Title: Best foot forward
Subtitle: How walking, wheeling, and cycling can help Scotland meet its climate targets
ߣߣÊÓƵ is the charity making it easier for people to walk and cycle. We connect people and places, create liveable neighbourhoods, transform the school run and deliver a happier, healthier commute.
The time for action on climate change is now, but emissions from transport – especially cars – remain stubbornly high. Active travel can change that.

We all know that choosing to walk and cycle can reduce carbon emissions. And it is already having an impact.
People who cycle take up to 42,000 cars off the roads every day across six Scottish cities. (reference 1)
Living car-free is the single biggest choice you can make to reduce your carbon footprint, saving over 2 tons of CO2 per year. (reference 2)

That’s a very good start, but we need to do more to reduce transport emissions, particularly from cars 
21% of the UK’s total GHG emissions came from road transport in 2017. (reference 3)
Road transport GHG emissions rose by 6% between 1990 and 2017, even as the UK’s overall emissions fell 32% over the same period. (reference 4)
In Scotland, cars are the source of 39% of transport emissions, and 58% of road emissions. (reference 5)

The switch to electric cars isn’t going far enough, fast enough, to tackle the climate emergency
Even if 100% of new sales were Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles (ULEVs) by 2030, car mileage would still need to be reduced by between 10% and 20% to meet the UK’s Fifth Carbon Budget. (reference 6) 
The average lifespan of a new car on sale today is 14 years (reference 7) – so without additional measures there will still be many fossil fuel cars on our roads throughout the 2030s. 

If more people can walk or cycle their regular short journeys we can save a lot more carbon
By cycling instead of driving for 1 trip daily, an adult can save 0.5 tons of CO2 emissions annually. (reference 8)
In combination with better public transport, prioritising walking and cycling would reduce overall transport carbon emissions by 12% by 2030. (reference 9)
That’s faster and cheaper than buying new electric cars, and also offers better public health and more pleasant places to live.

In Scotland 54% of journeys are under 5 km, (reference 10) roughly 3 miles. To reduce carbon, we need more of these trips to be undertaken on foot or by bike 
41% to 69% - the estimated proportion of trips of under 3 miles that people could walk or cycle. (reference 11)  
That means we need to make it easier for people to walk and cycle, and reduce the need for car journeys.

Making it easier to walk, wheel and cycle for short trips means:
* More space for people on major routes
o Wider pavements: giving more space for pedestrians, wheelchair users, queuing and physical distancing
o Segregated cycle routes: along key arterial corridors, connecting town centres, stations, and major areas of employment

* Quieter residential streets
o Modal filters: closing off through traffic whilst maintaining residential vehicle access, to reduce vehicle volumes and rat running
o Lower speed limits: slower vehicle speeds increase actual and perceived safety for people who are walking, wheeling, and cycling

By placing more of the everyday services we need within a 20 minute walk of people’s homes, we can reduce the need for longer car journeys, and also:
o create vibrant, healthy and prosperous communities that engage citizens.
o ensure vulnerable members of society can easily access vital services.
o put accessibility ahead of mobility, as home working becomes the new normal.

10 minutes there and 10 minutes back, to key local amenities:
o Shops - improving access to local businesses creates more vibrant local economies
o Schools - When the school run is dominated by active modes, the surrounding streets become safer.
o Health services - increasing active journeys to health services frees up parking spaces for those who need them the most.
o Green space - It’s never been clearer how important access to the outdoors is for our wellbeing

There are many other benefits associated with walking, wheeling, and cycling:
* Community resilience
o Dedicating more of our public space to green infrastructure makes our urban areas more resilient to extreme weather events such as flash flooding.
o Increasing access to services within walking distance improves the resilience of local economies, helping them better withstand economic and public health crises
* Health outcomes
o 34% of Scottish adults didn’t achieve the recommended weekly 150 minutes of physical activity in 2019. (reference 12)
o People who cycle to work lower their risk of cardiovascular disease by 46%, and of cancer by 45%. (reference 13)
* Reducing pressure on household finances
o Scottish households spent 11% of their weekly expenditure on purchasing and operating motor vehicles in 2019, (reference 14) and less than 1% on rail and bus fares. (reference 15) Car ownership is a particular financial burden on lower income households.
* Lowering inequalities
o 60% of the lowest income households don’t have access to a car, compared with 3% of the highest income households. (reference 16)
o Children are more than three times as likely to be injured by road traffic in the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland than in the 20% least deprived areas. (reference 17)
* Supporting town centres
o Well-designed improvements to the public realm have increased business turnover by an average of 17%. (reference 18)
o Retailers overestimate the importance of car access to their customers, and underestimate how many travel by active and public transport. (reference 19)
* Improvements to air quality
o Each year, outdoor air pollution causes 40,000 deaths in the UK. Children, older people, and people with underlying health conditions are particularly affected by this. (reference 20)
o Traffic pollution is the main contributor to poor air quality. (reference 21) Increasing walking, wheeling, and cycling will give us cleaner air.


A text version of this leaflet and full references are available online – search ‘ߣߣÊÓƵ Scotland best foot forward’.

References

1 ߣߣÊÓƵ (2018, 2019 [1]). Bike Life Edinburgh, Dundee, Inverness (2019), Glasgow, Perth, Stirling (2018) /bike-life/
2 Ivanova et al (2020). Quantifying the potential for climate change mitigation of consumption options. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8589 
3 ONS (2019 [1]). Road transport and air emissions, 2019. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/roadtransportandairemissions/2019-09-16
4 ONS (2019 [1]). Road transport and air emissions, 2019. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/roadtransportandairemissions/2019-09-16
5 Transport Scotland (2020). Carbon Account for Transport 2020, p11 https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/48199/sct07209535161.pdf 
6 Transport for Quality of Life (2018). More than electric cars. P18. https://www.transportforqualityoflife.com/u/files/1%20More%20than%20electric%20cars%20briefing.pdf
7 Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (2019). 2019 Automotive Sustainability Report. https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/sustainability/average-vehicle-age/
8 Brand et al (2021).  The climate change mitigation impacts of active travel: Evidence from a longitudinal panel study in seven European cities. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378021000030?dgcid=author 
9 Brand et al. (2018). Lifestyle, efficiency and limits: modelling transport energy and emissions using a socio-technical approach. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12053-018-9678-9
10 Transport Scotland (2020). Transport and Travel in Scotland 2019: Results from the Scottish Household Survey. https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/transport-and-travel-in-scotland-2019-results-from-the-scottish-household-survey/
11 Neves & Brand (2019). Assessing the potential for carbon emissions savings from replacing short car trips with walking and cycling using a mixed GPS-travel diary https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856417316117?via%3Dihub
12 Scottish Government (2020). Scottish Health Survey 2019. https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-health-survey-2019-volume-1-main-report/ 
13 Celis-Morales et al (2017). Association between active commuting and incident cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mortality: prospective cohort study. https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1456 
14 ONS (2019 [2]). Family spending in the UK 2018-19, expenditure per region, table A35 ((£24.00+£28.80)/£502.20=0.11) https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/expenditure/datasets/familyspendingworkbook3expenditurebyregion
15 ONS (2019 [2]). Family spending in the UK 2018-19, expenditure per region, table A35 ((£2.90+£1.60)/£502.20=0.01) https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/expenditure/datasets/familyspendingworkbook3expenditurebyregion
16 Transport Scotland (2020). Transport and Travel in Scotland 2019, Results from the Scottish Household Survey (p19). https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/48317/sct09201490081.pdf
17 ߣߣÊÓƵ (2019 [2]). Investing in cycling to tackle transport poverty and promote equity /our-blog/news/2019/may/children-in-scotland-s-poorest-areas-more-likely-to-be-injured-by-road-traffic/ 
18 Living Streets (2018). The Pedestrian Pound https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/3890/pedestrian-pound-2018.pdf
19 Living Streets (2018). The Pedestrian Pound https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/3890/pedestrian-pound-2018.pdf 
20 Royal College of Physicians (2016) Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution. Report of a working party. https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution 
21 Defra (2021). Causes of air pollution. https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/air-pollution/causes