Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 8 May 2019.
To continue with the bingo analogy, if you like, I think it's eyes down for Welsh Government when we should be looking upwards. And the point that we are starting from on this journey means that we have to aim higher. You point to improved figures in Wales, but, as I pointed out, it's still not enough to move us up those rankings. We're still down there languishing at the bottom.
One of the big themes of the next 20 years of devolution, I have no doubt, will be the environment, and there'll be a major interaction between the environment and your brief of the economy and transport. I'll look at commuting, quickly. Commuting now takes longer than 20 years ago. Despite increasing environmental awareness, car traffic has increased by 12 per cent since 1999, outstripping population growth. Things aren't great moving forwards. The removal of the tolls on the Severn bridge has made traffic worse. I think the M4 black route would inevitably lead to more traffic. But I'm sensing an ambition in the Assembly as a body to take action. Time and time again we hear calls from my benches and from other benches for a real push forward in active travel. This Assembly has given Welsh Government a great piece of legislation to work from. Does the Minister, in that context, accept that, on the interaction between the environment and the economy and transport, there is a clear gap that still exists between the Assembly's desire to act and the Government's ability to?