No one appreciates when a visitor to their home says the front garden is in a bit of a state and the curtains look shabby, so when German planner Wulf Daseking said the outskirts of Galway looked like a mouth full of broken teeth and the surrounds of Dublin Airport offered a poor first impression of the country, it was guaranteed to raise hackles.
However, perhaps the outrage was performative to a degree, designed to draw attention away from Daseking’s central point, that there appeared to be no urgency to design Irish cities to meet climate change goals.
Daseking, an architect and former head of urban planning of Freiburg in Germany, recognised as one of Europe’s most sustainable cities, was invited to Galway as the keynote speaker at Reimagining the Irish City, hosted by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), the Academy of Urbanism, and Galway City Council.
Speaking after the conference, he said he was alarmed by what appeared to be an inertia, or worse still apathy in relation to the climate crisis. In particular, he saw no signs that Irish cities were being designed and retrofitted to dramatically cut reliance on private cars.
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Data published last week by the Road Safety Authority showed a high toll of accidents among cyclists on Irish roads. Infrastructure needs to improve and attitudes need to change if more people are to be encouraged out of their cars.
Meanwhile, in recent days environmental group Greenpeace took aim at Dublin’s public transport service, criticising the cost and complexity of its ticketing system. National Transport Authority representatives have pointed to recent reductions in fares, but just because something is better doesn’t mean it’s good.
Also while fares within the capital are reasonable, getting to the capital from other parts of the country can be very expensive, leading long-distance travellers to choose the car.
Much remains to be decided – and done – to map the way to a sustainable future for transport in Ireland and our cities.