We need bigger, broader and braver. CWIS3 – Living Streets’ thoughts
Yesterday (15 December) marked the close of the Department of Transport’s (DfT) consultation on their Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) 3.
Tanya Braun, our Director of External Affairs shares our views on the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
Since 2015, the DfT has been required by law to create a CWIS which typically spans five years. Every time, it’s been released late, so this one, although not yet published, technically covers 2025-30. The idea was to put investment in active travel on the same footing as funding for roads, moving from stop-start to a long-term framework, ultimately increasing the number of people walking, wheeling and cycling.
There is a lot to be celebrated about the idea of the strategy. Less so, in the vision of this version’s proposed CWIS and the strategic backdrop behind it – to put it on that level footing of roads funding.
The third edition’s proposed vision says it wants walking, wheeling and cycling to be a safe, easy and accessible option for everyone – allowing people to embed the economic, health and environmental benefits of active travel into their daily life if they choose.
Living Streets believes this proposed Government vision is too passive and lacking political ambition to truly make walking and wheeling safe, easy and accessible for everyone.
"We want the vision to make it clear that active travel is a government priority and that it is accountable for supporting more people to walk and wheel. The published version for consultation is lacking in this area."
Making walked or wheeled journeys the obvious choice
The UK Government hasn’t met the targets set in the previous Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2). So we think it would be more appropriate to have a longer, ambitious, detailed and well-thought-out strategy and plan that runs to 2050.
We’d like the vision to include making walked or wheeled journeys the obvious choice for short journeys for everyone. The government should be assertive about the benefits of these modes and really inspire and enable everyone to choose active travel first.
We want the vision to make it clear that active travel is a government priority and that it is accountable for supporting more people to walk and wheel. The published version for consultation is lacking in this area.
How to achieve the vision
The consultation shows no evidence of a theory of change attached to the CWIS3. While safety and ease of choosing active travel are important, what do these definitions mean? We know they will look different for different people in different communities - there is also no mention of the target audience/s in the CWIS3 consultation.
A lot of the performance measurements mentioned in the consultation refer to national statistics, when the government will also need to review regional perceptions and results too.
Living Streets believes that we must make private vehicle travel the ‘harder choice’. We believe that to make walking a safer and easier choice, friction needs to be introduced into the system to make car journeys less attractive. If car journeys remain as easy as they currently are even with investment in the proposed measures, then it is difficult to see how things will change. Public transport infrastructure changes need to be prioritised to support this too. For CWIS ambitions to ever be achieved, the government will need to adopt this into their strategic plans.
Go deeper with data
Without seeing specific targets in this consultation, it’s very hard to define whether the approach is ambitious. For example, we need to ensure key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect quality of experience for active journeys, not just quantity of trips. Another troubling aspect is that not all of KPIs tie into the vision – around accessibility particularly.
- Some of the measures of success we’d like to be considered are:
Walking/wheeling and cycling targets should be separated, as to reflect their specific requirements and conditions - In addition to the 150 minutes of active travel per week, we would extend this to also include 60 minutes of active travel per day for children
- We want to see the Walk to School target at 60%. This is worked out if all journeys under one mile were walked and 30% of 1–2-mile school journeys were walked. Living Streets called for this during our 2024 General Election campaign manifesto
Things still aren’t clear as to the investment that is going to sit behind this proposed CWIS. In June, the UK Government committed £616 million in capital funding to Active Travel England across 2026-2030, with local authorities also able to support active travel infrastructure investment through ‘non-ringfenced’ schemes: Transport for City Regions fund, Local Transport Grants, Strategic and local roads and funds to improve and maintain bus services. However, this investment portfolio excludes revenue funding streams, such as funds the UK Government provides to Living Streets to deliver our WOW – walk to school challenge. And there has still been no announcement as to the funding levels for revenue-specific schemes.
CWIS3, as well as the UK Government’s upcoming Integrated National Transport Strategy and Road Safety Strategy are core pillars that have the potential to revolutionise the way we make everyday journeys in England.
We know that embedding a culture of active journeys goes beyond transport. Walking and wheeling shapes community connection, boosts public health and revitalises local economies. Only with a transformative vision and political boldness will be realise the potential of active travel to change our lives. Delivering an ambitious vision in CWIS3 sets us out for the ambitious delivery required to make this happen.
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