Be sure to sign up here for Highways Live Cymru, the latest in our Highways Live events series, which is taking place on 10 September in Cardiff.

 

Rhodri Clark gives a round-up of Welsh roads policy and the innovations that have helped earn the devolved nation a reputation for never being afraid to lead. 

There was almost a sense of shock when the default speed limit on Welsh restricted roads - usually in built-up areas with street lights no more than 200 yards apart - changed from 30mph to 20mph in 2023. While a selection of English and Scottish cities had experimented with 20mph coverage, achieved gradually with signage for each zone or street, the Welsh change happened overnight and applied as a default across the country - in towns and villages as well as cities. 

Unsurprisingly with any major policy change, there was criticism at first. The Welsh Government and local authorities undertook a ‘listening exercise', and some further roads were exempted from the 20mph default limit. Under the policy, local highway authorities had always retained control and could exempt any road they saw fit.

Labour politicians believe their party took a hit on 20mph in the May 2026 Senedd election, when Labour lost control of the Welsh Government for the first time. However, parties which backed the policy won the majority of seats and votes.

Now opposition to 20mph seems to be reducing as people become more familiar with the policy and further police statistics underline the benefits. The figures show that the radical move has indeed paid off, with Wales seeing a major reduction in collisions that was simply miles ahead of UK counterparts.

Earlier this year, a Welsh Parliament (Senedd) report found that following the introduction of the 20mph default speed limit, the number of collisions on 20mph/30mph roads fell by 22.5% from 2023 Q2 to 2024 Q4. Collisions on other roads in Wales decreased slightly by 0.2%.

‘During the same period in England, collisions on 20mph/30mph roads and other roads fell by 4.7% and 1.3% respectively. Scotland saw a slight increase of 1.5% on 20mph/30mph roads and a decrease of 7.4% on other roads,' the report states.

The 20mph policy is another example of Wales leading UK roads policy, paying an initial price perhaps but reaping the long-term benefits. It is also one of many Welsh innovations that can be traced back to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. The Act requires public bodies to consider the long-term impact on current and future generations when making decisions. One of its goals includes creating ‘attractive, viable, safe and well-connected communities'.

Roads policy 

The last Welsh Government also shook up the principles behind road building. It commissioned an independent policy review and, in 2023, accepted the recommendation that only four purposes should justify future road schemes: 

  • Modal shift to sustainable transport to reduce carbon emissions; 
  • Reducing casualties where they are high, through small changes; 
  • Adapting roads to climate-change impacts; 
  • Supporting prosperity by providing access to development sites, with high mode share for sustainable modes.

The Government also accepted the recommendations that schemes should not increase road capacity for cars, lead to higher vehicle speeds or harm ecologically valuable sites.

The ‘predict and provide' door had closed, but road building was not banned, as some opposition politicians claimed. Gwynedd and Rhondda Cynon Taf councils, for example, redesigned proposed bypasses for lower speeds.

In 2019, the Welsh Government cancelled its largest planned road scheme, the M4 Relief Road at Newport. It established a commission, led by Lord Burns, to recommend other ways to reduce congestion where the M4 reduces to two lanes for the Brynglas Tunnels, Newport. The commission recommended new railway stations, accessible by bus, car or active travel, so that suburban Cardiff and Newport residents had easy access to trains, rather than having to drive on the M4 or pay to park at city-centre stations.

Plaid Cymru promised a roads-based M4 solution in its winning election campaign this year. It has since ruled out the all-new alignment cancelled in 2019 and focused on enhancing and connecting existing roads for through traffic. It also recognises that the ‘Burns stations' would ease the burden on the M4 and is urging the UK Government to accelerate their delivery (the railway infrastructure is not devolved).

It is also committed to improving the resilience of connections between Anglesey and the North Wales mainland. This could include a third road crossing. Shorter-term planned measures include wind deflectors on the Britannia Bridge.

Since 2019, the balance of roads expenditure has tilted more in favour of resilience rather than enhancement of capacity and journey times, as exemplified by the £46m viaduct over the floodplain at Machynlleth which opened in 2024. 

Last year, the Government announced support for the 22 unitary authorities to borrow £120m to accelerate highways repairs. This echoes the innovative Local Government Borrowing Initiative which noticeably improved the condition of Welsh local roads between 2012 and 2014.

Lighting the way

Wales has led the drive to reduce carbon emissions, energy use and operating costs by adopting LED road lighting, with 67% of the lighting stock already LED by 2024 – a higher proportion than in the rest of Great Britain. Welsh trunk roads have gone one step further with lighting intensity reducing between midnight and 5am, when lighter traffic makes bright lighting unnecessary.

In 2018, the speed limit was reduced to 50mph on five sections of Welsh trunk road to reduce the local health impacts of nitrogen dioxide emissions. Compliance was achieved at different rates, and in 2023 roadside NO2 concentrations at all five sections were below the legal maximum for the first time. Concentrations have continued to decrease since then.

Wales is also leading the UK field with secondary legislation this year enabling authorities to install simple zebra crossings at side road junctions, to remind road users of pedestrians' priority there. 

This followed positive results of trial crossings in Manchester, Cardiff and Westminster.

Sustainable modes

Wales has been trying, so far with limited success, to increase walking and cycling for everyday journeys since it passed the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013, the world's first legislation requiring all local authorities to map existing and future active travel networks and to deliver the networks progressively. 

Last year, approximately 25% of journeys in Wales were by ‘sustainable' modes, compared with the Government's target for 2025 of 35%. The biggest contributor to this shortfall is arguably bus travel. Wales is embarking on a radical new approach, legislating last year for all bus services to come under public control.

While equivalent legislation in England and Scotland allows for alternative bus operating models, Welsh ministers are now under a statutory duty to specify all bus services within Wales and to procure them. The Government's Transport for Wales company will lead on rolling out bus franchising, one region at a time, by 2030.

This is expected to replicate the successes of Greater Manchester's Bee Network but across a larger and more varied geography, including deep rural areas. Significantly, the Welsh legislation requires ministers to remove barriers to using buses, which could translate into installation of more bus lanes and bus priority where congestion routinely traps buses.

Franchising coincides with implementation of new Regional Transport Plans by Corporate Joint Committees, statutory groupings of unitary authorities formed in 2021. 

This regional approach is expected to mesh with franchising where infrastructure and services are developed together.

To learn more about the Welsh road network, be sure to sign up here for Highways Live Cymru, the latest in our Highways Live series, which is taking place on 10 September in Cardiff.