through walking meetings, taking regular desk breaks, etc.), promoting the benefits of walking and being outdoors, and connecting with teammates either in person, or virtually. It included the Step Count Challenge open to people to register in teams to compete on steps taken. Positive feedback suggested improved health, wellbeing and social outcomes.

It was also interesting to note a piece of feedback received through ZetTrans’s separate Connecting Communities project that provided e-cycle loans, which highlights the interconnectedness of the themes, in this case ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’:

“It made me more secure for my job knowing that I won't be late because I have a cycle to use.” – e-cycle loan and cycling activities participant.

SEStran

SEStran categorised 10 of their 93 projects as falling under the ‘Workplaces’ theme, accounting for around 5% of their total spend. While stressing that these projects were mostly small in scale, provided limited data, and formed a relatively minor part of the overall programme, generally they highlighted positive outcomes in workplaces through the gamification of activity through the Step Count Challenge.

SEStran also noted observing positive sustained behaviour changes in workplaces, where initiatives like walking groups and step count challenges have become self-sustaining, with staff organising activities independently via platforms like Microsoft Teams.

SPT

SPT delivered seven projects under this theme, including interventions that provided access to fleets of cycles in workplaces, training and travel planning for employees to support a modal shift, incentivised active travel through workplace challenges and gamification, and implemented infrastructure such as active travel hubs.

From a broad range of projects, highlights included North Ayrshire Council’s Travel Smart Programme reporting 50% increase in respondents who would walk for journeys under 5 miles, 40% increase in respondents who are quite likely to consider active travel as a means of transport, and a 16% decrease in respondents travelling to work by driving.

SWestrans

SWestrans found that given the nature of Dumfries and Galloway, there were few large-scale employers outwith the public sector, putting a limit on possible engagement.

Paths for All delivered the majority of SWestrans’ work around this theme, but the initialisation of their workplace walking programmes were significantly delayed by the overall shift in funding model as new arrangements were established. Nevertheless, they ran impactful projects with the University of West Scotland (UWS), the NHS, D&G College, and Police Scotland (see cases study below), which resulted in 423 staff being actively engaged.

Cycling Scotland’s Cycle Friendly Programme was also supported to provide the Oasis Youth Centre with a secure store for 10 cycles (including a maintenance stand and pump) for the 40 staff and service users who cycle regularly to the centre.

Nestrans

Similarly to SWestrans, Paths for All and Cycling Scotland were Nestrans’ main chosen delivery partners for workplace engagement. The focus of Paths for All was delivering two bespoke Step Count Challenges for NHS Grampian (who they supported to achieve a ‘Walk at Work Award’) and Aberdeen City Council, alongside organising and leading lunchtime walks with three workplaces, and undertaking walking route mapping.

12 lunchtime walks were carried out with a total of 63 participants, whilst the Step Count Challenge had 2,223 participants across workplaces. Cycling Scotland conducted 10 initiatives in workplaces, with a wide range of beneficiary groups, increase in cycle parking which in turn resulted in an increased confidence amongst people in being able to cycle to their workplace.

P&P Theme: Accessibility and Inclusion

What is the ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’ theme?

This theme covers interventions focused on supporting accessibility and inclusion and creating opportunities for everyone to make the choice to travel actively and sustainably. Evidence shows that there are a large number of underrepresented groups in Scotland who do not participate in active travel. Barriers often include cost, social perception, culture, health, ability, and geographical location.

The theme is key because the government has a moral and legal duty to ensure that people with different abilities, or people without the knowledge or skills, are not left out of the drive to promote walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday journeys.

This theme supports a range of interventions such as continuing to provide access to cycles (and adaptive cycles) for young people who cannot afford them, building on the legacy of Transport Scotland’s national pilots and connecting strongly with the government’s priority of eradicating child poverty, which a number of RTPs are continuing to mainstream into their programmes.

“Findings strongly validate this theory of change: This Theory of Change focused on reducing barriers to active travel for underrepresented groups through targeted infrastructure, equipment, and engagement.

This theme had the most comprehensive data and demonstrated the clearest causal links between interventions and outcomes, affirming the Theory of Change’s structure and assumptions.” – SEStran evaluation report, assessment of their theme-specific theory of change.

Accessibility and Inclusion – Selected numbers

Cross-RTP Results

Projects across regions provided interventions such as inclusive cycling initiatives, refurbished cycles, adaptive cycles, and confidence-building training to people with disabilities, low-income households, and ethnic minorities. Participants reported improved confidence and perceptions of safety, as well as positive health outcomes.

Across all regions, projects improved confidence, mobility, and social inclusion, Overall, the theme demonstrated that targeted, inclusive interventions can significantly increase active travel participation and support wider goals around equity, health, and environmental sustainability.

Tactran

As covered in the previous section, Tactran saw significant intersection between the ‘workplace’ and ‘accessibility and inclusion’ themes, with organisations including FEL, the Bike Station, and Recyke-a-Bike also working to provide access to new and refurbished cycles and cycling skills to people in communities facing barriers due to costs or wider life challenges, and those wanting to build confidence for on-road cycling.

Tactran also engaged Arup to develop eight ‘Urban Trails’, designed to be fun, 2 to 3km signed and themed routes that encourage walking, wheeling and cycling for local journeys, including 'trail zones' (for example play spaces, pocket parks or art installations) which repurpose unused space to create a collective theme on the route. The trail development focused on accessibility and inclusion improvements, for example surfacing improvements, upgrades to crossings or improved signage.

Tactran’s analysis showed that their programme overall had significant uptake in deprived areas (SIMD deciles 1-2), reflected in the proportion of participants (41%) with an annual household income of less than £10,000, indicating success in reaching people from disadvantaged backgrounds. 38% of respondents also indicated they had a physical or mental health condition that affected their ability to carry out everyday activities to a degree (‘a little’ or ‘a lot’), indicating good uptake among this group.

HITRANS

HITRANS funded several community-based initiatives to deliver a range of activities including access to cycles, Dr Bike sessions, trials, taster sessions and confidence building. They also funded Cycling UK to deliver Connecting Communities / Bothy projects in Moray, Dunoon and Caithness. They were able to continue operating the HI-BIKE on-street electric cycle share scheme, through which they have started to pilot an Inclusive Cycling Membership which enables subscribers to access a non-standard or adapted cycle on loan for 2 to 12 months.

ZetTrans

Under this theme ZetTrans also engaged Cycling UK to run ‘Connecting Communities’ activity in Shetland, delivering a wide range of walking, wheeling and cycling activities in communities where other support is absent, focused on places active travel infrastructure is being developed, and including those that are underserved or underrepresented due to financial exclusion, culture, health conditions, and disability. They also supported the Cycle Access Fund, Cycling UK’s grant fund that enables organisations to support access to cycles in their community.

SEStran

SEStran categorised 46 of their 93 projects as falling under the ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’ theme, accounting for around 44% of their total spend. These 46 projects covered a wide variety of work focused on targeted delivery of active travel equipment and infrastructure in deprived areas, accessibility audits, active travel promotional campaigns, and support packages (including financial) for individuals to access active travel.

Projects such as the City of Edinburgh Council’s Partnership with Thistle Outdoors provide access to adapted cycles as well as training and support. Other kinds of support under this theme included adult cycle training, cycle maintenance workshops, led walks and cycles, and a variety of other walking, wheeling and cycling activities.

Interviews with project leads suggested that these projects often had a deep impact on the individuals and communities they target, increasing confidence to travel independently and providing an opportunity for socialising. The data analysed also suggested that such projects contribute to reducing transport poverty and reducing reliance on car usage.

SPT

SPT noted that a high volume of projects aligned with this theme, many of which were existing projects that were then built on through the People & Place programme. SPT categorised 20 projects specifically under this theme, including interventions such as:

• Providing access to cycles for groups facing barriers related to physical accessibility.
• Offering cycle training, cycle confidence sessions, and group cycling events focused on inclusion.
• Repairing and refurbishing cycles to improve affordability of active travel.
• Providing cycle loans and subsidised access to cycle subscriptions.
• Organised walking events.

Collectively SPT supported delivery which positively impacted 23,341 people. This included delivering cycling training to 3,286 individuals through 90 cycle training sessions, providing 2,150 new or refurbished cycles, delivering 553 walking activities, and 567 cycling activities.

SWestrans

Similarly to other RTPs, SWestrans found ‘accessibility and inclusion’ to be a theme running through several, if not most, projects, rather than necessarily capturing standalone activity.

Examples highlighted included the Rock Up & Ride cycling project working over three programme strands: Children, Communities, and Adaptive Bikes, focused on reducing barriers to cycling activity and improving access to cycles, predominantly for children and underrepresented groups. Eligible participants in the Children strand were gifted a free cycle and accessories after completing a block of sessions. Cycling Scotland’s Cycle Friendly Programme in the region also provided 54 cycles (including locks helmets and lights) to young people who would otherwise not have access to a cycle. Many of the young people reached were identified by community workers as vulnerable or disadvantaged in terms of affordability to own a cycle.

Nestrans

Nestrans categorised 14 of 28 broadly grouped activities as falling under the ‘accessibility and inclusion’ theme, accounting for around £1.1m of the approximately £1.7m budget. Highlights from across this range of activities included Cycling Scotland providing 104 young people with access to a cycle, Cycling UK’s Cycle Access Fund providing a further 40 people with access to a cycle, and Camphill School Aberdeen and Grampian Inclusive Cycling Bothies both expanding inclusive cycling work. Transport integration also featured strongly, with 26 new cycle racks installed on buses operated by Stagecoach serving two key routes, and 50 new covers to allow cycles to be carried on other routes where the buses do not have the cycle racks.