Cardiff Liveable City Report – October 2015

Cardiff Council has released its Liveable City Report for 2015. This is a snapshot of how well Cardiff is doing compared to other cities in the UK for providing a liveable environment for people to work, rest & play.

What is this liveable malarkey?

This is the social determinants of health we’ve talked about before. Rather than regurgitate everything, might I suggest you take a look at our Wellbeing of Future Generations article for a quick primer.

The Report

The report is broken down into seven key themes:

1. A thriving and prosperous economy
2. People are safe and feel safe
3. People are healthy
4. People can achieve their full potential
5. People have a clean, attractive & sustainable environment
6. A fair, just and inclusive society
7. A great place to live, work and play

Of particular interest to us is sections 3 and 5. As we know, cycling not only sorts out the obesity and inactivity issues, it’s also a tremendous contributor to the creation of a clean, sustainable environment.

The report effectively reiterates what we already know –Cardiff is addicted to the car, but perhaps most surprising is that we rank quite highly compared with other cities in terms of the number of people who do cycle. We are third behind Bristol and Manchester (London is not included in the report).

However, that is not to say Bristol and Manchester are beacons of light here. There are few cities in the UK that do cycling particularly well and we are still languishing in sub-10% modal share territory.

The future…

To get an idea of where we in Cardiff might be heading, the Council released its Liveable Design Guide back in May 2015. It’s a very interesting document that is well worth a read.

By 2026, our aim is that over 50% of journeys in the city will be made by sustainable transport. Proposals for a new transport interchange in Central Square, including dedicated cycle lanes and bike storage, and a South East Wales Metro, mean these are exciting times for sustainable transport in the city.

Source: Cardiff’s cycling future | Sustrans

Whether or not Cardiff ends up looking like the Council’s vision remains to be seen, but we’re expecting some changes for the better over the next ten years –if only to keep pace with other cities who are likely to overtake us in the near future.