Wednesday 1 April 2009

What we’d like to see

Given the urgency of the need to reduce carbon emissions to tackle climate change, Sustainable Transport Cymru would like the National and Regional Transport Plans to take bold action to reduce the contribution Wales makes towards global warming.

We believe a package of complementary measures is urgently needed to change travel behaviour and lock-in the benefits to reduce traffic. With more than a third of households in parts of Wales without access to a car we believe that the National and Regional Transport Plans should commit to a comprehensive package of hard and soft measures to reduce car dependency and encourage active forms of travel.

We wish to see a commitment to:

  • Prioritise measures which cut carbon emissions
  • Sustained investment in a ‘Smarter Choices’ programme to bring about behaviour change

To achieve significant and lasting modal shift we would like to see a programme of:

  • Reallocation of road space towards sustainable modes of transport
  • Traffic calming and speed restraint in residential areas to encourage walking and cycling
  • An extensive network of shared paths for walking and cycling, including paths segregated from traffic
  • Congestion charging allied with extra investment in public transport
  • Parking control (including low parking standards for new developments, charging, use of workplace parking levies, re-development of parking space for more productive uses);
  • An extension of safe routes to schools (for example, by using traffic-calming measures near schools and by creating or improving walking and cycle routes to schools).
  • Measures to promote integrated transport, for example, multi-modal ticketing, bus / rail interchanges, Smart Cards and secure cycle parking.
  • A range of ‘Smarter Choices’ measures. For example, Travel planning, Car Clubs, Car sharing, Bus Real Time information systems, Park & Ride, cycle training,showers and lockers in workplaces.
  • An integrated marketing strategy to target information on those who are susceptible to change the way they travel;
  • Demand responsive services, including community transport, to tackle social exclusion in rural areas and other areas of transport poverty.
  • - The development of transport hubs in key rural centres, serviced by flexible and innovative transport modes including community transport;
    A wide reaching awareness raising campaign educating the public in the techniques involved in more efficient driving, for journeys where sustainable modes of transport are not an option.

These measures to reduce car dependency should be funded by a shift away from road building.

Not only would they lessen the environmental impact of transport but would have significant health benefits too. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), in the first ever evidence-based recommendations on health and transport[1], supports many of these measures as part of its recommendations to shift the balance away from car use to other modes of transport that promote physical activity.

Sustainable Transport Cymru supports bold action to bring about a change in culture which addresses the urgency of climate change and the gravity of the obesity epidemic.


[1] National Institute of Clinical Excellence. Promoting and creating built or natural environments that encourage and support physical activity. Nice public Health guidance 8. January 2008.

Yr hyn yr hoffem ei weld

O dderbyn yr angen brys i ostwng allyriadau carbon er mwyn mynd i’r afael â newid hinsawdd, hoffai Sustainable Transport Cymru i Gynlluniau Trafnidiaeth Cenedlaethol a Rhanbarthol i weithredu’n eofn er mwyn gostwng y cyfraniad a wna’r rhanbarth tuag at gynhesu byd-eang. Credwn fod angen pecyn o fesurau cyflenwol brys i newid arferion teithio ac i gadw’r buddion er mwyn lleihau traffig. Gyda mwy na thraean o gartrefi mewn rhannau o Gymru heb fynediad i gar, credwn y dylai’r Cynlluniau Trafnidiaeth Cenedlaethol a Rhanbarthol ymrwymo i becyn cynhwysfawr o fesurau caled a meddal i ostwng y ddibyniaeth ar geir ac annog ffyrdd gweithredol o deithio.
Hoffem weld ymrwymiad i:

  • Flaenoriaethu mesurau sy’n torri ar allyriadau carbon
  • Buddsoddiad cynaliadwy mewn rhaglen ‘Dewisiadau Gwell’ er mwyn gweld newid mewn ymddygiad


I gyflawni newid moddol sylweddol a pharhaol, hoffem weld rhaglen o:

  • Adleoliad gofod ffordd tuag at ddulliau cynalidawy o drafnidiaeth
  • Arafu traffig a chyfyngiadau cyflymder mewn ardaloedd preswyl er mwyn annog cerdded a beicio
  • Rhwydwaith eang o lwybrau cyfrannol ar gyfer cerdded a beicio (wedi’u gwahanu oddi wrth draffig)
  • Codi tâl am dagfeydd ynghyd â buddsoddi ymhellach mewn trafnidiaeth gyhoeddus
  • Rheolaeth parcio (gan gynnwys safonau parcio isel ar gyfer datblygiadau newydd, codi tâl, y defnydd o ardollau ar fannau parcio’n y gweithle, ailddatblygu mannau parcio ar gyfer dibenion mwy cynhyrchiol);
  • Ymestyniad o lwybrau saff i ysgolion (e.e. drwy ddefnyddio mesurau arafu traffig ger ysgolion a thrwy greu neu wella llwybrau cerdded a beicio i ysgolion).
  • Mesurau i hyrwyddo trafnidiaeth integredig, e.e. tocynnau amlfoddol, cyfnewidfeydd bysiau / trenau, Smart Cards a pharcio beiciau diogel.
  • Ystod o fesurau ‘Dewisiadau Gwell’. Er enghraifft, Cynllunio taith, Clybiau Ceir, Rhannu Ceir, Systemau gwybodaeth Bysiau Amser Real, Parcio a Theithio, cawodydd a loceri yn y gweithle.
  • Strategaeth farchnata integredig i dargedu gwybodaeth i’r rheiny sy’n dueddol o newid eu dull o deithio;
  • Mynnu gwasanaeth ymatebol, gan gynnwys trafnidiaeth gymunedol, i daclo gwaharddiad cymdeithasol mewn ardaloedd gwledig ac ardaloedd eraill o ddiffyg trafnidiaeth.
  • Ymgyrch codi ymwybyddiaeth bell-gyrhaeddol i addysgu’r cyhoedd am y technegau sy’n rhan o yrru mwy effeithiol, am deithiau lle nad yw ffyrdd cynaliadwy o drafnidiaeth yn opsiwn.

Dylai’r mesurau hyn i ostwng dibyniaeth ar geir gael eu hariannu gan symudiad i ffwrdd oddi wrth adeiladu ffyrdd.Nid yn unig y byddent yn lleihau effaith amgylcheddol trafnidiaeth ond yn cael buddion sylweddol o ran iechyd hefyd. Mae’r Sefydliad Cenedlaethol ar gyfer Iechyd a Rhagoriaeth Glinigol (NICE), yn yr argymhellion cyntaf erioed ar sail tystiolaeth ar iechyd a thrafnidiaeth[1], yn cefnogi nifer o’r mesurau hyn fel rhan o’i argymhellion i newid y cydbwysedd oddi wrth y defnydd o geir i ffyrdd eraill o drafnidiaeth sy’n hyrwyddo gweithgarwch ymarferol.Mae Sustainable Transport Cymru yn cefnogi gweithredu eofn er mwyn achosi newid mewn diwylliant, gan fynd i’r afael â’r mater brys o newid hinsawdd a difrifoldeb yr epidemig gordewdra.

[1] Sefydliad Cenedlaethol Rhagoriaeth Glinigol. Hyrwyddo a chreu amgylcheddau a adeiladwyd neu naturiol sy’n annog a chefnogi gweithrediad ymarferol. Canllaw Nice ar Iechyd y cyhoedd 8. Ionawr 2008