Ireland, see also NI
The Government is facing calls to do more to protect cyclists, as the death toll of those killed on bicycles in 2017 has already reached half of last year’s total. Read article
University College Cork, the world’s first Green Campus, and Cork Cycling Campaign organised the first UCC Campus Cycle Week (6th-10th March) this spring, to start off the cycling season. Cork Cycling Campaign held an informal “Meet the Campaign” meeting for everybody interested, Miro and Darren offered a cycle safety course, and Victoria Cross Cycles offered their free BikeDoctor service. The main event was a roundtable discussion around cycling to UCC which ca. 20 staff and students attended over lunchtime, together with Cork City Council’s Cycling Officer, Anita Lenihan, and members of the Campaign and Stephan Koch in his function of UCC’s Commuter Plan Manager.
This setting was also used to officially launch the Cork Cycling Skills leaflet that Cork Cycling Campaign and the Transport and Mobility Forum got printed in large numbers with the support of Cork City Council. The flyer aims at giving cyclists advice how to safely navigate through road traffic and build up confidence to also tackle challenging situations on the roads. It is a reprint of the successful leaflet that Galway Cycling Campaign produced some years ago. Thanks to the colleagues in Galway for their kind permission. The launch got quite a bit of media attention (Irish Examiner, Cork’s 96fm).
We succeeded in making Cork Cycling Campaign more visible in town and in UCC, and a special thank you to our Vice-Chair Dean Venables who was the driving force behind this (also as a UCC staff member), as well as to Sarah Thelen for her support. We plan to have the next Campus Cycle Week next year.
Have you been frightened by a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre while cycling? If so you are not alone as these overly close passes on Irish roads show.
In fact, a recent survey conducted by Stayin’ Alive at 1.5 and the Dublin Cycling Campaign revealed that 97.2% of respondents had been scared by a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre whilst cycling.
Off-road track, along an old railway, includes coast, viaducts, tunnel and spectacular gorge
It’s been nearly 140 years since business was this brisk at O’Mahony’s pub in Durrow, Co Waterford. During the construction of the Waterford-to-Mallow rail line, the pub – which opened in 1868 – catered for thirsty railway workers.
Now things have come full circle, says proprietor Helen O’Mahony. These days, she and her husband Tom are kept busy serving drinks and ice cream to people on the Waterford Greenway – a 46km off-road walking and biking trail built along the railway line, which officially opens on Saturday (March 25th, 2017) – 50 years to the day after the last passenger train travelled the route.
Update you on our progress with Cycling Without Age coming to Ireland.
The first rickshaw bike arrived in Dublin on Monday, 13th March 2017. We were delighted to take up the invitation from the Dublin Cycling Campaign to participate in the Dublin St Patrick’s Day Parade under the banner of 200 Years of Cycling. See the photo of us at the start of the parade. We purchased this first bike from personal funds, so as to have a model to demonstrate to nursing homes and sponsors. We hope to have this bike crowd-funded.
Now that we have the bike here, we will be happy to talk to people, organisations, nursing homes, potential sponsors and others about how to promote the concept of Cycling Without Age here. We already have expressions of interest from some sponsors and organisations, and offers from volunteer pilots, whom we will train in the bike’s use. Please let us know if you would like more information.
Clara Clark & Charles Mollan
The following isn’t going to please the reactionary alternative facts crowd, because, you know, it’s facts.
One of the most common arguments against eliminating parking spaces in favour of cycling lanes is that it damages businesses.
The people behind those arguments are dead right. There will be an impact on business, except that it’s the opposite of the one they have in mind.
As the late great Christopher Hitchens observed once: “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
There is no available evidence that replacing parking spaces with cycling lanes reduces trade. But there is, thankfully, evidence that removing parking spaces actually increases trade by attracting pedestrians and cyclists. A new study of a neighbourhood in Toronto has proven this.
Saturday, March 25, 2017, see links below for more information; come and support it!
Minister Naughten has announced he is bringing Ireland’s first plan to cut climate pollution in 10 years to Cabinet today. Publication of the draft National Mitigation Plan and the launch of a public consultation is expected within days.
The new action plan is a successor to the National Climate Change Strategies of April 2007 and October 2000, and the CO2 Abatement Strategy of June 1993. However, Irish greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change are higher now then they were at the time of the first plan in 1993. This is despite the National Policy Position on Climate Action which sets a national objective of cutting CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 and capturing all our agricultural emissions by planting more trees and restoring our peatland bogs.
Stop Climate Chaos, the civil society coalition campaigning for Ireland to do its fair share to tackle climate change, has today published “Five Tests to for Ireland’s draft National Mitigation Plan“.
5 Tests for Ireland’s climate action plans
The full 5 tests briefing document can be downloaded here.
Commenting, Cliona Sharkey, Trócaire Policy Officer and a spokesperson for the coalition said:
“Ultimately the plan needs to demonstrate Ireland is preparing to deliver not only on its EU targets, but also on the even more ambitious action agenda set out in the Paris Agreement. If we fail to meet our EU targets we will face significant fines.but if we fail to deliver on the Paris Agreement, we invite climate catastrophe with devastating consequences across society, the environment and the economy.”
The Paris Agreement commits Ireland and all the other parties to the treaty to hold: “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”.
Unfortunately, Ireland is a persistent laggard – not a leader. According to latest figures, Ireland’s current emissions are 6.6% above 1990 levels, and emissions increased by 3.7% in 2015. Ireland, with the 8th highest emissions per person in the OECD, is one of only two countries in the EU which will overshoot its 2020 targets for emissions reductions.
Ireland needs to immediately embark on a rapid and just transition to a carbon-free future. Both the EPA and the new Climate Change Advisory Council describe what is required as “a major societal and economic transformation”. Ireland’s last action plan on climate was launched in 2007 – by the then Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche – and expired in 2012. The Advisory Council is clear the new National Mitigation Plan should not just focus on our EU targets for 2020 and 2030 but “should outline the roadmap to achieve the 2050 national objective”. That objective, set out in the National Policy Position on Climate Action, is an 80% aggregate emissions reduction between the buildings, energy, and transport sectors, and carbon neutrality in agriculture.
Under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, which became law on December 10th 2015, Minister for Climate Action, Denis Naughten TD, is obliged to submit a final action plan on how Ireland will cut climate pollution (called the National Mitigation Plan) to Government by 10th June 2017.
We are calling on the government and TDs more generally to:
• allocate at least 10% of the Transport Budget to cycling
• implement the National Cycle Policy Framework in full
• take action to reduce transport emissions so that Ireland fulfils its obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement (of Dec 2015)
Without serious investment, the numbers of children cycling to school will remain way below what they should be and collisions involving cyclists will remain far too high. In a nutshell, we want cycling promotion and investment recognised as the amazing public health and urban decongestion interventions that they are!
We are calling on you to:
1 – Sign the petition: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/allocate-10-of-the-national-transport-bud…
2 – Contact your local TD to asking him/her to take cycling seriously.
Feel free to use the text above and add in your own points. Visit https://www.whoismytd.com/ to see who are your local TDs – it’s super easy. When emailing, provide your home address so they know you are in their constituency and monitoring how much attention (or not!) they give to cycling.
Thank you – and do let us know what responses you get from your TDs
Also posted @Dublin Cycling
