Two cyclists ride along a path at Whitemoor, with grazing ponies and woodland in the background

Access to the National Park

More than 95% of visitors to the New Forest National Park arrive by car

We work to encourage more people to travel car-free around the Forest to reduce their impact on the area. Over the years we have done this through:

Running the New Forest Tour with Morebus which carries tens of thousands of people around the National Park each summer

Adding new cycle routes between communities, including Lyndhurst to Ashurst and at Marchwood

Establishing the sections of the England Coast Path through the National Park

Making trails more accessible to all

Supporting greener ways to explore

We’re working with Active Travel England to increase the number of local journeys being walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030 and make active travel a part of everyday life.

As part of a partnership with Active Travel England across all English national parks, we worked on plans and projects to help set out the ambition for investment in walking and cycling for the next 10 years.

Using a £100,000 grant from the Active Travel England National Parks Capability Fund we commissioned:

a study into safer crossings for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders on the A35
an off-road cycle network wayfinding study to help people navigate more effectively
a feasibility study on the best cycle route from Lyndhurst to Lymington.

The grant has also supported our work to help produce a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) for the New Forest area.

We have also worked with Sustrans to audit the National Cycle Network within the National Park boundary (NCN2 and NCN236) and recommend improvements.

In 2026, we received £200,000 from Active Travel England to improve walking, cycling and wheeling for local residents and visitors:

Funding from Active Travel England is part of a £2 million programme to encourage safe walking, wheeling and cycling in England’s National Parks
Designs for safer crossings on the A337 at Brockenhurst and Setley to be developed with local community, along with broader improvements to cycle network
Project aims to give residents and visitors more choice in how to travel around the New Forest, helping to protect its natural beauty and environment

Find out more here.

FAQs on our Active Travel England work

Previous engagement with local stakeholders, including through the development of the LCWIP (Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan), revealed strong support for improvements in walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure between Lymington and Lyndhurst. Key issues identified as part of this engagement, and confirmed by subsequent feedback at the New Forest Transport Summit in late 2025, included ‘pain points’ in crossing the A337, particularly at Setley and Brockenhurst College. Through engagement with Active Travel England about suitable projects eligible for funding, we narrowed it down to these projects.

The £200,000 ATE funding covers early feasibility studies, concept design development and stakeholder engagement for the projects outlined above, as well as capacity building for NPA staff.

This funding doesn’t cover the capital expenditure required to construct active travel infrastructure.

Feasibility studies and designs are an essential step to unlocking further funding for construction costs. Once these have been completed, we will seek funding for the schemes via Hampshire County Council, as the highways authority, and potentially via national government funding sources.

‘Walking and wheeling’ represents the action of moving as a pedestrian, whether unaided or using any kind of wheeled mobility aid, such as wheelchairs, mobility scooters, walking frames, prams or buggies. It is an inclusive term that is used in transport planning to ensure the needs of all users are accommodated. It does not refer to e-scooters.

This is a specific funding pot from Active Travel England for National Parks to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling in their areas. It cannot be deployed for any other purpose. More information about the fund can be found here.

We have already begun the process of engaging with local stakeholders, including parish councils, businesses, amenity groups and residents. These early conversations have yielded important inputs that have already fed into design work. As design and feasibility work progresses, we will continue to engage closely with stakeholders and offer opportunities for designs to be reviewed by residents, businesses, educational institutions and elected representatives, via drop-in sessions, online surveys, bespoke briefings and written feedback. This informal engagement will all take place ahead of any statutory public consultation, which would be led by Hampshire County Council ahead of any scheme going forwards to construction.

Accessibility is enshrined as a core principle of transport planning, and in particular for this project. The consultants engaged to support this project, as well as HCC officers and engineers, have experience designing schemes for a wide variety of users, including disabled people, older people and young people. We are also putting together a User Panel with representatives from different groups, to ensure that the designs are reviewed by a wide range of stakeholders.

Local residents and college staff have long highlighted the need for a safer way to cross the A337 in the vicinity of the college, due to safety concerns. This is an area that has seen a number of serious collisions and near-misses in recent years (at least four serious collisions and one slight collision in the direct vicinity of the college since 2020, according to CrashMap data).

There is a high pedestrian footfall crossing the road to access Brockenhurst Village – from students in term-time, and tourists during the holidays. The situation is currently uncomfortable for all stakeholders – for pedestrians/wheelchair users and bus users who struggle to cross quickly and safely to access businesses, college, bus stops etc, and also for drivers, who often have the stress of contending with pedestrians unexpectedly stepping out into the road.

Options are still being assessed by highways engineers, but the most likely solution is a zebra crossing with Belisha beacons.

Early assessments indicate there will be no noticeable impact on congestion or journey times. Several local stakeholders have also indicated that any speed-lowering effect of the crossing would be beneficial, given ongoing concerns about vehicle speeds on the road.

Zebra crossing installations cause relatively limited disruption to the local community, and can usually be completed within 6 weeks. Lane closures and night working are common aspects of work schedules. HCC would be responsible for any construction work, including notifying local stakeholders and putting mitigation in place where appropriate.

This is a key point of severance on the main marked cycle and a key walking/wheeling route between Brockenhurst and Lymington. Crossing the A337 on foot, horseback, by wheelchair or bike is a challenging experience due to the speed of traffic, restricted sightlines and the width of the junction mouth. It has been the location of at least 4 incidents in recent years, according to CrashMap data. Local residents and business owners have highlighted the sense of disconnection from the main village, as well as concerns about safety for all road users.

Initial concept designs are still being developed, however the new crossing would be able to accommodate pedestrians, wheelchairs and mobility aid users, cyclists and trike users, and horse riders. The works would also incorporate safety improvements to the junction for motor vehicles, while preserving access to local businesses and properties.

Yes – any designs will also look at improving the safety of the junction for vehicle users, incorporating feedback from local road users, as well as engineering and physical location constraints.

This work will be more fully developed under Phase 2 of this project, but will look at how to make parts of the leisure network safer and more pleasant for cycling.

Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIP)

Developed after a large number of responses to a consultation, the New Forest Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) sets out priorities for enhancing active travel in the National Park, while ensuring that its special qualities are protected and where possible enhanced.

It proposes an extensive network of cycle routes across the area (linked to the Waterside area which has its own LCWIP) together with walking zones for the main residential settlements.

It was prepared in partnership with Hampshire County Council, New Forest District Council, the New Forest National Park Authority and Forestry England.

Improving routes

A two-mile section of the former Salisbury and Dorset Junction Railway line at Breamore that was closed in 1964 is being transformed into a public footpath. Work with volunteers is creating a wildlife-rich habitat corridor running through the parishes of Breamore and Fordingbridge, between South Charford and Burgate Cross. The project has received £300,000 of funding from the Landscape Enhancement Initiative.

Other recent improvements have included:

Improved bridges and gates have been installed along the Lepe Loop promoted walking route.
The Blackwater Arboretum accessible trail has benefited from improved surfacing, fencing, and signage.
Major accessibility improvements have been made on the Knightwood Oak Trail, including 300 metres of accessible gravel surfacing, adding an accessible parking bay, new interpretation boards, and surface and drainage upgrades to the car park. The work by Forestry England was funded by the NPA through a £50,000 grant from Defra’s Access for All fund as part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring the National Park is accessible to all.
100 metres of paths have been surfaced at Copythorne Common along with four upgraded signposts and three gates.
New footpath gates replaced two old stiles in Sway, thanks to funding from a legacy gift from former National Park member and Sway resident Stephen Tarling.

Encouraging walking and cycling

Each year hundreds of people join our autumn Walking Festival heading out into the forest and coast with expert guides to learn more about the National Park.

The New Forest walking app is downloaded by nearly 30,000 people each year. The app contains 40 routes to try, with GPS navigation that shows where you are on the route in real-time as you walk. It works without mobile phone signal too – perfect for exploring the Forest.

With our partners we run campaigns asking people to follow the New Forest Code and in particular to keep to the main tracks from March to July to protect rare ground nesting birds and to follow the dog walking code.

New Forest Tour

The New Forest Tour is a key part of our aim to encourage more people to leave their cars at home. Around 35,000 journeys are made by people on the New Forest Tour bus instead of by car each summer. The three scenic routes saved an estimated 200,000 private car miles last year.

The Tour also provides a boost to local businesses contributing an estimated £567,000 to the New Forest economy while stopping at local villages and attractions.

The Tour is operated by Morebus in partnership with the New Forest National Park Authority and is sponsored by local businesses.

King Charles III England Coast Path

The King Charles III England Coast Path National Trail will be the longest managed coastal path in the world. It will go all the way around the coast of England and will be around 2,700 miles long when it is complete.

As the Access Authority it’s our role to help Natural England establish the England Coast Path in the New Forest National Park. We were delighted to have opened the western-most three miles of the Calshot to Portsmouth section from Calshot to Hythe.

In January 2026 two sections – from Hurst Spit to Lymington Bridge and from Lower Exbury House to Calshot – were approved and we are in the process of establishing them.

We continue to work with Natural England and landowners to establish other sections between Highcliffe and Calshot.

For any questions, please contact the National Park Authority Lead Access and Volunteering Officer, Adam Vasey, on 07384 517633 or email adam.vasey@newforestnpa.gov.uk.

Transport Summit

Around 100 people from businesses and organisations joined together in November 2025 for the National Park Authority’s first Transport Summit.

The aim was to develop a vision of integrated sustainable transport in the National Park.

Read the Transport Summit 2025 Report in the documents tab at the bottom of this page.

PEDALL inclusive cycling

The New Forest National Park is a popular destination for cycling due to 100 miles of off-road cycle tracks, stunning scenery and beautiful wildlife.

The PEDALL charity, set up by the National Park Authority, aims to make cycling in the New Forest available to anyone, no matter what challenges they may face.

The charity uses a wide range of specially designed bikes which offer different seating positions. The bikes have three or four wheels to increase stability, as well as straps and harnesses to help support body weight.

PEDALL has a team of dedicated volunteers who have a real passion for working with and engaging people with a disability or who need support to cycle in an outdoor environment.

Visit the PEDALL website for more information.