25/11/2019
Lee Waters, Deputy Economy and Transport Minister, has announced how £14.5 million of active travel investment will be spent across Wales.
Active travel involves making journeys by physically active means. The funding will improve and create active travel routes and facilities in Wales, as part of efforts to encourage more people to walk and cycle.
The Deputy Minister had previously called on local authorities to be radical and ambitious in their work to improve active travel. He called for proposals to go further in creating infrastructure enabling people to choose walking and cycling as the most natural way to undertake shorter journeys.
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18/11/2019
The Vale of Glamorgan Council has set aside funding to pilot the first fully electric bike share scheme in Wales.
Following the success of the nextbike cycle hire scheme in Cardiff, which has recorded more than 548,000 rentals since its launch in 2018, the Vale of Glamorgan Council has received requests for a similar system.
In response to these requests, as well as in recognition of the potential benefits to the community and environment, nextbike, the UK’s leading bike share scheme provider, will implement the project.
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24/10/2019
Tynewydd Primary School in Newbridge are the latest school in Caerphilly County Borough to take part in the walking bus initiative as part of International Walk to School Month.
Pupils were joined by staff, parents, the council’s road safety officer and Alfie the dog earlier this week as they set off on their first walking bus from the centre of Newbridge.
20 Caerphilly primary schools across the county have a walking bus and regularly hold assemblies and lessons to teach pupils about road safety.
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21/10/2019
Since April, 98 highway improvement schemes have been completed by Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC, worth a total of £6.3m; with a further 84 schemes to be delivered by March 2020.
An report to the council’s Cabinet on 17 October, outlined the progress made since the three-year £23.5m package for highways maintenance, covering the period 2019-22, began on 1 April, 2019.
The capital programme, agreed by Full Council in March 2019, ensures the fabric of the highways network in protected and is a proactive approach aimed at avoiding expensive repairs when roads are left to reach the end of their design life. It is therefore a cost-effective option in the long term, ensuring communities benefit from better roads and footways.
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16/09/2019
For many years Gwynedd Council's Road Safety Unit has invited the county's Primary Schools to nominate two pupils from the junior section of the school to be Junior Road Safety Officers.
The role of the young officers is to spread road safety messages to the school community by holding talks, competitions, placing posters as well as putting their own ideas into action to raise awareness of road safety. The children receive a certificate and medal at the end of their time as Junior Road Satety Officers in recognition of all their hard work.
This year, in award ceremonies organised by Gwynedd Council’s Road Safety Unit, a shield was awarded to the schools in Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd which, in the opinion of the Road Safety Unit, had done the best job of promoting and encouraging road safety.
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11/09/2019
With the new school year now well underway, Torfaen County Borough Council is encouraging safe behaviour around the school gates by highlighting solutions to ease congestion and improve safety.
Many parents believe that driving their children to school keeps them safe, but each journey increases traffic and congestion. It's understandable that some parents and carers have no alternative but to drive their children to school, however many are driving short distances where walking is a real option.
Even those who have to drive can do their bit by starting their journey five minutes earlier, parking away from the school and walking for part of the journey. Also it is now known that air pollution inside the car is generally higher than that experienced by pedestrians in the street.
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16/08/2019
More than £3.6m worth of transport and active travel improvements will be made in Bridgend County Borough over the next year thanks to grants from the Welsh Government.
A total of £3,657,980 has been awarded to Bridgend County Borough Council to fund construction work of new safe routes for pedestrians and cyclists, new active travel routes and accessibility improvements at a number of bus stops. The funding also allows the council to provide road safety and cycle training for schoolchildren, as well as Pass Plus Cymru courses for new drivers.
The active travel improvements being planned by the council include new shared pedestrian and cycling routes linking Brackla to Bridgend town centre, between Pencoed and the Pencoed Technology Park, a route connecting Coychurch with both the Waterton Industrial Estate and Retail Park, and improvements around Coity. Work on all of these schemes is due to start in October and be completed by spring 2020.
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18/07/2019
Speaking at an Active Travel conference in Cardiff recently, the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, Lee Waters announced that the Welsh Government would be putting together an expert group to explore ways of clamping down more widely on illegal parking, as well as pavement parking across Wales.
The Deputy Minister also repeated the Welsh Government’s commitment to change the default speed limit for residential areas across Wales from 30 to 20mph.
He said, “Our goal is for people of all ages and abilities to be confident that they can make every day journeys by walking and cycling, and do so safely. But there are barriers in our villages, towns and cities to allow this to easily happen and this is something we must look at ways of addressing – not least as part of our wider response to the climate emergency, the air quality crisis and the obesity epidemic.
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06/11/2018
Members of Barry Bike Club at Tŷ Iolo, Barry, were awarded for their hard work at the club’s final session of the year.
The club was first introduced at Tŷ Iolo play area, through the Vale of Glamorgan's Communities First programme, to help reduce health inequities through the promotion of physical activity.
Following a revamp to the club in April this year, the sessions have attracted more than 89 children to the Tŷ Iolo play area, with participants learning to cycle safely in an off-road environment, how to balance through scooting, and how to safely start, stop and negotiate turns.
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16/07/2018
South Wales Police, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and GoSafe launched Operation Close Pass at the 2018 Velothon Wales event. The Close Pass initiative aims to improve the safety of cyclists on the road by educating drivers in overtaking safely.
The Highway Code recommends that road users should give vulnerable road users, such as motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders, the same amount of room as they would when overtaking a car – this is typically 1.5 metres.
Operation Close Pass deploys police officers on bicycles fitted with cameras to record the behaviour of drivers who overtake them. If an offence is detected, the officer contacts colleagues further down the road to direct the vehicle into a checkpoint where the driver will be offered roadside education from fire service colleagues using specially designed equipment to illustrates the safe passing distance.
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