What a great response from Irish Cycling Campaign members countrywide in Ensuring Ireland’s Bike Riders are Lit Up This Winter!
Over the past winter months Irish Cycling campaign members from Malin to Mizen worked hard to distribute NTA supplied Bike Lights, and ensure that your bike, and other cyclists are lit up and legally compliant these winter nights. It’s been a great chance to meet fellow Campaign members and encourage voters before the upcoming election. And also an opportunity to encourage people to support and join the Irish Cycling Campaign.
The Bike Lights were distributed in Sligo, Cork, Limerick, Drogheda, Navan and in Dublin Local Authorities. Overall we distributed nearly 3000 sets of bike lights, ensuring many cyclists were legally compliant in being lit up this Winter.
Check out some of the images below from our bike lights handouts, and maybe next year you will join us in ensuring more cyclists are Lit Up? Its a great way to meet fellow campaigners/activists, have a bit of craic, and also to ensure that more cyclists are legally compliant on these winter nights.
A BIG thanks for the bike lights’ supply from the NTA and the RSA, and for the support of Cyclone Couriers in distributing the lights countrywide!
ICC Submissions Coordinator Colm gives us the low-down.
Above: Lifford/ Strabane planning image
You might not be aware that we in the Irish Cycling Campaign keep an eagle eye on public consultations exhibited on Active Travel issues, particularly from Local Authorities/Councils. This past year 2024 we have made over 100 submissions across the country in all 4 provinces on schemes ranging from major Pathfinder projects, to smaller active travel improvements, to school streets, greenways, and also Speed Limit proposals. We have also submitted on different policy matters to the Department of Transport, Department of Education and the NTA and TII! Our local groups around the country have also made their own submissions on a variety of schemes. You can check out all our nationally listed proposed schemes and our submissions to them on this LINK.
So, which counties appear to be active and which are not? It’s certainly easier to name those 8 counties which did not appear to have any active travel consultations that we were made aware of! These were counties, Waterford, Clare, Offaly, Laois, Wicklow, Leitrim, Monaghan & Cavan! This is not to say that no works were carried out in these counties to advance active travel in 2024, but on the surface it does appear that they were relatively inactive, despite being funded substantially through the NTA, as can be seen in this LINK. The level of funding granted from the NTA to these 8 counties in 2024 varied from a whopping €25 million for Waterford, down to the lowest €1.9 million for Leitrim! Though, it is also necessary to state that many projects can be advancing behind the scenes in terms of design development, and others are actually at construction stage. The NTA project development process is a rigorous and often elongated process – see image below.
Above: NTA Project Development Process
How did Your County do? It is worth checking out this LINK to see what your county was allocated? Did they do what they said they would do? How would you rate your county’s performance?
Range and Quality of Schemes The range of schemes going out through public consultation has varied, ranging from multi million Euro Pathfinder schemes, to minor school and village improvements. The quality of the proposed designs can also vary widely, and in some cases we in ICC were very critical of proposed designs, even going as far as to propose that some schemes be revisited entirely! Thankfully these poorly designed schemes were in the minority, and the vast majority of proposed schemes have improved in terms of design quality, which is mainly down to the development of the 2023 Cycle Design Manual, and the subsequent widespread training, and trips abroad to view quality designs, provided to local authority personnel.
Above: Cycle Design Manual Cover Image
I would encourage any reader interested in the subject, to dip into our 2024 list of consultation projects, and get a feel for the variety, quality, and size of projects and ICC’s responses to them. Overall we have tried to commend what we consider as good design, and be succinct in any criticisms, in line with the recommendations of the Cycle Design Manual.
Why Not Help Us Out? We are always looking for members who would like to help out in this area of tracking and reviewing public consultations on Active Travel. If you are interested to help out, even from time to time, or in a particular area, why not email us at [email protected]. We would be more than happy to hear from you!
2024 was another non-stop year for the Irish Cycling Campaign (ICC). Throughout the year we worked on behalf of our members, those currently cycling and those who would love to cycle if traffic conditions were more inviting.
Early in 2025, we’ll do a more formal reflection on our advocacy experiences of 2024, but at this point we want to say a sincere thanks to everyone in ICC who contributed to our work. Not a day passed without our volunteers engaging in a myriad of ways so as to advance our cause. Much of this happened ‘behind the scenes’ with volunteers examining public consultations documents and drafting considered responses, preparing for and attending meetings, looking after our various membership and communications systems, and nurturing relationships with many other organisations at home and internationally; and with further work happening in the public domain and within the traditional and social media spheres.
Following our recent AGM, we are delighted to have a refreshed Executive Committee in place, with three new members on board – Caoimhe Clarke, Anne Nospickel and Síle Ginnane – and our previous Chair Colm Ryder returning to the EC. We also thanked Dave Anderson for his enormous contributions after he stepped down following 3-4 years on the EC.
2025 will be another crucial year for cycling advocacy, as a new Programme for Government is negotiated and published, and a new cabinet appointed. We look forward to seeing a new Minister for Transport further developing the momentum behind the design and construction of high quality cycling networks in each of the 31 Local Authorities countrywide. ICC is also endorsing the calls of An Taisce for the new government parties to comply with the Irish Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act that was passed in 2021 – they need to commit to fixing the Sectoral Emissions Ceilings so they align with the carbon budgets within the first 100 days of taking office. The rationale for this important ask is laid out in this excellent An Taisce and DCU explainer.
To close, we’d like to plant the idea in our members’ minds to consider getting more involved in 2025 – that can happen through ICC’s Local Groups (organised at a County or sometimes a town level), our Action Groups or our Thematically organised groups. Or, it might simply mean turning up for an ICC organised event with a friend. Whatever way you become involved, we will look to ensure that it’s a sociable and satisfying experience, and all the more so as we see new high quality cycling schemes opening up in 2025.
We wish you all a restful festive break.
Neasa Bheilbigh Chair of Irish Cycling Campaign’s Executive Committee Wednesday 18 December 2024
