Dublin celebrates car-free day with usual gridlock

Just to let you know that today is Car Free Day (CFD)

Just to let you know that today is Car Free Day (CFD). In other cities such as Copenhagen you could probably guess this from the absence of cars in the city centre. But here in Ireland the clues are harder to spot. Decision-makers need to stop thinking car culture, writes David Maher.

Indeed in Dublin CFD is mounted like a covert operation - few if any road closures and no end to the heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) trundling down our quays.

While continentals will enjoy their cities in a car-free environment, gridlock will rule the day in Dublin.

Ireland's failure to embrace CFD is consistent with a policy that has seen it become one of the most car-dependent countries in the world. Our transport policy could be accurately described as our "more cars please" policy.

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Fundamentals of this approach include spending billions on oversized motorways while ensuring that only 20 per cent of transport infrastructure spending goes on public transport. Add to this no carbon taxes, no congestion charging, no increased taxes on oversized SUVs, a Quality Bus Corridor programme that is years behind schedule, and you start to get the picture.

The National Roads Authority's failure to adhere to its statutory obligation to "consider the needs of all road-users" has seen many national roads built to a pseudo-motorway design, complete with high-speed slip roads and multi-lane interchanges, with zero consideration given to the rights and safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

The design of the M50 interchanges with existing roads has effectively cut off many suburbs from the city, reinforcing car dependence in Dublin.

From a cycling perspective, the key problems are the sheer volume of traffic, the dangers posed by HGVs and new roads with totally inappropriate design speeds and cyclist-hostile junctions. The roundabouts encircling Galway and the new junction at Dundrum in Dublin are perfect examples of roads designed by non-cycling traffic engineers.

Those cycle tracks where cyclists are coerced on to the footpath to vie with unsuspecting pedestrians must be phased out. It is heartening to see so many new cycle-parking stands appearing, and only fair to give credit for sensibly designed cycle lanes such as in Ranelagh, but these are the exception, not the rule.

The absence of cyclists and pedestrians from the National Safety Council and its dependence on the motoring industry for funding has reduced it to little more than a puppet of that industry. In June 2003 the NSC's bank holiday anti-speeding campaign launch prominently featured the new Alfa Romeo sports car with a top speed of 137 m.p.h.

The mind can only boggle at the logic behind this. It is ironic given that a central theme of this year's CFD is "Children should have the right to travel alone", but the NSC states in its Going to school leaflet that "no child under 12 should be allowed cycle in any sort of traffic". The Motor Insurers of Ireland sponsored the leaflet.

Meanwhile, traffic-law enforcement is simply a disaster. At current enforcement levels a motorist can expect a speeding ticket every 28 years and to be breathalysed every 140 years.

Indeed the situation is getting worse, as enforcement levels have totally collapsed following the introduction of penalty points. In 2002, 350,000 speeding tickets were issued; by 2003 this figure had fallen by 80 per cent to around 75,000.

A claim by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, that more than 100 lives had been saved by penalty points in the last 22 months is misleading. More than 80 of those lives were saved in the first four months; since then road deaths have returned to pre-penalty-point levels.

A key transport and road safety issue that has been ignored is the need to have a national HGV policy. HGVs account for 78 per cent of all cyclist deaths in Dublin and 25 per cent of all road deaths on a national level.

HGV access to urban areas should be restricted, with a total ban in Dublin city centre. There should also be a ban on HGVs parking in residential areas, places where children ought to be able to play in comfort and safety.

Sadly, planning policy often seems to stem from the wants of the individual, rather than the rights and needs of society as a whole. Indeed car culture by its very nature often disconnects the individual from the communities in which they live.

David Maher is PRO of the Dublin Cycling Campaign (www.connect.ie/dcc)