Walk Wheel Cycle Trust has launched a new tool to support Scottish decision makers in tackling transport poverty.
By mapping the areas in Scotland where walking, wheeling and cycling investment can have the biggest impact on people's lives, the charity hopes to help maximise the changes made with smaller investments.
The map identifies two types of areas:
- Those with high levels of income deprivation, but with the best existing conditions for walking, wheeling and cycling
- Those which have some of the worst existing conditions for walking, wheeling and cycling and where investment could be directed to address this inequality, or where specific dimensions of transport poverty need addressing.
The active travel charity used five key criteria, which contribute to transport poverty: affordability, availability, accessibility, safety, and reliability. By scoring each of these from one to five using data sources such as the Scottish Index for Multiple Deprivation and Scotland's census, an individual score for each criterion was generated for an area, along with an overall rating.
Areas with the highest overall score show where infrastructure allows active travel to alleviate transport poverty easily, meaning that behavioural change initiatives would have the most impact on these areas. Low-scoring areas are places with poor existing infrastructure and are therefore more likely to benefit from physical changes, the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust said.
As well as highlighting these areas and their scores, the tool also offers suggested actions that could guide decision makers towards the options that would be most effective for that location.
The tool is now live and can be accessed here.
