Cyclists and walkers in Scotland will enjoy their share of a £50m lottery boost after the public voted on how it would like the largest fund of its kind to be spent.

The People's £50m Lottery Giveaway has gone to Sustrans - a charity which designs and builds car-free travel routes - after it saw off rival bids from the Eden Project, Sherwood Forest and the Black Country Urban Park.

The money will fund four major projects in Scotland out of a total of 79 nationwide. They are the completion of a long-unfinished pedestrian bridge over the M8 motorway in Anderston, Glasgow, a new mini-bridge over the River Tay in Perthshire, a network of cycling and walking paths across Dumfries and a link which will draw together Strathclyde Country Park with Chatelherault Country Park.

The projects have been welcomed for their potential in improving the fitness of Scots and a reduction in the environmental damage caused by unnecessary car use.

John Lauder, national director of Sustrans in Scotland, said: "This award is a huge boost. As an organisation, the award will lift our profile. It will allow our partners to build some really interesting and challenging projects which will show how people can move around the country in ways that benefit our health and our wellbeing.

"These projects will also have a positive effect on how we reduce the use of our cars."

The award will partly finance the completion of the bridge in Glasgow, which was created in the 1970s as a pedestrian route into Anderston but was never finished. It has hung over the M8 for more than three decades but will now be turned into part of a cycling and walking route from Central Station, along the Clyde to Kelvingrove Park. It will also connect to the Kelvin Walkway and on to the Forth and Clyde canal.

The lottery fund will contribute £1m of the £2.5m cost.

The new White Bridge across the River Tay will cost more than £2m and the 500-metre construction will link Scone to Perth for commuters through Quarrymill Woodland Park.

Following the winning Sustrans bid, Chatelherault Country Park and Strathclyde Country Park will be linked by a series of paths, which will offer an unrivalled route not only for pleasure cyclists and walkers but for the residents of Hamilton and Motherwell.

Those living and working in Dumfries will also benefit from the cash, which will be spent on reviving a disused railway viaduct over the River Nith as a cycle and walking route which will connect the east and the west of the town to the train station with ease.

Sustrans won 42% of the vote in the People's £50m Lottery Giveaway and won the backing of 270,000 members of the public.

Mr Lauder said: "It is really a huge endorsement for us. I think what it also shows is just how far removed politicians have become from knowing what people really want.

"Ordinary people know and realise something has to be done about issues such as obesity and climate change and they demonstrated this with this vote."

Sustrans has already devised 1500 miles of cycle network, some of which has revived disused feats of civil engineering.

In Scotland, one-half of all car journeys are made to travel distances of under five miles, with one-quarter of journeys amounting to less than two miles.

Erl Wilkie, chief executive of Cycling Scotland, which is funded by the Scottish Government, said: "We congratulate Sustrans on the hard work they put in to the bid. The projects will provide excellent links to community and leisure facilities and it's great to see existing routes being joined up to enhance Scotland's cycle network."

Mary Allison, head of health topics at Health Scotland, said: "We've worked with Sustrans in the past and continue to do so and they play a huge part in helping us to improve the health of Scotland."

New Routes
A new Tay Bridge
A £2m 500-metre White Bridge construction will span the Tay at North Inch. It will link Perth to Scone through Quarrymill Woodland Park, allowing cyclists and walkers to avoid the main road.

A Bridge to Somewhere
Glasgow's half-finished pedestrian bridge, designed in the 1970s to link into a high rise shopping centre that was never built. Lottery money will complete its construction and feed users to Central Station or along the Clyde to Kelvin Park.

River Nith viaduct revival
Will be used to improve travel around Dumfries by creating a new link to the Caledonian Path, which takes pedestrians and cyclists out of the town to Locharbriggs. New route should connect commuters to Dumfries rail station.

Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse united
An unrivalled network of paths will link Chatelherault Country Park to Strathclyde Country Park and surrounding towns.