Message to Wales - On Yer Bike!

Analysis of the Welsh Government Transport Strategy 2021

Just when you may be still reeling from the thought of having to decarbonise your home, quietly published on March 19th 2021 was a Welsh Government report innocuously titled ‘Llwybr Newydd’ which means ‘A New Path’. Unfortunately, it does not herald a new path towards true democracy away from unfailingly disappointing politicians; rather, the title refers to the latest Welsh Government transport strategy. It is accompanied by a toe curling promotional video to demonstrates how this is all done for our benefit.

I previously wrote about Welsh Government’s Future Wales 2040 which mentions the infantilising ‘Easy Read’ version of such reports. It is not clear to whom they are targeted – perhaps they are aimed at the 16 and 17 year olds who are now eligible to vote in elections (including 14 and 15 year old ‘attainers’). Or maybe the faceless bureaucrats who write this stuff really do look down upon the majority of the adult populace as being as ‘thick as mince’, as the old idiom goes. Apologies for the mince related hate speech.

Essentially, the members of the Welsh Labour government have decreed that they want to change the way the people of Wales work, live and travel by bringing services to people ‘in order to reduce the need to travel’, allow people and goods to move easily from door to door by accessible, sustainable and efficient transport and to ‘encourage people to make the change to more sustainable transport’.

Naturally, the argument for this culture shift is that it will create a ‘more prosperous, green and equal society’. The report acknowledges that there is a wider Welsh Government target – presumably for the public sector – for 30% of staff to ‘work remotely on a regular basis’. This, as pointed out in another article of mine, was mentioned in the Public Health Wales 2017-2027 Strategy, where a feasibility study was planned by the end of 2022 for 30% of NHS workers to work remotely.

Under the banner of the movement of people and goods, Llwybr Newydd states that, ’We will actively aim to achieve a shift away from private car use’. It is also stated that government will, ‘develop a range of behaviour change projects to encourage people to make smarter travel choices’ and to ‘move away from individual vehicle ownership to shared solutions including car-sharing, car clubs, bike sharing and mobility as a service’. Will individual bike owning be restricted, too?

We are informed that the government, ‘will support operational innovations which mean that people won’t always need to own a car’. ‘Modal shift’ promises to be at the heart of ‘Llwybr Newydd’, meaning that the proportion of trips made by sustainable modes increases and fewer trips are made by private car.

Just as Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum ( a non-governmental lobbying organisation) declared that the pandemic represented ‘a rare but narrow window of opportunity to…reset our world’, the authors of Llwybr Newydd state, ‘We need to act now to build upon the opportunity created by Covid 19 to think differently about how we work and where we work’. What a coincidence!

Amongst the text of the report is an acknowledgment that the planned lowering of most 30mph speed limits to 20mph is partly, ‘to make walking and cycling more attractive’. Also mentioned is a plan to ‘deliver a strategy of fair road-user charging in Wales as part of a broader package of measures to improve travel choices’. For ‘improve travel choices’ it might be better read as, ‘make the plebs choose more wisely’.

Parking is also targeted, such as tackling pavement parking, and policies on parking for all vehicle types should ‘drive modal shift to public transport and active travel’. For those unacquainted with the term ‘active travel’ please see the Active Travel Act passed in 2013 to make walking and cycling in Wales easier. Such travel is all very well when the weather is favourable.

Interestingly, there is a section within Llwybr Wales which deals with taxis and private hire vehicles, for which there will be national standards such as suitability of applicants and licence holders – social credit? – vehicle safety measures, vehicle testing, record keeping of journeys, driver and operator training. There are promises to ‘reform’ the licencing system and to work with the sector to move all taxis and private hire vehicles to zero emission.

Additionally, there will be less need for private cars and greater use of taxis and PHVs and ‘more taxi and PHV drivers will be able to greet passengers confidently in Welsh’. Presumably the Welsh language is a valuable weapon in the fight against the climate.

The new path for freight will include co-locating manufacturing, energy, leisure and tourism with ports and freight hubs. The government will support interventions that shift freight from road to rail and water-based transport. Goods will be moved sustainably through ‘multi modal hubs and shared logistics’.

Cardiff airport will be developed to enable Wales based passengers to fly from ‘closer to home’, and there will be moves made for Air Passenger Duty to be devolved to Wales – perhaps to increase it?  Welsh Government will work with the UK Government and the Jet Zero initiative to reduce the environmental impacts of aviation.

Transport affects a whole host of human activity including community care, where mobile carers drive between housebound and vulnerable clients. What will happen in such circumstances? At least local authorities might save money that has been historically squandered on mayoral cars. Perhaps local dignitaries will now begin to role model ‘active travel’.

With the BBC reporting that petrol stations are set to disappear in the next two decades, will all of these issues conspire to drive people out of rural areas and into the smart cities that are planned across the world? At least the global nature of the smart city concept will provide our sustainability and net zero obsessed leaders further opportunity for globetrotting at our expense.

.