Access to efficient, affordable transport options is a key issue underpinning well-being and improves social inclusion and connectivity. Good transport links facilitate existing relationships and can help develop new ones – both in an economic context for businesses, service providers and their workforce, but also for people and communities, as transport connectivity effects social interaction, access to retail and essential services, and the opportunities to participate in cultural and leisure activities.

The principal means of access to, from and within the area are the A55 coast road (Euroroute E22), the parallel railway from Manchester and London to Holyhead, and the A5 road to the south. In Conwy, the A470 provides a north-south road link which is paralleled by a railway linking Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog. In Denbighshire the A525 also runs north to south and links the market towns of St Asaph, Denbigh and Ruthin.

In particular people at risk of being socially excluded often experience real difficulties in getting to places. The people most likely to experience travel barriers are those without access to a personal vehicle, especially those living in more rural areas. Regular and reliable public transport services are not always available in every community, are sometimes unaffordable for people on low incomes or simply do not take people where they need to go, at the time they need to go. Car clubs and car sharing is not common place in either area. Walking and cycling may not be suitable options for accessing services which are distant or in environments where traffic levels and accident rates are high, or they may not be accessible for people with a disability.

Research commissioned by North Wales Public Service Boards during 2019 to 2020 used a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the travel barriers experienced by employers, job seekers, job mentors and members of the public across North Wales. The research concluded that access to work problems were linked to transport difficulties for those who:

• Lived in rural communities
• Paid very little rent or those who owned their own homes and faced significant cost implications if they move (likely to be younger people and people living with parents or have inherited parental property)
• Did not drive and were reliant on public transport
• Experienced health difficulties and/or were disabled (and as health is linked to mobility and age, this disproportionately affects those who were disabled and older).
• Worked in employment sectors where hours of work were irregular; and
• People who considered themselves unavailable for work outside of school hours.

The research concluded that a number of these factors were linked to poverty and social exclusion and thereby may be readily associated with particularly poor rural communities of North Wales. It found that some factors (such as driving or childcare) are gendered, and serve to disproportionally act as barriers to women accessing the workplace.^[1]

Within the economy, transport affects the ability of businesses to undertake trade with customers and suppliers and to recruit a workforce. The availability of good transportation routes in an area can influence the location of business and encourage new investment. Shifts within the wider UK economy from industries based on transporting primary/secondary sectors to the service sector means that many of our existing transport routes may not fit new ways of working.

Despite increasing traffic volumes overall figures suggest road traffic accidents and casualties are generally both reducing over time. The rise in accidents caused by driver distraction due to mobile phone usage are a concern however.

Transport was responsible for about 34% of the UK’s carbon emissions in 2019, and was the largest  source of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK.^[2] Whilst data is not yet available for 2020, it is anticipated that this fell during 2020 as a result of reduced road transport from impact of COVID 19.^[3]

Some of the issues around transport now are:

• Road capacity – including traffic flows, constraints on expansion, and increases in traffic volumes following road improvements.
• Impact of lack of integrated public transport provision particularly for peripheral communities. Particular concerns were raised about evening travel (whether for participation in social events or for employment which requires shift or unsociable hours working) and about travel difficulties associated with attending Job Centre appointments.
• Integrated active travel network and promoting active travel (safe walking and cycling routes).
• Provision of safe school transport routes – including subsidised bus services (particularly in areas where population is dispersed) but also traffic flow round schools, walking to school, drop off zones.
• The environmental impacts of transport, including air quality, carbon emissions and impact of flooding and extreme weather events on transport infrastructure.
• Electric vehicle charging infrastructure (for residents, visitors, tourists and users of public sector fleet vehicles) and the potential opportunities and challenges associated with hydrogen-powered vehicles.
• The impact of tourism on local transport.

It is important to note that active travel is the term used to describe walking and cycling for ‘purposeful journeys’. Cycling or walking, within three miles, to a place of work, education, retail, leisure and so on, where it displaces private vehicle journeys, is considered to be ‘active travel’. Whilst important (delivering many health and environmental well-being benefits), walking or cycling for leisure (mountain biking for instance), where the purpose is not to displace use of a private vehicle, is not considered to be active travel.^[4]

Changing travel habits, often referred to as modal shift, is the key aim of Llwybr Newydd, the Wales Transport Strategy. A shift to active travel for short journeys and public transport for longer journeys is at its heart.

[1] Dr Ben Binsardi, Joshua Payne, Professor Iolo Madoc-Jones, (2020). Accessing Employment and Travel Barriers in North Wales: Understanding what the issues are, identifying where they exist and exploring the solutions.

[2] 2019 and 2020 annual provisional emissions results, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

[3] More data is available here: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/723c243d-2f1a-4d27-8b61-cdb93e5b10ff/uk-local-authority-and-regional-carbon-dioxide-emissions-national-statistics-2005-to-2019

[4] Welsh Government (2021). Active Travel Act Guidance July 2021. https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2021-07/active-travel-act-guidance_0.pdf