Question reference: S6W-27045
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 25 April 2024
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Current status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 May 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring is undertaken to understand how active travel behaviours supported at primary school continue into secondary school.
Answer
There is a known and growing gap when it comes to active travel modes to travel to school between primary and secondary school pupils in Scotland. Sustrans’ Hands Up Scotland Survey, that looks at how pupils travel to school and nursery, shows that in the past 15 years walking and cycling to school are declining when it comes to secondary school pupils, with cycling to school only accounting for around 1% of the total trips and skating/scooting stagnating at around 0.1%.
Whilst walking levels are also declining for primary school children, it is still at a higher level than for secondary school pupils, and cycling and skating/scooting has been increasing with much higher levels than for secondary school pupils (cycling stands at 5-6% of all trips for primary school age pupils).
Since 2021, Cycling Scotland have conducted a cross sectional evaluation of Bikeability Scotland. This evaluation shows that Bikeability Level 2 training has a positive impact on cycling behaviours, knowledge and skills, and that pupils who receive Bikeability training in primary school have higher rates of bike ownership and cycling frequency in Secondary school compared with those who did not receive training.