Shadow Minister for Transport, Byron Davies AM, has labelled the Welsh government’s sustainable travel schemes as ‘vague and confusing’.
Mr Davies has criticised the way their success is measured and raised concerns over the amount of public engagement in existing travel initiatives.
Cardiff became a ‘Sustainable Travel Town’ in March 2009 when 14 million pounds of WAG funding was allocated to the scheme. It will receive up to 1.7 million pounds during this financial year.
Funding has also been allocated to four other areas, along with ‘Personalised Travel Planning’ interventions.
When asked for details on how success is measured in a recent written question, the Minister for Local Government said simply: ‘We expect to see more journeys being made by sustainable modes of travel’.
Mr Davies said: “Public understanding of sustainable travel is absolutely paramount – yet the overall picture in Wales remains vague and confusing.
“Cardiff’s ‘pathfinder’ scheme has been in operation for well over two years but it’s completely unclear how successful it is.
“The Minister may ‘expect’ to see more journeys out of the car – but is he – or not? Are bike schemes and park and ride sites seeing big increases in user numbers? Are CO2 emissions coming down?
“The Welsh Labour government should cut the jargon, put an end to the ambiguous objectives and place more emphasis on informing and educating people.
“Yes, we need to encourage sustainable travel. Yes, we need to help people find alternatives to the car. Yes, we need to slash emissions. So it’s about time we found out how extensively that’s happening.
“The Minister must provide an updated evaluation of all the initiatives so far – across Wales – along with figures that clearly set out user numbers, journeys out of the car and CO2 emissions.
“Millions of pounds are rightly being spent on sustainable travel – and we have to make sure we get it right.”
