The latest results from Northern Ireland's Walking and Cycling 2024/25 report have shown a fall in satisfaction with facilities in 2024/25.
In 2024/25, 61% of respondents to the Continuous Household Survey said that they were satisfied with walking facilities in their area, a decrease from 66% in 2023/24, and the joint lowest satisfaction level since 2017/18. There was also a decrease in satisfaction with cycling facilities, from 55% in 2023/24 to 48% in 2024/25.
Respondents were asked why they were unhappy with the current provisions for active travel. For the majority of people (69%), poor quality of footpaths was the main reason that they were dissatisfied with walking provisions, followed by footpaths being too cluttered and having too many cars parked on them (43%) and too much traffic (39%).
For cycling, most people were dissatisfied due to a lack of cycle paths (79%), followed by too much traffic (55%) and not feeling safe when cycling (32%).
There was no change in the percentage of people likely to cycle short journeys of up to 3 miles, with 16% saying they would in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, but there was a slight increase in the number of people likely to walk the same distance from 63% in 2023/24 to 64% in 2024/25.
The full report can be found here.
