Decision details

The Active Travel Masterplan is a comprehensive plan that sets out the existing and future network of active travel infrastructure required to enable and provide for sustainable and healthy forms of transport, as well as addressing the climate emergency, reducing inequalities, improving air quality, tackling obesity and reducing traffic congestion across Bath and North East Somerset.

By implementing infrastructure improvements and behaviour change campaigns, the measures identified in the Active Travel Masterplan will improve the safety, accessibility, and attractiveness of active travel options, while contributing to a reduction in carbon emissions from vehicular transport and the health and wellbeing of residents through supporting them to change their travel habits.

To formally adopt the Active Travel Masterplan.

The Active Travel Masterplan, guided by a progressive vision and a set of ambitious objectives, seeks to transform our communities into well-connected, vibrant, healthy, and environmentally sustainable spaces, resilient to climate change. The vision for the Active Travel Masterplan is set out below:

“In our envisioned future, streets and pathways will be inviting and accessible, supporting an active lifestyle, reducing the need to travel by car and contributing towards carbon neutral mobility.”

By implementing infrastructure improvements and behaviour change campaigns, the measures identified in the Active Travel Masterplan will improve the safety, accessibility, and attractiveness of active travel options, while contributing to a reduction in carbon emissions from vehicular transport and the health and wellbeing of residents through supporting them to change their travel habits.

Given the Council’s commitment to addressing our climate emergency there is a need to make significant changes in the way people travel around B&NES including our city, towns and rural areas.

The alternative is to maintain the status quo in terms of travel habits which will likely result in higher dependency on private car ownership leading to higher transport emissions and the Council failing to deliver on its Climate Emergency commitment. It will also result in greater inequalities between those who have access to a private car and those who don’t.