Budget blow for bikes?
Active travel is a good thing - it’s good for the environment, our health and wellbeing, the economy and our personal finances.
Cycling is the mode of active travel that is best suited to replace some of the short journeys that are currently made by car. So why are we seeing a move away from a clear, dedicated allocation of funds threatened in the forthcoming budget?
Over the last ten years in Wales we’ve seen legislation, policy and funding geared towards enabling more people to get around by bike in their daily lives. This investment is crucial if we are to provide people with real transport choices.
Investment in high quality infrastructure away from motorised traffic. Investment in behaviour change programmes to break down the barriers; whether it’s route planning, learning to ride, access to bikes or confidence building.
Investment in creating the right environment on our villages, towns and cities so that walking and cycling are the easiest options for those short everyday journeys.
ACTION -Investment in infrastructure is under threat
Segregated infrastructure is what women we talk to tell us is needed to enable them to cycle their kids to school before heading off to work.
It’s what people using accessible cycles in cities and towns across Wales tell us is needed to allow them to ride the places they want to go.
Sam Farnham, Director of Pedal Power accessible cycling charity
Segregated cycle routes such as Castle Street in Cardiff provide a link between Bute park and city centre whilst maintaining secure separation from a busy road. Pedal Power users highlight this route as one which enables them to cycle where previously they would not have cycled due to safety concerns
Picture of accessible/family cycling
It’s what sees our children traveling independently to schools. It enables the many who are not able to afford a car to access work safely and economically.
ACTION
The last six years have seen a steady increase and growing certainty of investment in active travel. Local authorities have received a substantial core grant and those with ambition have received substantial levels of funding which has allowed them to progress their active travel networks, plan for future development and grow teams so that active travel becomes more embedded within their authority.
If Wales is to see more disabled people participating in cycling, encourage more people to return to cycling and help people keep cycling into older age then segregated routes are an essential catalyst in achieving this.
Sam - Pedal Power
Dedicated funding together with the introduction of a default 20mph, a transport strategy that prioritises the most vulnerable users and a forward thinking roads building strategy established Wales as a nation at the forefront of interventions that will give people real choices about how we travel.
Changes in leadership will inevitably mean changes in emphasis but we are now seeing Welsh Government seemingly dismiss the need to invest in cycling, seeing little if any benefit in building the infrastructure we need to achieve the modal shift set out in Llwybr Newydd.
The impact of this change in direction was being felt even before any real changes have been announced.
Some months ago campaign group Swansea Wheelrights alerted us to a worrying turn around on a long planned and funded cycle route which the council suspended ‘follow[ing] policy and priority changes announced by new administrations in Westminster and Cardiff on economic growth and public transport..’
More recently Wrexham Council’s deputy leader ‘voiced concerns that active travel funds might be used to fund pothole repairs.’ Whilst we don’t know if money for pothole repairs will come from active travel funds it is concerning that local authorities are considering that as a possibility.
Ringfenced funding for active travel has been replaced by a ‘regional and active travel fund’. How much of this will go towards active travel is far from clear and given that local authorities have been restricted to applying for only one major active travel project a year we can envisage a situation where the actual spend for active travel in 2025/26 is way below what it needs to be.
Investing in cycling has the potential for the biggest shift in travel behaviour as it could replace a large proportion of short local journeys and evidence shows that `20mph speed limits alone will not achieve this.
Duncan Dollimore Cycling UK's Head of Campaigns explains
Three years ago the Welsh government announced it was developing a new road safety strategy, which would reflect international thinking around the ‘Safe System’ approach to road safety.
Safe speed is one pillar of that approach, alongside others including safer road users and safer roads: the infrastructure people use when driving, walking or cycling. Governments in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, supported by every credible road safety organisation, have all committed to the safe system approach, recognising that there isn’t a silver bullet to road safety and a that multi- disciplinary approach is needed.
So, whilst the Welsh Government should be applauded for their bold action on 20mph speed limits, this needs to be complemented by investment in the infrastructure which makes it safer for people to walk and cycle – and enables more to do so. Any suggestion otherwise is contrary to the Welsh Government’s own policies, accepted road safety practice, and what the government has in fact already promised to do.
We need modal shift if Welsh Government is to meet it’s legal carbon reduction targets. To get modal shift we must invest in cycling infrastructure. To get people to use infrastructure we need to invest in behaviour change initiatives
We can not expect people to swap car journeys for active travel if we don’t break down all the barriers and make cycling an easier option than jumping in a car.
KATH from accessible cycling organisation Wheel Together
Cycling on the prom in Aberystwyth is an absolute pleasure especially at sunset and when there are fewer people about. It is truly delightful. Some improvements to the infrastructure are in process at present which everyone must be very pleased about. Despite this, even more awareness and consideration is essential for the many disabled people who are at present forced to use taxis for their routine transport as there are no cycle paths to the places they need to go
In the absence of clarity in the current budget we’re asking Welsh Government to commit to the same levels of ring fenced spending that we have seen in recent years.
We would urge Welsh Government to celebrate the fact that we have the building blocks in place to give people of all ages and abilities the chance to get about by bike and continue to provide dedicated funding to enable this to happen at the scale and pace needed.
ACTION