Have your say on the Scottish Government’s new cycling strategy

We have created a short guide to help you respond to the Scottish Government’s public consultation on its brand-new cycling strategy.

Our handy two-page guide provides analysis on the content of the strategy and 16 suggested recommendations which you can use, along with your own ideas, in your own personalised submission.

The draft Cycling Framework for Active Travel outlines the Scottish Government’s priorities for cycling up to 2030, and specifically aims to boost transport cycling (everyday cycling) for short local journeys.

Government failed to meet a target of increasing rates of cycling within its previous strategy, the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland, which ended in 2020.

The new strategic framework and delivery plan comes as the Scottish Government plans how it can most effectively spend the record amounts of money it has promised to allocate to cycling and active travel within the next few years.

According to its own commitment, by 2024-25 government spending on active travel will more than double to at least £320m per year - 10% of the transport budget.   

Cycling UK’s view of the new strategy is more positive than the previous incarnation, with its clear top priority to deliver more dedicated, accessible, high quality, safe cycling infrastructure, plus training and education.

Jim Densham, Cycling UK’s campaigns and policy manager in Scotland said:

"We applaud the Scottish Government for a producing a positive new strategy aimed at creating safe cycling infrastructure, and thereby removing the biggest barrier to everyday cycling.

"When government does a good job we think it’s right to paise their work, so we are encouraging our supporters to thank them for producing a strategy which aims to tackle the problem in the right way.

"That said, we also need the strategy and associated delivery plan to be effective – that’s why we are recommending a number of improvements that government can make to the draft document.

"We are especially keen for supporters to follow our guide and call for the following - the inclusion of a target for the creation of cycling infrastructure, strong guidance to local authorities for developing active travel strategies, and more specific actions to create the safe cycling network we need throughout Scotland."

The Scottish Government’s consultation page provides links to supporting documents and the online response form.

The consultation closes on 19 December 2022.