Fife Council is seeking input on the development of a new Active Travel Strategy and Action Plan for the region that will set out the long term vision for a high-quality network of routes that enable people to walk, wheel, and cycle more easily and safely in and around communities.

The network will be complemented by practical support and initiatives to encourage people to make more use of it.

Fifers are asked to provide their views on the Active Travel Strategy and Action Plan’s priorities and the draft network proposals via a survey, and by leaving comments on an interactive map. There will also be supporting face to face public engagement events held across Fife. To take part in the consultation, visit: www.fife.gov.uk/activetravel.

Walking, wheeling and cycling are the cheapest and most inclusive transport choices, and have minimal environmental impact. The Active Travel Strategy is a key action within Fife’s new Local Transport Strategy, which identifies four priorities to support its vision of 'fair, sustainable access for all’.

Active travel covers all people-powered transport, including walking, wheeling (such as wheelchairs, scooters, prams and buggies) and cycling. The vision is that the Active Travel Strategy will support more people to travel actively for everyday journeys and for leisure. The target is to increase the proportion of trips that are walked, cycled or wheeled to 30% by 2033- from a baseline of 23% in 2019.

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Fife Council is asking local people for their feedback on the proposed active travel strategy, so that the final recommendations reflect the views and priorities of Fife’s communities.

Local people are being asked to help share the active travel network and to help:

Get the right overall aspiration

Identify local barriers and opportunities

Determine the right links for the network map

Suggest which measures will encourage people to walk, wheel and cycle more

Councillor Altany Craik, Spokesperson for Finance, Economy & Strategic Planning, said:  “Our Active Travel Strategy and Action Plan will be highly ambitious. Improvements and increases in active travel will benefit our environment, our air quality and people’s physical and mental wellbeing. Wheeling is also a cheap and easy way to commute to work, travel to school or college, or pop to the local shops.

“We want local people to help keep us moving in the right direction. That’s why we want your views to shape a new active travel masterplan and why we’re asking as many  people as possible to take part in this consultation and let us know what they think."

Councillor Jan Wincott, Fife Council's Spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change, added: “Rebalancing the shift away from cars to more active travel is going to be fundamental in our pursuit of tackling climate change. To encourage more people to leave the car at home for short journeys we need to make walking, wheeling and cycling an attractive option by building safe, traffic free, routes where people can move around with confidence across Fife and in the right places.

"We have recently launched Climate Fife 2024 and enhancing active travel is a key part of our transition to Net Zero. This is the challenge of our lifetime and the more people who engage in this conversation and our consultations, the better our offer will become."

Through the Active Travel Strategy and Action Plan (ATSAP), Fife Council and its partners will invest to:

• Provide high quality and well-maintained routes for walking, wheeling and cycling

• Improve integration of active travel with other modes

• Enable more people to walk, wheel and cycle

• Encourage more people to walk, wheel and cycle

The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and closes on 25 February 2024.