Ministers promised a response after AMs claimed the 2013 Active Travel Act had failed to achieve its potential due to a lack of funding and leadership.
Healthy travel will be promoted in school lessons, public health campaigns, and investment decisions, backed up by monitored targets.
Transport Minister Edwina Hart said there was a need for "culture change".
Local councils are obliged to provide routes for cyclists and walkers and to consider their needs when planning new road and rail links under the 2013 legislation.
But there was "considerable frustration" among supporters of active travel at the lack of progress, the business and enterprise committee reported in February.
Chairman William Graham claimed AMs felt the commitment of ministers had "started to waver before it has properly begun".
The Active Travel Action Plan published by the Welsh government on Tuesday sets out expectations in areas ranging from leadership and infrastructure to skills and training.
An annual progress report will monitor how many more adults and children have been encouraged to take up walking or cycling.
"Increasing levels of walking and cycling offers many health and social benefits," said Mrs Hart.
"We know that most people in Wales currently make no or very few walking and cycling journeys.
"This plan sets out how we can achieve our ambition of making walking and cycling part of everyday life through a culture change, both within organisations, and among individuals, as well as action to reduce barriers to active travel."

Matt Groening told Smithsonian magazine
 he based the town on Springfield, Oregon, but since it is such a common US place name he knew many would think it was their own Springfield.
The Springfield question is one of the best-kept secrets in TV history.
The Simpsons is the longest-running animation on US TV, on air since 1989.
Characters in the show have often joked about hiding Springfield's real location.
"In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought: 'This will be cool, everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do," Mr Groening said.
There are thought to be at least 34 towns or cities called Springfield in the US.
Mr Groening also said he was inspired by the TV show Father Knows Best, which was set in a place called Springfield.
But the Springfield in Oregon is just 100 miles (160km) south of Portland, the city where Mr Groening grew up.
The Simpsons has sometimes given false answers to the question of Springfield's true location, leaving open the possibility that Mr Groening's latest comments are a continuation of the joke.
"Whenever people say it's Springfield, Ohio, or Springfield, Massachusetts, or Springfield, wherever, I always go: 'Yup, that's right,'" Mr Groening said.
In one episode, Marge and Homer Simpson's precocious daughter Lisa points to Springfield on a map, but the audience's view is obscured by Bart Simpson's head.
It appears that the town of Springfield, Oregon, has known of its connection to the sitcom since 2007, when Mr Groening visited before the release of The Simpsons Movie.
"Oh, okay, we knew that," a community relations manager told the Associated Press when she heard about Mr Groening's latest comments.
Schools, the health service and planning laws will be used to boost walking and cycling in an action plan.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
The creator of the iconic cartoon sitcom The Simpsons has finally revealed the inspiration behind the show's fictional town of Springfield.