Active Travel Masterplan

Use this page to get an overview of our Active Travel Masterplan, which was formally adopted by Council Cabinet on 13 February 2025.

What Active Travel means

Active travel includes the following ways of getting around:

• On foot: walking, jogging or running
• By bike: cycles, e-bikes, e-cargo bikes and adapted cycles
• Wheeling: wheelchairs, mobility scooters, push scooters and skateboards, pushchairs
• Riding: horse or pony riding

Find out more from Active Travel England, the central government agency working nationally to enable and promote alternatives to relying on motor vehicles. 

Why Active Travel is important

Currently, over a third of car trips across Bath and North East Somerset are less than 5km. We need to make walking, wheeling and cycling, or ‘active travel’, the natural choice for a lot more of these shorter journeys. The Active Travel Masterplan brings together the many ways that we are doing this.

Select any section below to find out more about the objectives of the Masterplan.

Responding to the Climate Emergency

Our Active Travel Masterplan responds to the Climate Emergency by:

• reducing carbon emissions from transport across Bath and North East Somerset by reducing the number of motorised journeys made across the district, particulary for short journeys
• improving physical connectivity by identifying the active travel connections needed to link the places people live to where they work and access key facilities, including public transport for onward travel

Enhancing safety and accessibility

Our Active Travel Masterplan enhances safety and accessibility by:

• creating a holistic network of interconnected walking, wheeling, and cycling infrastructure that prioritises the safety of all users, regardless of age or ability
• improving the safety and the perceived safety of those travelling on foot, on cycles, and other non-motorised modes of transport through improved infrastructure design and public education

Promoting healthy lifestyles and wellbeing

Our Active Travel Masterplan promotes healthy lifestyles and wellbeing by:

• enabling greater physical activity by making active travel the most convenient, safe, and enjoyable choice for short daily trips leading to healthier, happier communities
• ensuring the provision of active travel options helps address:
  • physical and mental health and wellbeing
  • obesity rates
  • respiratory illness

Strengthening social equity and inclusivity

Our Active Travel Masterplan strengthens social equity and inclusivity by:

• ensuring that active travel is accessible to all, regardless of income, age, gender, or physical ability
• addressing historical disparities and enhancing social cohesion by investing in active travel infrastructure for underpriviliged and marginalised communities

Boosting economic prosperity and local businesses

Our Active Travel Masterplan stimulates economic growth by:

• making our high streets more attractive to those walking, wheeling, or cycling
• promoting economic growth through delivery of an active travel network that:
  • attracts tourism
  • enhances local businesses
  • generates employment opportunities within the community

How the Active Travel Masterplan will deliver change

Our Active Travel Plan aims to achieve the following:

• Identify roads and public spaces where we can make improvements to enable those people who can to move to more active travel habits
• Improve the safety, accessibility, and attractiveness of active travel options, by separating out facilities from motor traffic, where possible
• Keep roads clearer for people who have no other option but to drive
• Reduce carbon emissions from motor vehicles by reducing journeys, thereby improving air quality 
• Improve physical and mental health by supporting people to use more active ways of getting around

Our toolkit of measures

Select any section below to find out in more detail the tools we can use to deliver these achievements. 

Active travel facilities

Our toolkit of measures for Active Travel facilities includes:

• child-safe streets
• healthy streets
• elderly and active travel
• cycle routes, including:
  • Quick routes
  • Quiet routes
  • Community Connections

       Learn more about the different types of routes

• cycle parking/cycle hubs (urban and rural)
• secure cycle parking at school
• public bike repair stations
• e-bikes
• cycle hire and e-bike hire
• e-cargo bikes
• access for all
• disabled access
• disabled cyclists
• active travel and tourism in Bath and North East Somerset

Connectivity

Our toolkit for connectivity includes:

• multi-modal connectivity
• pedestrian and cycle links to public transport
• bikes on buses

Infrastructure

Our toolkit for infrastructure includes:

• reallocation of road space, rebalancing our streets and places for active travel
• road safety and traffic calming measures
• 20mph zones
• school streets
• safe routes to school
• maintenance
• wayfinding and signage

Behaviour change and education

Our toolkit for behaviour change and education includes:

• branding of walking and cycling network
• social prescriptions, including walking, wheeling, and cycling
• bikeability and adult cycle training
• campaigns to promote walking and cycling

Active Travel routes and infrastructure

The map below shows the routes and infrastructure across Bath and North East Somerset that we are planning to use our toolkit of measures on.

How we have developed this Masterplan

To find out more about the context and development of this Active Travel Masterplan, please refer to our previous policies and public consultations, below.

Consultations on this strategy

• Journey to Net Zero: January 2022
• Active Travel Masterplan: 2024

Related programmes and projects

• Creating Sustainable Communities consultations: 2024
• View a list of all of our previous consultations involving support for Active Travel.

View and comment on Active Travel Routes

The Active Travel Masterplan is a living document which we are continually reviewing and updating. Visit our View and comment on Active Travel routes page to examine all of the current routes and projects in detail on a map, and add your own feedback and suggestions. We will consider all submissions regularly, and update our strategy moving forward. 

View the documents