Talking about active travel: Insights into a chameleonic concept from transport policy stakeholders in Greater Manchester

Active travel is an increasingly prominent area of mobility policy. Modal shift from cars and vans to walking, wheeling and cycling, has recognised benefits in relation to local air quality, climate change mitigation, health promotion and social inclusion; active travel sits within and across these agendas. There has been some debate over exactly what active travel is and what is included under its umbrella, with new micromobility and electrically-assisted modes appearing on our streets, and even established practices, such as running and skateboarding, receiving little attention in research and policy. We consider this question, basing our discussion on a set of interviews with stakeholders involved to some extent in the delivery and formation of active travel policy in Greater Manchester, an area enjoying rapid investment in active travel and development of infrastructure for active modes. Building on research that has established the importance of terminology and discourse in transport planning, our starting point is that how active travel is talked about and conceptualised can shape attitudes, practices and policy responses. We argue that active travel is a chameleonic idea. On the one hand, such an idea benefits strategically from a degree of ambiguity and malleability, enabling it to travel into and resonate with multiple policy agendas whilst at the same time obscuring unresolved differences and tensions. On the other, working at the meta-policy level of active travel can obscure tensions between the active modes and between practices and purposes such as recreation, sport and different forms of utility travel, with implications for effective and inclusive policymaking. This creates risks, we argue, in an emphasis on cycling at the expense of the requirements of walking and other modes, as well as a focus on utility travel rather than recreational pursuits.