Active mobility

And the other is that there seem to be viable strategies for rectifying the shortcomings we have at the moment.

Anyway, moving on, Timo, I'd like to touch base on active travel.

I've read various items of research that show that good urban active travel infrastructure, that's cycleways, shared pathways and the like, has a fantastic benefit to cost ratio.

But our quest to achieve it seems too often a case of two steps forward and one back.

Why do you think towns struggle so much to really sort this? What is needed to change

That's a local project we've got here where four kilometres of road are going to cost us, or the taxpayer, $1.4 billion.

Imagine just a fraction, just a fraction of that money being invested in improving the quality of our public realm, pocket parks, some proper spatial planning, pilot projects, see attractive townhouses or even small apartments closer to services and jobs.

Do you think anybody would actually think twice about active travel? No, of course not.

You know, we're talking about access to transport, but 20% of households in Wales have no access to a car.

So we know that from the Active Travel annual report.

Actually, we're also talking about people who have no access to a car or just can't afford to run a car anymore.

And we know that's the case.

It's the changing the habits of the people who don't necessarily have to use it, but they're making the services good enough that those people would choose that over the ease of just jumping in the car.

There is that, but there's also, you raised the question, you asked us, you know, what do I, what do I need to do to kind of change this? And that's the thing.

One of the questions is, you know, do we need to talk about the planning? Who is being involved in the conversations? And this is the kind of thinking around kind of feminist new green deal is who does it benefit, you know, making a kind of a policy for active travel, but then, and making transport policy, but who is part of the discussion and who is making the decisions?

Transport was the next subject that we really got our teeth into.

So what do we do in the short to medium term?

Well, I think what my motion suggests is the active travel projects that you see ongoing at the moment in the Ballyraean out to the Creamery Roundabout and indeed from the Hospital Roundabout up to Noctemona.

They have been passed by the majority of the elected members, albeit the fact that we in Fianna Fáil have opposed it.

I think we have to accept the decision was made there.

They're due to go ahead next.

The planning has been passed by the majority of elected members for them.

They're for active travel.

They're to narrow the carriageways and to put in the double bicycle lanes on both roads.

So the next question is, what is the council doing to make it easier for people to walk, cycle, and to use public transport rather than rely on cars? A two-part look at this now.

First off, I'm joined by Clinton Donovan, who's cycling and walking officer with Active Travel team.

Good morning to you, Clinton.

Good morning, Alan.

How are you?

So in a nutshell, what are you doing? Because the Active Travel team administers the NTA's Active Travel Investment Program, which is quite a mouthful, but, uh, when you put it into layman's terms, what does it actually mean?

Yes, and I suppose to start with, what is active travel? Well, active travel is the, uh, is making the, the journey from A to B on your own steam, so whether that be walking or cycling or indeed using a wheelchair user or a mobility scooter.

So it's about investing in infrastructure that facilitates that safe travel, that travel under your own steam, um, w- so that you can have... improve your health, you can, um, get out and feel the fresh air.

And I wonder, I mean, how is your view about the future of bike sharing, cycling in London? And maybe when we are talking about new mobility, I can also ask your opinion about autonomous vehicles and how TfL sees autonomous mobility and how you are planning to partner with autonomous mobility players in the future as well.

We're really proud of our focus on active travel, as we call it.

Again, in the Mayor's Transport Strategy, we want 80% of everybody in London, visitors or residents, either using public transport, walking or cycling, by 2041.

Fantastic.

So it's around articulating the benefits to people, both the health benefits, but also particularly the last mile benefits, and using that as an integrated transport solution.

We are continuing to focus on how we can improve safety for cyclists, particularly those who are less regular users, so that's a big focus.

But active travel, scooters, official scooters through trials and bikes are really, really important.

And of course, a huge number of people cycle on their own bikes and giving them the infrastructure to do that is really key.

We are starting to deal now with...

The active travel changes while they're ongoing.

People getting to and from work, to and from hospital appointments, to and from school.

It's causing serious problems.

OK, right.

And I'll tell you, there's another story potentially coming out, too, about a major educational development that could be hampered because of infrastructure.

And that infrastructure is buried underneath some of these active travel works.

It's a story I'm working on at the moment.