Active Travel Annual Report reveals behaviour change among residents with the number of trips on foot up from 28% to 31% in Greater Manchester
Over the past five years the number of people walking short journeys has increased from 52% to 57%, and the number of short journeys being taken by car is down from 41% to 36%.
Bee Network boosting improvements in active travel infrastructure and connections to public transport, with half of GM residents agreeing that the transport network encourages them to cycle or walk – up from 38% in 2023
117km of new bike lanes are now complete and are increasing bike trips with work underway to develop a joined-up, region-wide cycling network to ensure people feel safer while they ride
The Bee Network is having a positive impact on the number of people opting to walk short journeys, rather than travel by car.
The latest Active Travel Annual Report reveals a shift in people’s travel habits and that the Bee Network is starting to enable more people to walk or use public transport rather than drive.
Today members of the Bee Network Committee approved the findings of the Active Travel Annual report and endorsed the requirement for continued investment in the walking, wheeling and cycling network.
In the last five years, Greater Manchester has seen the proportion of people walking short journeys increase from 52% to 57%, while the proportion of short journeys being taken by car is down from 41% to 36%. It comes as Greater Manchester sets out its ambition to make 2025 the year that even more people leave the car at home and embrace public transport.
Walking, wheeling and cycling – also known as active travel – is an important part of the Bee Network and often the mode that links people’s journeys, such as walking or wheeling to the bus stop, tram stop or train station. In 2023, a third of all trips made by Greater Manchester residents in 2023 were made by people walking, wheeling or cycling.
Meanwhile, half of residents surveyed in 2024 agreed that Greater Manchester’s transport network encourages them to walk or cycle as part of their trips, marking a significant increase from 2023. This correlates to the ongoing work to improve crossings, footways and junctions across Greater Manchester.
The increase in walking mirrors an increase in public transport use, including an uptick of 5% on bus travel since the start of bus franchising in 2023 and record-breaking patronage on Bee Network trams last year.
Active Travel Commissioner Dame Sarah Storey said: “Our ambition is for the Bee Network to enable people to make more of their journeys by public transport, walking, wheeling or cycling. The latest Active Travel Annual Report reveals positive signs that this is starting to be the case as more people are choosing to walk rather than drive their shortest journeys.
“This annual report also gives us an opportunity to reflect on where things need greater focus and improvement, and today I was pleased the Bee Network Committee endorsed the report and approved the recommendations being made for future work.
“These include focusing more funding on walking to address the satisfaction issues picked up on in the report and enable better links to public transport journeys.
“Working alongside our partners in the local authorities the shared ambition remains that we build a fully-integrated and accessible public transport and active travel system that’s safe and well maintained so that people can benefit from a cost effective and convenient way to travel for every type of journey.”
The positive shift in behaviour change means that through simply walking more on short journeys even more people are accessing the health and well-being benefits that come with travelling actively.
It also supports Greater Manchester’s ambition for 50% of all journeys in Greater Manchester to be made by walking, cycling and public transport. This will mean one million more sustainable journeys every day contributing to a healthier, greener and more productive city-region.
Other milestones from the last year include the completion of a trial to allow bikes on trams and the Starling Bank Bike Hire scheme hitting one million journeys. While Starling Bank Bikes continue to increase people’s access to cycling, other community programmes are helping residents to connect through active travel, such as guided cycle rides and walking groups.
In the last year more than 65 community groups have helped more people to walk, wheel and cycle thanks to funding from the Cycle and Stride programme, and 23,694 school children in GM took part in the Bikeability cycle training programme, up from 18,990 in 2022-23.
In addition, 2024 saw Dame Sarah and GM Mayor Andy Burnham launch a new School Streets programme, with an ambition to increase the number of existing schemes from 30 to 100 in the next four years.*
Next steps
The Active Travel Annual Report sets out the next phase of priorities to enable even more people to walk, wheel and cycle as part of their day-to-day journeys.
In order to increase an uptake in cycling, TfGM will work with local authorities to continue to build a network of connected routes, known as a strategic cycle network.
The city-region will seek emulate the network of cycle ‘superhighways’ built in London, prioritising future active travel investment to create sections, link up or extend routes on the existing cycle network. This work will align with neighbourhood improvements that connect local communities to the rest of the Bee Network.
Richard Nickson, Active Travel Network Director at TfGM, said: “The rollout of high-quality active travel provision and infrastructure is at the core of the Bee Network vision and we can see how the Bee Network is already encouraging that shift to walking or cycling as part of their journeys.
“We now have more than 117km of Bee Network standard segregated routes in place and within the next two years we expect this to reach at least 160km. This is strong progress and I’m pleased that the number journeys being walked, wheeled or cycled continue to increase.
“At TfGM we will continue to work closely with our Active Travel Commissioner, the GM Mayor and the 10 local authorities to ensure we’re doing everything we can to enable people to travel actively as part of their day-to-day journeys.”
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