National

Walking and cycling are good for our physical and mental health. Switching more journeys to active travel will improve health, quality of life and the environment, and local productivity, while at the same time reducing costs to the public purse. These are substantial ‘win-wins’ that benefit individual people and the community as a whole.

This document explains how facilities for walking should be designed, following on from how they are planned, which is covered in “Planning for Walking”. Well-designed facilities that follow desire lines, are clutter-free, and are legible to all users will assist in enabling walking journeys and improve the experience of those already walking. The design of facilities should also consider the volumes of people walking along (actual or desired) or crossing streets, and the solutions will depend on a variety of considerations.

In low-cycling countries, cycling is not evenly distributed across genders and age groups. In the UK, men are twice as likely as women to cycle to work and cycling tends to be dominated by younger adults. By contrast, in higher cycling countries and cities, gender differences are low, absent, or in the opposite direction. Such places also lack the UK’s steady decline in cycling among those aged over 35 years. Over the past fifteen years some UK local areas have seen increases in cycling.

Research on cycle infrastructure preferences generally suggests a preference for off-road cycle infrastructure and segregation from motor traffic, among both existing cyclists and non-cyclists. However, studies have so far not explored how the presence of children might shape adults’ attitudes to cycle infrastructure. Similarly, studies on the determinants of child cycling have not as yet looked in depth at the impact of parental attitudes to specific infrastructure types.

Research that shows Bikeability training does give children more confidence to negotiate roads, but doesn't appear to lead to any increase in cycling frequency among children.