The decision announced on Tuesday about the future of major road building projects in Wales changes nothing immediately. Hundreds of millions of pounds are still set to be poured in tarmac and concrete into widening the A465 across the top of the Valleys in the coming months and years. No diggers will be idled tomorrow morning. Council executives will still hatch plans and draw up bids.
But it would be a mistake to underestimate the scale and importance of the decisions the Welsh Government has been and is making about not proceeding with massive road building schemes. Ambitious plans for the A55 and a third Menai crossing now join the hope of a new M4 around Newport on the scrap heap. Future work envisaged for congested stretches of the M4 around Cardiff, Bridgend, Port Talbot and Swansea will now never leave the sketchbook. Hopes of safety improvements on the A470 and A487 are gone.
Wales in 20 years is now set to look very different than it would have done if a different administration were in power in Cardiff Bay right now. Environmentalists and green travel campaigners are celebrating the change of direction. Yet many questions remain. Not least how the congestion and pollution caused by idling cars queuing in traffic jams will ever be resolved.
The documents published by the Welsh Government confidently talk of "modal shift". Yet their dream of moving future traveller demand onto public transport or cycling and walking is far from a proven solution. By scratching ambitious schemes, money will have been freed up in future years to pay for green travel plans they are nurturing. A huge amount now rides on those visions succeeding.
A congested Wales of dangerous, overcrowded roads is not likely to be an economically successful nation that draws in employment and prosperity. We're taking a leap of faith. The Welsh Government argues the climate catastrophe leaves us no choice. We have to hope it works.
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