Services

Argyll and Bute’s Active Travel Strategy Consultation

Why a strategy is important

An Active Travel Strategy will help us:

  • Work efficiently: Ensure improvements support residents and the local economy, and create a high-quality network that connects communities.
  • Promote sustainability: Reduce traffic and emissions by encouraging walking, cycling, and wheeling.
  • Support economic growth: Improve access to jobs, services, and amenities—making areas more attractive to businesses, visitors, and residents.
  • Ensure fairness: Make transport options accessible to everyone, including vulnerable groups.
  • Improve public health: Encourage physical activity and support mental health.
  • Enhanced safety: Improve infrastructure to reduce accidents, increase resilience to severe weather, and support community wellbeing.
  • Climate Change: Reduce air pollution.
1. Are you responding as:
eg. G84 8 
4. How many vehicles do you have in your household?
5. How many bicycles do you have in your household?

6. Vision for active travel in Argyll and Bute:

“Argyll and Bute Council’s vision is that active travel will lead the way as the easiest, safest, and smartest choice for everyday journeys—uniting vibrant communities, boosting economic growth, and driving healthier, greener futures.”

7. Benefits of an Active Travel Strategy:

  • Work efficiently: Ensure improvements support residents and the local economy, and create a high-quality network that connects communities.
  • Promote sustainability: Reduce traffic and emissions by encouraging walking, cycling, and wheeling.
  • Support economic growth: Improve access to jobs, services, and amenities—making areas more attractive to businesses, visitors, and residents.
  • Ensure fairness: Make transport options accessible to everyone, including vulnerable groups.
  • Improve public health: Encourage physical activity and support mental health.
  • Enhanced safety: Improve infrastructure to reduce accidents, increase resilience to severe weather, and support community wellbeing.
  • Climate Change: Reduce air pollution.
The Draft Strategy
8. The draft strategy identifies strategic objectives for developing active travel in Argyll and Bute. These are listed below. Do you agree with the strategic objectives identified?
  • Increase the number of people walking, wheeling and cycling for daily trips, such as commuting, shopping, and leisure.
  • Enhance infrastructure to make walking, wheeling and cycling more attractive, safer and convenient for all users, including people with disabilities.
  • Encourage greater physical activity to improve public health by reducing sedentary lifestyles and promoting the mental and physical health benefits of active travel.
  • Promote the integration of active travel with public transport systems to encourage multi-modal travel.
  • Improve safety and perceptions to make active travel inclusive and accessible for all members of the community, including younger and older people and people with disabilities.
  • Ensure that active travel options are accessible to people of all socio-economic backgrounds.
  • Decrease reliance on cars and reduce overall traffic emissions, contributing to better air quality and meeting climate goals.
  • Engage with local communities to understand their needs and encourage active travel behaviours.
  • Provide training and experience to encourage and enable individuals to choose to travel more actively.
  • Leverage active travel to support local economies by promoting footfall and cycling traffic in urban and rural scenic areas.
    Continuously assess and adapt the active travel strategy to ensure that it meets its goals and evolves with changing needs.
Strengths, opportunities and challenges
10. The draft strategy identifies key strengths for developing active travel in in Argyll and Bute. These are listed below. Do you agree with the strengths identified?
  • Working successfully with groups in the community to deliver active travel projects.
  • Interest from some local communities to deliver community-led projects.
  • Working with colleagues to deliver the Scottish Government’s requirement for 20 mph limit in Argyll and Bute’s settlements creates safer streets for active travel.
  • Green areas and open spaces within walkable distances are part of the assets that will enable more active travel.
  • A range of new infrastructure being implemented throughout the area to facilitate everyday journeys and leisure. 
11. The draft strategy identifies opportunities for developing active travel in Argyll and Bute. These are listed below. Do you agree with the opportunities listed in the strategy for developing active travel?
  • Our natural landscape and geography present opportunities for active tourism and wider initiatives in the west of Scotland.
  • The Scottish Government policies support active travel and have committed funding for active travel in national budgets.
  • Increased interest from Transport Scotland in enabling active travel on trunk roads.
  • As census data shows, the majority of travel for work in Argyll and Bute is within the Argyll and Bute local authority area and we have one of the shortest commute distances in Scotland.
  • Cross departmental working and collaborations with roads and infrastructure, economic development, education and communities can be used to maximise the wider benefits of active travel funding secured.
  • Developing partnership working with other organisations including NHS, Health and Social Care Partnership and Public Health Scotland.
  • Integration of active travel with public transport, including travel to/from interchanges and bus stops, bikes on public transport, and coordination with public transport operators.  
12. The draft strategy identifies challenges for developing active travel in Argyll and Bute. These are listed below. Do you agree with the challenges identified in the draft strategy for developing active travel?
  • Longer distances and terrain in rural area, with inter-settlement distances often greater than ideal for active travel.
  • Connections to islands not always aligned to best public or active travel locations.  Reliability of island connections is an ongoing problem.
  • Higher costs of construction and maintenance of infrastructure and path networks in such an extensive area, including additional costs of delivery of islands.
  • Historic street layouts resulting in limited space, between building lines with multiple modes required to be accommodated within the limited space.
  • Demographic trends, with an ageing population and young people leaving the area.
  • Income deprivation and inequalities in access to active travel equipment and facilities.
  • Joining up all the current and ongoing initiatives when there are so many interested and involved parties.
  • Climate change impacts of rising sea levels, fluvial flooding and increased likelihood of extreme weather events. 
Specify the area of Argyll and Bute this relates to, if appropriate.
Policy - Encouraging walking, wheeling and cycling

Everyday journeys might include trips to work, education, shops, services, social or leisure activities.

You can think about:

  • your local area (for example, your town or village), and/or

  • specific routes or journeys you use or would like to use.

    You may wish to tell us about safety, comfort, confidence, cost, access, route quality, public transport connections, or anything else that influences your travel choices.

15. What best describes the issues you mentioned above?
Tick all that apply.
16. What do you see as the most important active travel infrastructure criteria/options? Please rank in order of priority, 1 being the highest priority Weight
Safety Improvements
Increasing Demand and Usage Potential
Equity and Accessibility
Health and Environmental Benefits
Feasibility and Cost-Effectiveness
Integration with Existing Networks
Community Support and Engagement
Long-Term Impact and Sustainability
Quick Wins -schemes which can be rapidly actioned
Long-Term Projects

Active travel delivery plan

Active travel funding is ring-fenced by the Scottish Government and cannot be used for other activities. 

Please specify which area in Argyll and Bute your suggestion relates to.

Monitoring
To know how well individual projects and the Active Travel Strategy as a whole are achieving their planned effects, it is necessary to monitor how each is progressing towards the planned effects. 

Which monitoring options do you feel would be most effective in your area? Please rank in order of preference, 1 being the highest Weight
Automated Counters
Mobile App & GPS Data
Manual Counts
Video Analytics
Surveys & Community Engagement
Are you willing to answer some demographic questions?
Demographic information
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