6. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:38 pm on 22 June 2021.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 5:38, 22 June 2021

Thank you. That doesn't fall within the remit of the roads review, but it does fall within the Wales transport strategy that we published in March, and we are looking at that last-mile delivery network and the potential for doing things differently. And as part of this year's funding, we are funding a pilot project using electric bikes to cargo bikes in Swansea, Aberystwyth, Newtown and in Cardiff—particularly adapted bikes—to see what role they can play. Because there's significant evidence to show that they can have a real impact in addressing air quality in towns and cities and efficiency for businesses, because you can deliver much quicker using an electric cargo bike for the last mile than if you were racing around the city in a white van. So, I do think that electric bikes are a game changer, both in towns and cities in terms of deliveries, but also in rural areas for other types of journeys.

And one thing we haven't discussed today in any detail is the implication of today's announcement on rural areas. And I'm very clear that rural areas need to be part of the solution. The approach that we need to take in rural areas will be different from the approach that we take in urban areas. Nonetheless, modal shift is eminently achievable in rural areas too.

We did do some work, which I presented to local authority leaders from rural areas in March, as part of the Wales transport strategy, looking at European countries and their rural areas. We looked at how they, in very similar circumstances—indeed, sometimes more sparse than ours—have, in some examples, far higher instances of bus use, far more frequent services, far more use of active travel, partly through electric bikes, but also through segregated routes. So, there is definitely a rural element to our ambition of achieving modal shift. There has to be. It is a different one, but it is just as important, and we are committed to doing that too.