7. Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Active Travel

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:48 pm on 20 February 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 5:48, 20 February 2019

I don’t know if this would count as challenge, but I wonder if you’d agree with me that one of the key factors in this agenda is safety, both in terms, as you’ve said, of other road users needing to be considerate for example of cyclists, but there’s also a particular issue for women and girls around pathways and cycleways needing to be well lit, needing to be safe. I can’t recommend to my 22-year-old daughter that she walks home at night from her work in the St David’s hotel to our home in Grangetown, because a lot of those pathways aren’t safely lit. I wouldn’t be confident, and neither would she. So, I'd place that, whether as a challenge or a request to you, so when we are critical, as we sometimes are, of people who don’t travel actively—and I’m guilty of that myself—there are, particularly for women and girls, real safety issues, and we need to make sure the infrastructure is right before we start giving people a hard time.