More people walking, cycling and wheeling in Wales

Transport for Wales is on a mission to get more people walking, cycling and wheeling within Wales and has launched a promotional toolkit to help.

Recent statistics reveal that 58% of adults walked ten minutes and 6% cycled once a week or more to get somewhere in Wales. 78% of primary school children would prefer to travel actively to get to school – however 51% usually travelled by car.

To help boost these figures and encourage more to travel sustainably when they can, TfW has launched a promotional toolkit for local authorities, co-created with them.

Providing access to new promotional materials including over 500 images of people walking, wheeling and cycling in Wales, it aims to help local authorities promote routes within their area and encourage people to use them.

Research tells us that the imagery and language used to talk to people about walking and cycling is important. By depicting a diverse range of everyday cycling experiences, the toolkit aims to challenge people’s perception of who cycling is for and show that it’s easy and available for everyone.

It comes with ideas for key messaging that work with different groups and examples of campaign ideas that have proven to be effective, including case studies from other walking and cycling schemes in Wales.

Nicola Grima, Active Travel Delivery Programme Lead at Transport for Wales, said:

“Wales has great walking and cycling infrastructure. We want as many people as possible to make use of it. That’s why we’ve been working with local authorities to give them the tools to promote these routes to people in their communities.”

One case study included in the toolkit, looks at infrastructure introduced on the National Cycle Route 5 by Conwy County Borough Council funded by the Welsh Government.

Another highlights improvements made to the Gladstone and Cogan bridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, also funded by the Welsh Government.