Written question WQ92080

Through improving our infrastructure, we will provide greater opportunities for people to walk, wheel and cycle not only within settlements, but also through hub-and-spoke active travel corridors connecting local centres to surrounding villages and outlying developments.

We recently published our guidance for regional transport planning — Sustainable Transport in Rural Areas. This guidance will help Local Authorities and Corporate Joint Committees to consider be ambitious in considering rural transport solutions as part of their regional transport planning.

In that guidance we recognise the role active travel can play in rural and remote communities. This isn’t about forcing people from cars. It is about giving them more options. Studies have shown that, in rural settings such as the Dyfi Valley, around 40 per cent of trips could be made by sustainable options now, 40 per cent would need relatively small improvements to public transport or active travel to switch, and just 20 per cent could only be made by private vehicle. Even then there are alternatives such as community car clubs.

In that same guidance we share the excellent work being done in Bow Street, Ceredigion, to connect rural communities to employment centres and public transport using active travel.