NICW Roads Review response
This document is our response to the publication of the Roads Review (1). We also note the accompanying National Transport Delivery Plan (2).
Planning and Finance
The National Infrastructure Commission for Wales considers the needs and role of infrastructure in Wales from approximately 2030-2100. The roads considered within the Roads Review fall within this timeframe.
In general NICW supports the aspirations of the terms of reference and the associated review criteria. The review process is broadly aligned with the NICW frameworks. However, our response takes an explicitly long term and ‘future generations’ perspective and we would like to see the ‘long term’ receive a greater emphasis within Welsh Government policy and remit.
Our remit and perspective enables us to ask some more wide-ranging questions about the use of the road network in the future that we think also bear consideration. For example:
- What is the purpose of Wales’ road network, and how is that likely to change in the decades to come?
- What is our collective vision of the future use of roads?
- Will the nature of rural transport continue to favour, and be dominated by, private car transport? What do long-term economic and social changes mean for the rural roads that make up 78% of Wales’ total road network (3)?
- How do we maintain and develop rural transport infrastructure that also enables important social and seasonal transport for sectors such as hospitality and tourism?
We believe that asking these wide-ranging questions can help deliver solutions that consider the transport needs for all parts of Welsh society and allow for long-term planning and financing.
Climate change and biodiversity
The Roads Review incorporates the need to address the climate emergency and improve safety, with some elements of biodiversity and the nature emergency included (see recommendations 18 and 19 of the Roads Review). We would like to see greater ambition on reversing the decline of biodiversity from current and future Welsh Government initiatives, and a move towards a ‘nature positive’ approach to maintaining existing roads, and especially with any new road construction.
For example, and in the context of road planning and construction, is there a role that green infrastructure has to play, and could concepts such as biodiversity net gain and the integration of nature into the built environment support the roads programme? NICW would like to see more innovative thinking in regard to road allocation; could some roads be rewilded or pedestrianised, and could that help offset some of the detrimental impacts of others that might need to be constructed?
Regional and rural challenges
NICW is particularly encouraged by the recommendation of the use of a regional multi modal coordinated approach where local problems are used to inform a strategic assessment of how to achieve a sustainable integrated transport system. It is important that the development and maintenance of roads are not looked at in isolation but as part of a system within the wider travel/grey, green and blue, social and economic infrastructure.
To illustrate some of the challenges, the per-capita spend on public transport is greater in Powys (4) than in Cardiff (5,6). However with rural areas being less densely-populated, it is likely that active travel and public transport is less practical for more journeys than in Wales’ urban areas. The use of existing research on rural mobility could support integrated transport planning in these areas (7).
The future of roads
Although uncertainties exist around the whole-life carbon emissions of road infrastructure, it is likely that the mineral extraction, construction, repair and ‘end of life’ activities exceed the carbon emissions associated with use (8). With the growth of low emission vehicles, it is likely that the proportion of carbon emitted by road construction and maintenance will grow as the overall carbon emission from use of the infrastructure decreases. This could lead us to place greater emphasis on investigating alternative materials for road building and growing our recycling industries. Wales is demonstrating some innovation in this area (9).
The changing nature of car ownership and modes of transport on the road network should be taken into account when considering transport infrastructure for future generations. Will people lease cars, car pool, rent by the hour or will people be using other forms of transport on the road network?
We recommend that when the Welsh Government are evaluating schemes, they attempt to take into account future modes of transport and how the road will need to adapt to suit future use cases. Therefore decisions taken today will need to differ depending on the locality and according to different technological perspectives, particularly from the perspective of somebody born in the latter part of this century.
NICW suggestions
With the above in mind NICW support the recommendations of the Roads Review with additional suggestions that:
- Proposed future road schemes must be considered with wider future infrastructure developments; for example, how does a new road scheme support future housing, green and blue infrastructure, electricity supply, potential economic and industrial developments, social infrastructure and community cohesion. Taking a sustainable development systems approach that delivers a vision for Wales will create greater understanding from communities who may otherwise feel like they are missing out.
- Future road investments should be evaluated on a multi modal regional approach. NICW supports the targets of 10% reduction in private car usage as an average across Wales (10) as well as the target that 45% of all journeys to be by sustainable modes by 2040 (11). We endorse the Welsh Government’s approach to achieving these targets via increasing public transport and active travel provision with the full engagement of communities that will be affected. In recognising the different needs of urban and rural communities, the greatest opportunity for a reduction in carbon emissions is from the urban areas
- Some policy interventions have the feel of being targeted to demographics that can best take advantage of active travel use. Multi-modal transport policy must consider the needs, including psychological needs, of all user groups.
- A proportion of the roads budget should be spent on digital technologies such as digital twins, that are utilised in the planning, design, construction and operation phases to minimise carbon and more effectively manage traffic movements via real time data
- Where possible, reallocate any unspent capital earmarked for roads towards sustainable transport infrastructure
NICW commends the work of the Roads Review with its mission to create a more sustainable road network, and note that it has helped inform and inspire similar thinking elsewhere (12).
We urge the Welsh Government and its partners to be bold in finding solutions to roads that deliver the highly skilled, clean, green, innovative and successful Wales we hope for our future generations.
Note: This is a Commission opinion piece, not a recommendation to Welsh Government. As such, it does not require a formal response
References
- ‘The future of road investment in Wales’, Welsh Government, February 2023
- National transport delivery plan 2022 to 2027, Welsh Government, February 2023
- ‘Measuring road infrastructure carbon’, Decarbon8, February 2022
- £6.6m for a population of 131,700
- £13.7m budget for a population of 336,200
- StatsWales for spend (Budgeted revenue expenditure by service detail), and for population estimates
- For example, “In search of sustainable and inclusive mobility solutions for rural areas”, European Transport Research Review, April 2022
- Road life-cycle carbon dioxide emissions and emission reduction technologies: A review, Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, August 2022
- ‘Nappies added to roads ‘doubles life of surfaces’, BBC Wales, February 2022
- Net Zero Wales Carbon Budget 2 (2021 to 2025), Welsh Government, 21 October 2021
- ‘Llwybr Newydd’, the Wales Transport Strategy 2021, Welsh Government, 10 March 2021
- Such as the Road Investment Scrutiny Panel looking at roads in England