Accelerating the UK's active travel market

Active travel is one of the most exciting areas of growth and opportunity within urban mobility - the kind of getting from A to B where your legs, arms and heart have to do their fair share of the work, rather than a massive energy consuming machine. When we think about what more active travel in places means, it’s about creating more options for us to move more. This can have a massive impact on our physical and mental health, the air quality in our overly congested cities by getting more commuters out of cars and onto bikes and footpaths, and the UK’s collective effort of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But active travel is also about seizing a potentially huge economic opportunity. This is the first in a series of episodes where we begin to explore the opportunities for UK companies in the global market for active travel products and solutions. Throughout the series we’ll be hearing from leading figures in business, local government, academia and the wider active travel world. We begin in this episode with Neil Fulton, our Chief Delivery Officer who’s leading a new active travel programme, as well as Catapult Associate, Scott Cain who’s a passionate advocate for the benefits that active travel can offer people, places and the wider economy. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Follow the show! Don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.  Show notes You can click on these links to read the two UK government reports that are referenced in the episode – Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Transport, and Decarbonising Transport: Setting The Challenge. To read and download our Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. You can also read and download free of charge the Catapult’s new report on Hubs of Innovation which looks at the role of districts, corridors and quarters as hubs in the COVID-adjusted economy, as well as the accompanying Playbook for Place Leaders, a practical guide for establishing or growing an innovation hub. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!