Our plans for walking and cycling in Essex
Essex is a great place to cycle and walk, but we’re on a mission to make it even better. We want cycling and walking to become the safe and easy choice for getting around either for shorter local journeys or as part of a longer one. For example, walking to the station and then getting on the train or cycling to a park and ride hub and taking the bus. Whether you’re walking and cycling for leisure or work, if we switch to more active forms of travel, we’ll have more choice in how we get around. This will also help our physical and mental health, improve air quality, reduce congestion, and benefit the environment for future generations. That’s why Essex County Council is supporting national ambitions to make cycling and walking the natural choice for short journeys or the first or last part of a longer trip. We’ve already been working on finalizing the walking and cycling networks across a number of towns and cities in Essex. We’ve listened to your views about the existing routes in lots of different locations. You’ve told us about the barriers you face and your ideas for improvements. We’ve now developed the plan for the rest of Essex, which will connect all these routes together as well as link up rural areas. We want to make sure that all the routes in our towns and cities link key residential areas to schools, employment, shops, or leisure facilities. And the rural routes link to stations or bus connections. We know that this isn’t all going to happen overnight. These plans are long-term and much depends on available funding. But we’re determined to make all our cycling and walking routes safer, greener, and healthier so that everybody has a choice in how they travel in Essex.