Praise was rightly given in a recent letter in Wokingham.Today for the work of the Council’s My Journey team.
Winning hearts and minds is an essential part of changing travel habits, which is needed for so many reasons.
Foremost amongst these reasons is the need to decarbonise transport and reduce particulate air pollution, which requires a change of travel from cars to walking and biking, known as ’modal shift’ in the terminology of the day.
The recent update to the Wokingham Climate Emergency Action Plan makes clear that the target reduction in CO2 emission from modal shift means 5 times as many miles cycled and 2.5 times as many miles walked by 2030, with a compensating reduction in driving.
The main action in the plan to enable this change is the delivery of the cycling and walking infrastructure plan, which is being written this year.
This needs to look at all aspects of how we provide for pedestrians and cyclists and is just as essential as working on hearts and minds, though inevitably more expensive.
Motivation to leave the car behind will diminish rapidly if people who choose to do so feel they are second-class citizens, let alone once they have one or more close encounters with a car or truck.
As you read this, the first cut of the Council’s 2022 budget is being put together, with competing bids for scarce resources being pitched by Council officers and executives. Last year’s budget committed more than ten times as much on new parking, traffic signals and roads than on all infrastructure for walking and cycling combined.
Investing in making it even easier to drive, when traffic levels show this is already the preferred option, will not achieve any modal shift, let alone the level required in the Council’s plan.
Recent statements from central government on the need to reprioritise resources towards walking and cycling cannot have been clearer.
Willing the outcome, and working on hearts and minds is not enough.
Do our politicians have the foresight and commitment to reassign the cold hard cash to make this happen?
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