Active Travel England’s new Rural Design Guide: what it means for trails, greenways and rural communities.

Active Travel England has published its new Rural Design Guide, a detailed piece of technical guidance aimed at helping local authorities, designers, landowners and community partners create better active travel routes in rural areas. The guide focuses on routes that help people make everyday journeys, such as travelling to school, work, shops or public transport, while also recognising the huge value of rural routes for leisure, tourism, health and access to the countryside.

The guide is especially relevant to those of us who care about long-distance trails and greenways. It highlights many of the issues that trail users, local authorities and community groups encounter every day: poor surfacing, restrictive barriers, lack of safe crossings, fragmented routes, maintenance challenges, ecological sensitivities and the need for designs that work for everyone.

Why this guidance matters: Rural active travel is often more complex than urban active travel. Distances can be longer, roads can be faster and narrower, public transport may be limited, and many existing paths were not designed with wheelchairs, mobility scooters, adapted cycles, families, older people or horse riders in mind. The new guide acknowledges these challenges but also makes a strong case for the opportunities rural routes can unlock.

Active Travel England notes that nearly 10 million people live in rural areas in England and that many short rural trips are still made by car. With the right infrastructure, more of these journeys could be made by walking, wheeling, riding or cycling, helping to reduce congestion, improve health, support local businesses and provide better access to nature.

Key messages from the guide:

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1. Rural routes need to be inclusive from the start: A strong theme throughout the guidance is that rural routes should be designed for the widest possible range of users. That means considering people walking, wheeling, cycling, using mobility aids, riding adapted cycles, travelling with children, and where appropriate, horse riders. The guide is clear that access controls should not exclude legitimate users and that restrictive barriers should be avoided unless they are absolutely necessary.
2. Surfacing is central to accessibility: The guide explains that uneven, muddy or unsurfaced paths can exclude many people, particularly wheelchair users, mobility scooter users, families with pushchairs and people riding adapted cycles. Bound surfaces, such as asphalt, are often recommended because they provide a smoother, more reliable, all-weather route. However, the guide also recognises that surfacing choices need to be sensitive to rural character, heritage, ecology and equestrian use.
3. Quiet lanes, greenways and traffic-free routes all have a role: There is no single model for rural active travel. The guide covers several approaches, including routes alongside busy roads, low-traffic country lanes, converted rights of way, canal towpaths, disused railway lines, woodland paths and routes linked to new developments. This is helpful because many successful long-distance trails, including the Trans Pennine Trail, rely on a mix of route types.
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   Good design is about more than the path itself: The guidance places strong emphasis on the wider experience of using a route. It highlights the value of seating, rest points, interpretation boards, wayfinding, cycle parking, planting, local identity, viewpoints and links to public transport. These features can turn a route from a simple connection into a destination in its own right.

5. Maintenance must be planned from the beginning: A route is only as good as its long-term maintenance. The guide makes clear that drainage, vegetation management, surfacing, litter, access controls, lighting and structures all need ongoing attention. It also recognises the important role that volunteers and community groups can play, particularly where routes sit outside standard highway maintenance regimes.

A welcome spotlight on the Trans Pennine Trail: Alongside the main guide, Active Travel England has published a set of rural design case studies showing how different places have tackled real-world challenges. These examples are particularly valuable because they show that successful rural active travel projects often depend on partnership working, community support, landowner engagement, ecological sensitivity and a pragmatic approach to delivery.

One of the case studies focuses on the Trans Pennine Trail at Warrington, where improvements were made to a section of the route at Lymm. The trail follows the former Warrington to Altrincham Railway and had previously suffered from poor surfacing, waterlogging, vegetation issues and restrictive A-frame barriers. These problems made the route difficult or impossible for many people to use, particularly in poor weather.

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The upgrade introduced a sealed, all-weather surface, removed inaccessible barriers and improved year-round access for people walking, wheeling, cycling and horse riding. The case study notes that the route now acts as an important east-west spine in the local walking and cycling network and records over 1,000 daily users.

For Trans Pennine Trail supporters, this is a powerful example of how upgrading existing routes can make a significant difference. Sometimes the most effective intervention is not a brand-new route, but making an existing one accessible, reliable and welcoming for far more people.

For anyone who uses, manages, volunteers on or advocates for trails and greenways, the Rural Design Guide provides useful evidence and language to support better route planning. It reinforces many of the principles that trail users have long championed: routes should be safe, attractive, accessible, well maintained, available to everyone and connected to the places people need and want to go.

It also strengthens the case for investing in rural active travel as part of a wider transport, health, tourism and environmental agenda. Good rural routes can help people reach schools, shops, workplaces, rail stations, bus stops and local services. They can also support local cafés, pubs, accommodation providers and visitor attractions by encouraging people to explore an area at a slower pace.

Looking ahead: The publication of this guidance is an important step forward. It recognises that rural active travel is not a niche issue, but a vital part of creating healthier, better connected and more inclusive communities. It also shows that high-quality rural routes can be delivered in many different ways, from major infrastructure projects to community-led greenways and targeted improvements to existing paths.

Tim Buckle

For the Trans Pennine Trail and other long-distance routes, the guide offers timely support for the continued improvement of our national and regional trail networks. By applying these principles, partners can help ensure that rural routes are not only beautiful and enjoyable, but genuinely accessible and useful for everyday life.

Read the guidance: Active Travel England’s Rural Design Guide and case studies are available on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/designing-accessible-rural-active-travel

Mandy – TPT Lead Officer
Date: 31st July, 2026