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Putting saving lives before politics

Speech to Senedd on 25th September 2024 Llywydd, a year on I think it’s fair to say that the 20mph policy has been much criticised, but it is a policy that is succeeding in achieving its objectives. The data so far shows that  average speeds are down, as we said they would Collisions on all roads are their lowest since the Covid lockdowns  Casualties are down by 32% - which is the single most effective road safety intervention that has been made And lives have been saved - six fewer deaths in the first six months compared to the year before The Conservatives say the policy has been disastrous. I think these are results we can be proud of.  That’s the difference. Has our approach been perfect? No it has not. I commend the Cabinet Secretary for all his work in the last 6 months to engage with communities to apply common sense where it is needed. Once that process is complete I hope the police can start to enforce those areas where speeds are not coming down, and we can all get behind th
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20mph - a year on

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Well, it's been a bumpy ride. It was always going to be, this is a massive change, but the statistics are showing the policy is succeeding in saving lives.  In the first six months there's been a 32% drop in casualties, which is staggering. We expected to save between eight to 10 lives in the first year; in fact the lower speed limit saved six lives in the first six months. So it's at the upper end of projections. Casualties are down by a third - saving heartache for families, easing pressure on the NHS, and improving streets for people. So I think overall, it's been a huge success, but clearly it's been difficult and it's been unpopular, but it was always going to be. It would have been better if the consultation that we've now seen had come in advance, that would have made life a lot easier. There was flexibility for councils to exempt some roads, and that hasn't been used in the way it could have been done. But let's not make the perfect the enemy
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Where there’s a will, there’s a way - Gwersi o Gymru

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As a background note to my keynote address to AITPM National Transport Conference and Speaker Tour in August 2024 I have set out some of the key themes for the reforms that have been carried out in Wales that I had a role in developing as a Minister in the Welsh Government Transport Department, 2019 - 2024. I hope to add to this as I reflect on the conversations I have on my visits to meet policy makers and professional in Perth, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne. I'd really value any comments or challenge you have to any of the chapters. My thoughts are structured around the following themes (click to open each): 1 INTRODUCTION - Lessons from Wales 2 START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON 3 SAYING ALL THE RIGHT THINGS 4 …DOING THE RIGHT THINGS 5 DON'T FORGET THE HIDDEN WIRING 6 REWIRE
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Gwersi o Gymru / Lessons from Wales

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'Australians are on the frontline of climate change impacts. We are experiencing more severe bushfires, hotter and longer heatwaves, rising sea levels that are exacerbating hazards along our coastlines, cyclones that are projected to intensify and possibly track further southwards and an increase in rainfall intensity and associated flooding as the climate warms.’                                                                 Insurance Council of Australia (ICA, 2023a) Hunting is impacted. I’m hearing my mob saying they got to chuck an extra half a tank of petrol in and drive another two hours to get kangaroo. Five years ago that wasn’t the case’                                                            (Northern Territory participant (Murawin, 2023). ‘Unless climate change is addressed in an orderly and just way, the long-term retirement savings of millions of Australians are under threat’                                        
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Rewire

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People will do what is easiest. It is human nature. For 70 years we’ve focused on making the car the easiest and most convenient way to get around. So that’s what people do. To meet our legal carbon duties we need to reduce car use and achieve a shift in transport modes. If we want people to use alternatives, we need to make their use convenient and frictionless too. We need to make the right thing to do the easiest thing to do. Wales has made three structural changes alter the underlying dynamics to make sustainable choices easier for people to make. 1. Integrated transport planning 2. Legislated for Highway Authorities to plan for Active travel provision 3. Lower speed limits where people and traffic mix Delivery context Responsibility for transport policy has been devolved to Wales since 1999, but Britain’s unwritten constitution is far from neat, and Welsh devolution has been characterised by ‘jagged edges’ along the interface between central and devolved Governments. R
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Don't forget the wiring

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The Wales Transport Strategy published in 2021 put modal shift at the heart of our policies. For the first time, we’ve set a target on increasing the number of trips made by sustainable modes of transport from 32% to 45% by 2040. Grand declarations are important to signal system change. However, as we've seen in the past, transport strategies often say all the right things in the narrative but the delivery mechanisms are programmed to deliver business-as-usual. In spite of the new targets the bible for highway engineers, the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges , still prioritises traffic flow; the bible for economists and finance officials, the UK Treasury Green Book, still insists on monetising notional journey time savings when it comes to transport investments; rather than reduce speeds to save lives, orthodoxy suggests we upgrade highway design to increase capacity and allow faster speeds under the guise of road safety.  Unless the system wiring is reconfigured to delive
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...doing the right things

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Everyone agrees that 2050 is a deadline we can’t afford to miss to get our carbon emissions to balance in order to achieve NetZero. So how do we work back from there? In March 2021 Senedd Cymru, the Welsh Parliament, put net zero targets into law, and set interim targets for 2030 and 2040. Getting on to the trajectory for 2050 means that the rate of emissions cuts needed must increase sharply in each target period. Our NetZero Wales plan breaks down our overall target into a series of 5-year carbon budgets . The first carbon budget ran from 2016 to 2020 and was easily met because of the changes in the energy sector which saw the use of coal for energy coming to an end. But you can only close a coal-burning power station once. The second budget from 2021 to 2025 is more challenging and requires a 37% average reduction. Practically all transport emissions (99%) are emissions of carbon dioxide, and the transport sector is the third largest greenhouse gas emitter after electricity and he
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