BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Cyclists in Wales are calling on the Welsh Government to double investment in cycling and walking, saying that without more resources, its flagship Active Travel Act will fail.
Cardiff Cycle City is coordinating a Cycle on the Senedd to lobby AMs to support an investment of £17 to £20 per head of population, as recommended in the recent report of the Assembly’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee. The Welsh Government is planning to spend £10 per head, just half of what Scotland spends on walking and cycling.
A spokesperson for Cardiff Cycle City said: “Cycling has a huge amount to offer Wales. We have major problems with air quality, traffic congestion, health conditions such as obesity and type two diabetes, greenhouse gas emissions, all of which an increase in the number people cycling could help tackle.
“We are really concerned that Welsh Government is going backwards on active travel. When it put forward the Active Travel Act in 2013 it said it wanted to make “walking and cycling the most natural and normal way of getting about” but in its recently published “A low carbon pathway for Wales” its cycling target has been reduced to ten per cent of people cycling once a week.
“Over the past three years hardly any progress has been made on building active travel routes whilst we went through the map making processes required by the Act. If we are to make up for that lost time we need serious investment now.”
The lobby will take place on October 2nd at 1.00pm on the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. The organisation is calling “anybody who cares about our health, environment and economy” to bring their bikes and join them.
