Active Travel in South Yorkshire

Every walk, wheel or cycle starts at someone’s front door

We want every neighbourhood across South Yorkshire to feel safe, welcoming and fun for a three-year-old to learn to ride their balance bike on the pavement; for an older person to use their mobility scooter to get to the local shops; and for a parent or carer to walk their child to school. 

 We are busy building all the ‘hardware’ that people need to walk, wheel and cycle more in their neighbourhoods like good ways to cross the road; safe places to cycle and good pavements for wheelchairs.  

 We’re also supporting ‘software’ projects that help people feel confident being active, that benefit physical and mental health - like helping children with bike and scooter training, community walking groups and our mobile active travel hubs. 

Schools at the heart of our neighbourhoods

• Our local councils work hard to support schools and we’re working together to introduce School Streets - making the roads and streets around schools safer and more fun to use, transforming the school run.  
• We’re putting travel plans and ‘software’ projects in place that help families choose to walk, wheel or cycle to school.  
• We’re making sure that journeys to school are a priority in neighbourhood ‘hardware’ schemes, through building better crossings, bike lanes and safer speed limits.
• Our Year of Active Travel included the Mayor’s Walk and Wheel Challenge - 78 primary schools took part in a 10-day activity to encourage every child choose to walk, scoot or bike to school. 

Through our investment, we’re building a network of key 'hardware routes' to connect people with opportunities in town or city centres, to places of work and education, and to bus, tram and train journeys. And we’re supporting 'software' projects in the community that help residents and workers to walk, wheel and cycle to where they need to be.   

We're connecting people with town and city centres

• Barnsley’s traffic-free Tommy Taylor Memorial bridge into the town centre 
• Doncaster’s tree-lined segregated cycle path between Thorne Road and South Parade  
• Rotherham’s innovative Broom Road cycling scheme connecting the town’s south-east and centre  
• Sheffield’s transformative walking, wheeling and cycling routes into and around the city centre 

We're connecting people to jobs and education 

• Porter’s Bridge in Doncaster offers new connections between Rossington and iPort. 
• Sheffield Road Cycleways scheme in Rotherham is part of regeneration bringing better transport links, more jobs and housing to the area. 
• The Modeshift for Business partnership helps NHS employees travel to 60 healthcare settings in Sheffield.
• Our shared e-bike loan fleet across the region is one of the biggest in the country - we’ve provided over 130 additional e-bikes to local authority cycle schemes and half a million pounds to help people to use them.
• Active Travel Hubs in South Yorkshire are helping thousands of people to walk, wheel and cycle more through bike loans, maintenance checks, led trips and travel planning.

We're linking up neighbourhoods

• South Yorkshire By Bike highlighted the traffic-free paths, segregated cycle lanes, quiet roads and family friendly routes connecting communities across South Yorkshire.
• Investment in our region's Transpennine Trail has made it safer and more welcoming, between Warmsworth and Conisborough; and Cusworth York Road
• Ambitious projects like Connecting Sheffield: Neepsend–Kelham–City Centre are accelerating development and helping to improve the environment for those living in, working in and visiting the area 

Our Year of Active Travel celebrated the joys of cycling with a new 250km South Yorkshire By Bike route through industrial, green and historic spaces and family friendly rides on South Yorkshire By Bike.

Hosting the Living Streets UK Walking Summit in Sheffield, we highlighted the importance of helping our neighbourhoods become more walkable for people from every background to get active.

We want to help everyone to walk, wheel or cycle more, especially those that need the most support and have the most to gain from being more physically active and having more travel choices.  

• Over a third of people in South Yorkshire have a disability or long-term health condition.
• 200,000 people also have mobility issues. For many, wheelchairs, mobility aids, adapted or regular bikes are an important way to get around. 
• Over 300,000 people across South Yorkshire live in households without a car.
• Nationally, over 20% of unemployed people either turn down work or don’t apply for a job because they can’t get to it.

Ethnically diverse communities are less likely to be active

• Those from ethnically diverse communities, especially Black and South Asian heritage women, are less likely to be physically active than other groups. 

14.8 million days per year are lost to sickness across Yorkshire and the Humber

• Moving more boosts productivity in the workplace and in turn economic growth - 30 minutes of activity a day cuts sick days by 25%. 
• Our Year of Active Travel celebrated more than 150 different groups that help people to get walking in their communities as part of #SouthYorksWalks.