The end of car-first planning?

Sir, – Donnchadh Woulfe (“Galway ring-road decision should signal end of car-first planning”, Opinion & Analysis, October 27th) does an excellent job of explaining how the planned road in Galway city is in violation of both the letter and spirit of the Climate Action Plan and other initiatives. However, while he points out that the response from the city and county councils and Transport Infrastructure Ireland is “further sticking their heads in the sand”, it’s important to note that the idea that this latest reversal is just a minor setback has been also repeated by politicians at both local and national level.

This mirrors similar behaviour where many representatives from the larger political parties are happy to adopt populist positions opposing any measures that favour better public transport, or cycling and walking in urban areas, where this entails a reduction in capacity for cars.

So while it’s undoubtedly good that there is a legal framework that can be used to clarify climate action, there’s still real work to do in the political arena to make the costs of inaction on climate be reflected in the short-term and local thinking of Ministers, TDs, councillors and voters.

If this doesn’t happen, we’ll continue to be stuck in the position whereby high-minded calls for action from political leaders are simply not reflected in local decision-making, resulting in failure to reduce emissions. – Yours, etc,