Scottish cities

Active travel to school by mode, Scottish cities
The numbers of children travelling to school actively (by bike, on foot or skating/scootering) have declined since 2008 in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow. Nevertheless, while the numbers of children walking to school have reduced, there have been rises in cycling and skating/scootering. Edinburgh had the highest level of active commuting in 2022 with 64% of children travelling to school actively. Edinburgh also had the highest proportions of cycling (4.4%) and skating/scootering (5.7%). 

Walking to school, Scottish cities

Approximately half of all children walk to school. However, the numbers of children walking to school have declined since 2008 in all four cities with the exception of Edinburgh. Dundee had the lowest level of children walking to school among the selected cities (44%).

Cycling to school, Scottish cities

The numbers of children cycling to school have increased since 2008 in all four cities, but dropped across all cities between 2021 and 2022. In 2022, approximately 4.4% of children were cycling to school in Edinburgh and 3.2% in Glasgow.

In Edinburgh in 2022, more children skated or scootered to school (5.7%) than cycled (4.4%).

Notes

Active travel as defined here is any kind of travel to school involving significant physical activity and includes walking, cycling and scootering/skateboarding.

The Sustrans Hands Up survey has been carried out in most councils in Scotland since 2008. However not all schools in a local authority participate, and not all pupils in every school surveyed take part. This may bring unforeseen biases into the results and may compromise some of the comparisons.

For more information go to the Sustrans website.