CYCLE training for schoolchildren and more investment in segregated bike ways are needed if Scotland is to achieve its 2020 cycling targets, a study has found.

A new report looking at the lessons Scotland can learn from five of Europe's most cycle-friendly nations has concluded that altering the physical environment to make cycling safer and easier is one of the key planks needed if the Scottish Governments wants cycling to account for one in ten of all journeys by the end of decade.

The International Comparator Study, commissioned by Cycling Scotland, charted how the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Austria have driven up cycling rates in recent decades and what Scotland can do to mirror their experience.

Researchers from the Urban Movement and European Cycling Federation, who produced the report, said the evidence of these countries "strongly indicates" that cycling investment should primarily be focused on "enabling cycling through changing the physical environment" with protected cycle tracks and traffic management measures, such as reduced speed limits and vehicle restrictions in towns and cities.

They also point to the focus of policymakers in both the Netherlands and Denmark on teaching safe cycling early. In the Netherlands, two thirds of children under 12 cycle or walk to school.

The report states: "If the Netherlands considers it worthwhile to invest in ensuring school age children receive a programme of cycling education and training over many years - and they do - then that is probably lesson enough for Scotland.

"That the same is also true of Denmark emphasises the point."

However the researchers stressed that education was "not a substitute for physical measures to make cycling both be and seem safer."

The Scottish Government has set a target for at least 10 per cent of all journey to be made by bike by 2020.

At present, Scotland is averages just one per cent - although the more bike-friendly Edinburgh is faring slightly better at two per cent.

The European Cyclists' Federation estimates that each one per cent increase in cycling mode share requires an average spend of €0.8 (around 58 pence) per person per year. That means the Scottish Government and local authorities combined would have to spend around £28 million over the next five years to achieve Scotland's 2020 target, which still leaves us trailing the bike-loving Netherlands where 26 per cent of all journeys are already made by bike.

However, the study highlights that this was not always the case. The Dutch drive to increase cycling did not take hold until the 1970s amid rising oil prices and a protests against a record 3,300 road deaths in 1971, including - shockingly - more than 500 children.

It sparked the Stop de Kindermoord (Stop Child Murder) movement which drove urban planners to design towns and cities around cycling, and by 2014 road deaths among those aged 15 and under had dwindled to just 19.

In Copenhagen, a 22 per cent increase in space allocated to cycle paths between 1996 and 2014 was accompanied by a 44 per cent increase in the average number of kilometres cycled per weekday by the city's residents.

Meanwhile, Spain - where less than one per cent of journeys were made by bike in 2000 - has boosted cycling tenfold.

The Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain's "cycling capital", saw the modal share for cycling balloon from 1.4 per cent in 2002 to 14. 3 per cent by 2014 amid a commitment by the municipality's leaders to promote sustainable transport. More people cycle in the city than use public transport and it has one of the lowest levels of car ownership in Europe.

Keith Irving, Chief Executive of Cycling Scotland said:

“This report shows that Scotland is on the right path but can go further and faster to increase cycling levels. Many European cities and countries are far ahead, having started earlier on enabling more people to cycle easily and safely and we will need action at both national and local authority level to achieve progress. Cycling Scotland and partners are bringing together experts and evidence from across Scotland and Europe to identify how we continue the cycling revolution to improve health and quality of life for more people.”