An 'Active Travel Hierarchy' for Cambridgeshire: your opportunity to comment

An 'Active Travel Hierarchy' for Cambridgeshire: your opportunity to comment

We are looking for feedback on Active Travel routes and public rights of way in Cambridgeshire. We want to know which routes are important to our communities. We also want to seek your views on the concept of prioritising maintenance activities according to how important a route is.

What is Active Travel?

In 2023, Cambridgeshire County Council adopted its Active Travel Strategy. You can see the Strategy here(External link). (External link)The Strategy aims to promote walking and cycling as a first choice for shorter journeys, as well as supporting the use of mobility aids.

The Hierarchy: an introduction

To support the Strategy, the Highways and Transport Service is proposing to introduce an Active Travel Hierarchy. A hierarchy is a system of ranking things according to their importance. This consultation will help us rank routes in the Hierarchy by asking which ones are important to you.

The Hierarchy will inform how we choose to prioritise maintenance standards for active travel routes. We are considering the whole highway network, including Public Rights of Way.

For more information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions. You can also see our Background document, available here.

We have been developing three hierarchies to reflect the different types of travel that take place on our highways. These hierarchies are being developed individually. This will help to ensure that the diverse nature of different parts of the highway network are recognised. For example: cycle routes used for commuting may need to be considered differently to Public Rights of Way used for leisure journeys. Each hierarchy will form a component of the Active Travel Hierarchy.

• The Walking and Wheeling Hierarchy includes roads and footways.
• The Cycling Hierarchy includes roads and cycleways.
• The Public Rights of Way Hierarchy includes Public Footpaths, Bridleways, Restricted Byways and Byways Open to All Traffic.

How to provide feedback

1. Use our Map. To help you provide feedback, we have produced a hierarchy map(External link) of the County, which is available here(External link). The map will enable you to provide location-specific comments. Please let us know how you think the highways and Public Rights of Way in your area should be prioritised. You can also add written feedback to give us added detail. This will give us a valuable understanding of which routes are important to our stakeholders, and why. The video below explains how you can use the map to find locations and leave feedback.

2. Complete our Survey. Available here. We are also asking for your general feedback on the principles of maintenance hierarchies for active travel and Public Rights of Way. The survey also seeks your preferences on priority maintenance activities. Your responses will help us understand which maintenance activities are most valued.