Work in Progress - Active Travel

The car remains the dominant mode of transport in Northern Ireland, with just under 70 per cent of all journeys made in 2021 taken by car and over 80 per cent of distances travelled. In contrast, active travel (walking and cycling) accounted for around 25 per cent of all journeys made, and about 7 per cent of distances travelled.  Departmental research also indicates that levels of active travel in Northern Ireland are below those elsewhere in the United Kingdom.  

The Climate Change Act 2022 imposed a statutory duty on the Department for Infrastructure to develop a Transport Sectoral Plan setting out how it intended for the transport sector to contribute to the achievement of greenhouse gas emissions targets set in the Act. It also stipulated that the Transport Sectoral Plan should “set a minimum spend on active travel from the overall transport budget of 10 per cent”. 

Meeting the target spend requirement set out in the Climate Change Act would represent a significant uplift from historic expenditure and activity baselines. In this regard, the Department has taken a number of actions to develop its active travel structures, aimed towards increasing its capacity to deliver the level of activity and spend envisioned in the Climate Change Act targets.     

Our review will provide an overview of the actions taken by the Department to date and will examine how well it is managing the delivery of its requirements for active travel under the Climate Change Act.

The report is due to be published in May 2025.