Image: TfGM
Greater Manchester residents are walking and cycling more than ever, with over 700 million active travel trips recorded in 2025 – a rise that has been attributed to major investment in the Bee Network.
The latest Active Travel Annual Report highlights that where infrastructure has been completed, active travel rates have surged.
This includes a 62% increase in cycle trips on Chorlton Cycle Way in 2025 compared to 2021. On Oxford Road there were 7,000 cyclists a day in October 2025 – up from 2,000 a day before there was a segregated cycleway.
The total number of active travel trips in Greater Manchester was over 700 million in 2025 and has increased each year between 2021 – when the total number of active travel trips stood at just over 510 million – and 2024.
Active travel currently accounts for around one-third (33%) of trips by Greater Manchester residents, with an ambition for 50% of all journeys in Greater Manchester to be made by walking, cycling and public transport by 2050.
The Bee Network is an integrated transport network for Greater Manchester. It comprises bus, tram, cycling and walking routes.
Future investment includes improvements to footpaths, junctions, crossings and cycle facilities that will eventually lead to around 2,700km of Bee Network routes for walking, wheeling and cycling.
Dame Sarah Storey, active travel commissioner, said: “It’s great to see the progress being reported in the 2025 Active Travel Annual report.
“The goal is to enable a greater choice for people in how they make their journeys, with walking and cycling being the glue that binds all the modes of the Bee Network together.”
The report also shows that in 2025, significant progress was made towards the ambition of creating 100 permanent School streets by 2028. These are child-friendly environments, that use traffic calming measures and signage to restrict access to vehicles on the street outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times.
Endorsed by Mayor Andy Burnham, who has committed to every borough being able to implement the scheme, 60 schemes are expected to be part of the programme by the end of the current academic year in July.
Richard Nickson, active travel network director at Transport for Greater Manchester, said: “Providing high-quality active travel infrastructure has been at the core of our Bee Network vision from the beginning, and with strong increases in walking and cycling on completed Bee Network routes, the way forward for Greater Manchester is clear.”
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