IRELAND’S CYCLISTS have long been treated as second-class citizens in terms of transport planning, with the facilities they need for safer travel ranking low, or not at all, on the priority list. As a result, despite the belated provision of narrow cycle lanes on city streets, often shared with buses and taxies, it is little wonder that the number of people cycling to work fell from 7 per cent to less than 2 per cent between 1986 and 2006.
Among schoolchildren, the collapse in cycling was even more dramatic over the same period, with a decrease of 83 per cent, to just over 4,000 nationally. This, too, is hardly surprising given the enormous rise in car numbers during the economic boom and, with it, the growing perception that our roads and streets are unsafe for cyclists, particularly school-going children.
But there are some hopeful straws in the wind. The most recent census of traffic crossing Dublin’s canal ring showed that the number of cyclists coming into the city centre in the morning peak period in 2008 increased by 8 per cent compared to the previous year – emboldened, no doubt, by the removal of heavy goods vehicles from the city’s streets.
The potential for growth is surely significant, given that over 100,000 people drive less than four kilometres to work in Dublin alone and that cycling has been shown to be the quickest mode of transport in congested cities for trips up to six kilometres. Allocating more road space to cyclists (at the expense of accommodating cars), eliminating traffic hazards at major junctions and creating safe cycling routes to schools would encourage more people to leave their cars at home.
Nobody could doubt Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey’s personal commitment to see that the 100-plus actions identified in Ireland’s first National Cycle Policy Framework, unveiled on Monday, are actually implemented.
However, no policy framework can be treated seriously unless there is money attached to it. As Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd pointed out, “the document does not provide any information on how any of the proposals will be paid for”. Indeed, the only figure given upfront was an investment of €3 million in the “refurbishment” of key cycle routes in Dublin. So whether Mr Dempsey can ensure, year-on-year in these hard times, that funding will be made available to realise his programme is open to question, much like the Government’s faltering road safety strategy.