Ken Skates MS, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales
Today I am publishing our updated Active Travel Act Guidance for public consultation.
We are revising this guidance to improve the quality of walking, wheeling and cycling schemes, ensure that they are accessible and designed with inclusion at their core.
Our approach in updating the guidance aligns with my ambitions set out in “Travel for All”, aiming to make it easier for more people to use our transport network.
The draft revised guidance reflects feedback that we gathered from users of the current guidance, new evidence, as well as policy and regulatory changes since its original publication.
The proposed revisions are intended to:
- Improve document information design, with refinements to clarity, formatting, inclusivity and accessibility
- Use people-focused language better aligned with the Equality Act 2010
- Refresh the policy context
- Clarify design standards
- Streamline chapters, and strengthen engagement guidance to better motivate inclusive participation
- Support better integration between public transport and walking, wheeling and cycling
- Emphasise evidence-based practice and use consistent terminology to support local authorities in delivering high-quality, inclusive active travel networks across Wales
Throughout the 12 week consultation period we will engage widely beyond the online consultation to ensure that the new guidance reflects best practice. We will seek the views of professional users of the guidance - namely those who plan and design for walking, wheeling and cycling, and with those who are directly affected by it – users of walking wheeling and cycling routes. In particular, we will seek the views of disabled people, women and young people.
The consultation will conclude on 13 February 2026. The consultation documents and online questions can be found here: https://www.gov.wales/active-travel-act-guidance-atag