AQW 10160/22-27


Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast


Tabled Date: 16/04/2024
Answered On Date: 02/05/2024
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure whether he will commit to prioritising cycling in the new Road Safety Strategy for Northern Ireland to 2030.


Answer:
In October 2022 I published the draft Road Safety Strategy for Northern Ireland to 2030. As this is a cross-cutting matter I aim to present an updated Road Safety Strategy to the Executive in the coming weeks for their consideration.  Cycling groups Cycling UK, Cycling Ulster, Sustrans and ROSPA and the Department’s own Active Travel Branch were represented as part of the original consultation for the Strategy development.
The Strategy is founded on the internationally recognised ‘Safe System’ principles and adopts an outcomes-based approach. The Strategy sets out three strategic outcomes namely: Safe People, Safe Roads, and Safe Vehicles.  There is a renewed focus on making our roads safer to use for all, particularly those who are more vulnerable, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and horse riders, and reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads.
One of the best ways to ensure safety on our roads and fulfil our long-term goal of eliminating death and serious injury by 2050, is by changing road user behaviour. We all have a personal responsibility to behave in a way that keeps ourselves and others safe. The sad reality is that if we do not change our own attitudes when we are using the roads, our death toll will continue to increase.
My Department currently supports a number of important programmes that help young people travel safely, including the Cycling Proficiency Scheme that is delivered in a number of schools each year, with officials training teachers and providing resources for them to teach their pupils these important life skills.
It is also important to recognise that with respect to active travel, a key role of my Department is the delivery of high quality infrastructure that enables people to consider walking, wheeling, and cycling as the natural choice for many of their everyday journeys and to feel safe when making those journeys. I am pleased to say that my Department has taken a number of significant steps since the introduction of the Climate Change Act in 2022 to accelerate delivery of safe, high quality active travel infrastructure into the future.