Trinity College Dublin has joined the growing list of Irish universities implementing the National Transport Authority’s “Smarter Travel Initiative”.
Already in operation in NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, University College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Technology, the initiative unveiled yesterday by Trinity College encourages students and staff to use sustainable and healthier modes of transport.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Andrew Montague, who as a city councillor came up with the popular Dublin Bike scheme, officially rolled out the programme alongside the university's provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast.
Mr Montague praised the role that the university was playing in making Dublin a safer city by encouraging more people to cycle.
"The more people we can get to cycle, the calmer the city centre traffic is, and that actually reduces fatalities, and the research shows that the safest cities in the world are the cities with the most cyclists," he said.
Some of the elements of the programme announced yesterday include the installation of an additional places for bike parking, continued assessment of travel surveys and the hosting of a number of activities for students and staff including bike training and maintenance workshops, cycling challenges and information sessions.
"Wherever we put in smarter travel initiatives we see a big increase in the number of people coming by bus, walking and cycling," said Mr Montague.
"Typically we get 2 per cent of people travelling by bike, but in our smarter travel organisation we typically get up to 18 to 20 per cent of people coming by bike."
The programme for Trinity College is called "Smarter Travel Trinity", and the university has said that they hope to make walking, cycling, using public transport and car pooling easier travel options for both students and staff.
"Promoting smarter travel in Trinity makes sense for a university that is as centrally located as Trinity College. It also supports the fact that Trinity is committed to sustainable development throughout its activities as well as being a university that encourages health and well being," said Dr Prendergast.
The initiative was also welcomed by the university's Student Union president, Ryan Bartlett, who said that his generation had accepted that smarter travel methods are the better way to travel.
"[What] this scheme will do is rather than just saying: 'this is the better way to travel', we are actually looking at providing practical support, installing more spaces for people to park bikes, so actually enabling them to do it," he said.
