Promoting sustainable active travel can be more challenging in rural areas. For people living in rural settings such as villages and small towns, getting around using active transport such as walking and cycling may be more challenging. Public transport may also be limited. To help us stay healthy and reduced the impact of climate change, many local councils are making changes to support active travel.

This project aims to inform local authority transport planning policies that support equitable and sustainable active travel in rural settings.

The work of this project will be divided into two main work packages:

• Map national and local policies that target walking and cycling – including in combination with public transport, and identify what makes these policies easier or more difficult to put in place on the ground.
• Evaluate selected sustainable travel schemes – this will involve working with those involved in these schemes to understand communities’ experiences, what works for them and who might be left behind. To do this we will use a range of approaches, including interviews, and maps and photos created by participants.

This project is led by Conny Guell at the University of Exeter’s ECEHH with Tessa Pollard at Durham University; researchers are Chloe Asker (Exeter) and Laura McGuire (Durham); Co-Is: Cassie Phoenix (Durham), Sarah Bell, Steward Barr, Judith Green (Exeter), Jenna Panter and David Ogilvie (Cambridge). We work with colleagues at Cornwall Council, Durham County Council, Easter Durham Trust, County Durham Sport and Sustrans.

Funding: This is a National Institute for Health Research School of Public Health project under the Healthy Place, Health Planet programme:  https://sphr.nihr.ac.uk/research/evaluating-coastal-rural-communities-active-and-sustainable-travel-coast/