Active Travel worth £36.5 billion to UK economy in 2021

Sustrans’ Walking and Cycling index has demonstrated the ongoing economic benefits of active travel to the UK economy, calculating walking, wheeling and cycling to be worth £36.5 billion.

The Walking and Cycling Index is the largest survey of active travel, undertaken across 18 urban areas in the UK and Ireland. The latest assessment of 17 of those areas tallies the benefit to the UK economy to be £6.5 billion in those places alone and extrapolates the findings to reach the larger nationwide estimate.

The positive externalities judged are things such as bringing down the cost of traffic congestion and running a car, improved health and reduced burden on the NHS, and fewer sick days at work. Physically active people take 27% fewer sick days each year than their colleagues, it was found.

National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Martin McTague, said: “To make the country healthier, reduce the reliance on energy and fuel and move towards Net Zero, new Ministers must look across the board at active travel. This should include infrastructure improvements and reforming schemes like Cycle To Work, so they operate as well for small employers and the self-employed as they do for larger firms.”

Added to these indirect benefits of active travel, it has been found that people who walk to the high street spend up to 40% more than those who drive in large part down to spending longer in town centres.

Prior reports from the Department of Transport, among other sources have reached similar conclusions on cycling’s positive impact on the UK economy, plus for individuals too, going as far as to illustrate how even house prices can rise in less congested and polluted neighbourhoods where active travel is made safer.

Xavier Brice, CEO of Sustrans, said: “It’s clear that active forms of travel, such as walking and cycling, bring in billions of pounds of economic benefit. Plus, as people are hit by the cost of living crisis, affordable ways of getting around are critical. People must have the opportunity to make the active travel choice instead of expensive car use, to boost people’s spending power for the benefit of the economy and our hopes of growth.”

With the findings Sustrans and a broader group of organisations have now issued a letter to the Government, echoing Cycling UK‘s this week, that urges protection of the £4 billion funding pot, earmarked to help ‘level up’ walking and cycling across the country.

The letter, signed by members of the Walking and Cycling Alliance, along with the AA motoring organisation; CPRE, the countryside charity; Brake; the Road Safety Foundation; the Urban Transport Group; and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), calls for protection of the cycling and walking budget, already committed in the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy 2022, to foster aspirations for growth and to support people living through the cost of living crisis.

Edmund King OBE, AA president added: “Every driver is a pedestrian and most cyclists are drivers, therefore it is in everyone’s interest to level up walking and cycling infrastructure. By creating new routes, as well as investing in existing paths and footways, we can create a safer, greener transport network that benefits all road users.

“Maintaining the £4bn budget for these projects will also help drivers save money on fuel or electricity. When we ask AA members what mobility modes they would consider to replace one or more car journeys per week, the top answer was bicycle (47%), followed by eBikes (41%).”

At the height of pandemic in 2020, the National Cycle Network alone carried 4.9 million users over 764.8 million trips, showing massive public reliance on walking and cycling infrastructure. This also plays a vital role in supporting the Government’s aim of 50% of all journeys in towns and cities walked or cycled by 2030, on the path to achieving Net Zero.

Xavier Brice concluded: “It is high time we to stopped pitting motoring against walking, wheeling and cycling and instead realise the benefits that long-term Government investment for active travel can have for economic growth and to support people on low incomes through the cost of living crisis.”