11 October 2013

Last week the Welsh Sennedd approved the Active Travel Bill, which aims to enable people to walk and cycle on short journeys, rather than jump in the car, citing a number of benefits to active travel including improving health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, addressing poverty and disadvantage, and helping sustainable economic growth. The bill will try to make walking and cycling easier and safer through improved maps and information, new and continually improved active travel routes, and forward planning processes.

This may seem a wide range of impacts to expect from a transport bill, but it highlights what a broad impact our travel options have on individuals, society, the economy and the environment. This essential role of travel in our lives is a central pillar of the Independent Transport Commission’s Why Travel? project www.whytravel.org which draws on a wide field of human knowledge to explore the fundamental motivations behind our travel choices. Our goal is to engage the public and decision-makers in thinking more deeply about why we travel and thus to inform better policy and travel planning which in turn will impact on health, the environment and society.

If you have any comments or anything to contribute to the project, please do get in touch.