Following the first annual report of the Independent Active Travel Board, Joe Rossiter looks at what’s next and why delivery constraints reflect wider challenges facing Welsh Government.
The Independent Active Travel Board for Wales has produced its first Annual Report which details their view on Wales’ progress on increasing active travel (consisting of walking, wheeling and cycling for purposeful journeys).
The report is a notable moment in assessing the delivery of a recent glut of Welsh Government policies aimed at transitioning to a more sustainable transport system. Such a transition relies upon modal shift as a central pillar, that is, shifting people from private car usage to more sustainable modes, such as public transport or active travel.
Amongst the host of positive policy includes: creating a higher bar for investing in large scale road building schemes, the implementation of a sustainable hierarchy, investment in safe, secure and accessible active travel routes and attempts to refocus transport sector investment more broadly. This productive policy direction can be seen across numerous recent policy documents, from Llwybr Newydd, the National Transport Delivery Plan, Planning Policy Wales and the National Active Travel Delivery Plan.
Additionally, there are broader policies which seek to deliver more attractive public transport options by bringing services into the public sector, such as with the nationalisation of Transport for Wales and planned widespread reform to bus services. Based on the above, the policy direction seems right and suggests that key principles underpinning the transition to a more sustainable transport system are in the process of being mainstreamed across devolved government.
However, some of this progress has come at considerable political cost to the Welsh Labour Government, with a number of policy interventions receiving significant public backlash. This is most notably the case with the 20mph policy, which, in attempting to make roads safer for road users (particularly the most vulnerable) and tackle air pollution, has been the source of a lot of controversy, with polling suggesting 72% of people in Wales oppose the policy.
The report is a notable moment in assessing the delivery of a recent glut of Welsh Government policies aimed at transitioning to a more sustainable transport system.
Despite this, the implementation has been a success, with both collisions and casualties markedly down. As a standalone policy intervention, it was based on evidence, had a long roll-out time, including widespread stakeholder engagement, and was cost-effective, as safer roads lead to less health spend.
Much of this controversy has, undoubtedly, been masking a policy landscape in which Wales is leading the rest of the UK and making its mark on the global stage. So how do we establish where the generally positive, although contested, policy momentum has taken us thus far, and what does this mean for the distance yet to travel? The Active Travel Board report provides some of the answers.
Delivery
The results from the Board’s report clearly show that delivery lags behind the considerable policy ambition. This is particularly clear considering that active travel levels have remained stagnant, and even fallen in some cases despite investment.
There are some significant factors which have constrained an accelerated pace of delivery. The state of the UK economy and Wales’ budget specifically have somewhat limited delivery against policy ambition, and have seemingly rendered some elements of the National Transport Delivery Plan undeliverable. Paradoxically, the lack of capital spend on major infrastructure projects constrains the efforts to tackle grossly uneven regional economic performance. Curtailing investment on areas like active travel, which have positive cost savings and spillovers to other areas, including health and wellbeing, access to education and employment, and strengthening spend in the local foundational economy to name but a few, damages our ability to tackle systemic challenges facing our public services.
The Active Travel Board report also notes the lack of capacity for local authorities, which puts severe constraints on the delivery of capital and revenue projects which improve access to active travel. As key deliverers of transport projects on the ground this is a severely inhibiting factor.
Innovative. Informed. Independent.
Your support can help us make Wales better.
Behaviour change also underlies efforts to create a modal shift to active travel. As the report notes, a comprehensive suite of policy carrots and sticks are required to radically shift transport behaviours. The strong political pushback on recent policy proposals sets a worrying precedent for policies which attempt to move away from car usage, mainly for shorter journeys. Relying on local authorities to lead in this area also seems wishful thinking, as they need strong, consistent cross-government commitment to accelerated action to support them to make and implement ambitious policies at a local and community level.
Many of the findings of the Active Travel Board were reflected in Audit Wales’ Active Travel report, which similarly notes that policy delivery is a ‘long way from achieving the step change in active travel’ intended. Their report also notes poor data to inform policy implementation, a lack of focus on behaviour change initiatives alongside highlighting gaps between local decision making and national policy intention.
There are also some policy failures in active travel which can be read across the board for other policy areas at the devolved level: the lack of investment in the required depth and quality of data to inform and analyse the implementation of government policy; and the much discussed ‘delivery gap’ between positive policy and poorer delivery. Active travel is a decent example of both of these trends.
With the new First Minister establishing her four ambitions for government, stating ‘we will deliver,’ there has clearly been a shift in focus towards delivering better outcomes. This is further evident from the appointment of a ‘Minister for Delivery’ in Julie James. All of this shows that there is clearly a much needed transition to an approach which prioritises delivery as a central concern of government in Wales. Though, of course, it could be argued that delivery should always be a central concern of government, a shift towards implementing policy which delivers better outcomes for people is welcome. Active travel and transport more generally is a good example of a policy area where a focus on delivery will be much needed over the coming months and years, with a fundamental and system-wide transformation required.
Long-termism and the art of political patience
The transformation of the transport system in Wales is indisputably a long-term process. Many of the underpinning actions, whether infrastructure investment, levelling up public transport, or enabling the behaviour change which underpins all policy actions, represent long-term fixes, which require sustained investment against a clear set of priorities.
With the new First Minister establishing her four ambitions for government, stating ‘we will deliver,’ there has clearly been a shift in focus towards delivering better outcomes.
Importantly, they also require long-term political commitment to fulfilling an ambitious goal. Whether future Welsh Governments will stay this course is, of course, up for debate.
Some of the policy interventions mentioned in this piece cannot be expected to deliver immediate results, be it an uptick in active travel users or minimising journeys made by car. Instead, we must judge these policies for what they represent: long-term shifts in how we plan our transport system, organised around public values of inclusion, sustainability and resilience.
The success of the transformation required is also reliant on cultural change at an institutional level, whether it is devolved government, local authorities or transport planners, to behaviour change from individuals. We can see many parallels between this and Wales’ overall net zero journey. For example, the need to radically alter our food environment is a long-term change that requires systematic and cross-sectoral transformation. Rethinking what we value, how we deliver better outcomes, and how we implement ambitious policy needs significantly more consideration, time and scrutiny.
Discussions and debates that drive Wales forward.
Join Wales’ leading independent think tank.
It is also important to conceive of transport as an integral part of wider systems. A transport system which locks people into inactivity poses costs to already stretched health services. Lack of access to affordable, accessible and reliable public transport options puts barriers for the most disadvantaged when it comes to vital education, training, employment and social opportunities. Every missed opportunity, or year of poor policy delivery, continues to fail the people that most rely on sustainable transport as their only option to live an independent decent life . Transport, social justice and the environment are, therefore, intrinsically linked. Accelerating delivery is thus a vital tool in solving the complex set of challenges to improve wellbeing outcomes for many.
This is but the latest chapter in Wales’ ambitious and long-term journey to create a more sustainable transport for all. We hope to see a continued commitment to reaching the destination, but we need to shift a couple of gears up if we are to deliver on the policy ambition.
All articles published on the welsh agenda are subject to IWA’s disclaimer. If you want to support our work tackling Wales’ key challenges, consider becoming a member.
