Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:31 pm on 26 September 2017.
The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013, of course, is the basis for doing this, recognising that cycling, while important for health, is a mode of transport, and it’s important, as is walking, of course. I’ve always thought that in trying to encourage people to get onto bikes, it’s important that they feel safe, and a lot of people won’t go on the roads and mix with cars. In the countries that the Member’s mentioned, in the Netherlands, for example, and in Denmark, there is segregation between bikes and cars, and that’s one of the ways in which people can be encouraged to use bikes more. There’s a lot of work to be done, particularly in our cities, to establish bike routes into the cities. We have some bike routes that tend to take people away into the countryside, but we’re not yet in a position, I believe, where we can say that we have a proper network of urban cycle routes that will encourage the more reluctant cyclists to actually use a bike rather than feel they’ve got to compete with cars on the roads. But the active travel Act has begun the process of changing attitudes and encouraging local authorities to put in place proper provision for bikes.