Active Travel: evidence on interventions for increasing active travel for a purposeful journey

Next update: Update not planned

Contact for queries and feedback

Introduction

Active travel refers to walking or cycling for everyday journeys, either on its own or alongside public transport. Levels of active travel in Wales remain low compared with many European countries, even though increasing it is a national priority because it contributes to all seven of Wales’ well‑being goals.

We developed this topic evidence summary to identify which identify which interventions may help increase active travel in the general population. We also looked at interventions that may encourage people to shift from car use to walking, cycling, or public transport.

Main points

How up to date is this evidence?

We produced this topic evidence summary in September 2022 and included studies published in English from 1999 to 2019.

What we found

• We identified 87 primary studies for this topic evidence summary. We produced three separate evidence summaries covering interventions for the general population and community settings, school travel initiatives, and workplace travel initiatives.
• Across these studies, multicomponent initiatives delivered across towns or regions, and behavioural interventions using education or promotion, showed potential for increasing active travel in the general population.
• For school‑based interventions, the strongest evidence supported the walking school bus.
• In workplace settings, national media campaigns showed indications of effectiveness in workplace settings, although evidence came from only two Australian studies.
• Many included studies also measured additional outcomes, such as changes in overall physical activity. These findings are not summarised here but may help in exploring wider impacts such as reducing congestion, improving road safety, or increasing overall activity levels.

What this means?

• The evidence base varied by intervention and outcome, so findings should be treated as indicative rather than definitive.
• These topic evidence summaries are intended to support national and local decision‑making by giving a broad view of which interventions have been studied and where evidence appears promising. It may be used to initiate early conversations about services and programmes, highlight options that may be worth exploring locally, and flag approaches that current evidence suggests should be avoided for now.
• These topic evidence summaries are not designed tobe used on their own to allocate resources or make detailed comparisons between competing priorities. They do not provide detailed information on study quality, costs, or effect sizes, and they are not designed to offer locally tailored recommendations. They also do not aim to cover every possible intervention.

Technical information

This topic evidence summary draws on primary studies included in eight systematic reviews produced by reliable evidence sources and a top‑up search for studies published since 2016. For full details of the search, inclusion criteria, quality assessment, and synthesis, please refer to the main report.

We grouped interventions by setting, including the general population, schools, and workplaces. We used a simple traffic‑light key to indicate what the overall evidence suggests for each outcome: Green for interventions that may help, Yellow for those needing more research, and Red for those unlikely to help.

Glossary

Active travel: Walking or cycling for everyday journeys, sometimes combined with public transport.

Walking school bus or walking bus: Is a supervised, active travel initiative where groups of children walk to school along set routes with adult volunteers (parents or staff). It promotes daily physical activity, reduces traffic congestion and air pollution near schools, and fosters safe, independent travel habits. 

Primary study: An original research investigation where researchers collect and analyse data directly (for example, surveys, interviews, or experiments), rather than summarising other studies.

Stakeholders

Welsh Government