TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE

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TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE CYCLE-FRIENDLY GALWAY

• Galway Cycling Campaign presentation to
  Galway Chamber of CommerceTraffic
  Transportation Forum 20th May 2008
• Simon Comer
• Email pro_at_galwaycycling.org
• Web www.galwaycycling.org

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Galway Cycling Campaign3 Pillars

• Safety
• Community
• Environment

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Safety
Galway Cycling Campaign / Garda bike lights
initiative, Feb 08
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Community
Road Safety Week 2007 distributing Share the
Road leaflets
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Environment
Faster by bike promotional signs (joint funding
Council/HSE)
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Best means yet devised for converting mechanical
energy into forward movement. Non-polluting,
resource-conserving, environmentally sustainable,
health-promoting, practically harmless, virtually
silent and takes up very little space. Being
based on simple long-established technology, it
is easy to manufacture, cheap to purchase and
maintain, and is flexible and adaptable in use.
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Smart and sustainable

• Most energy-efficient form of transportation
  known
• For 350 calories, the equivalent of a bowl of
  cereal, a person can travel 15 km
• Average petrol-driven car consumes about 18,000
  calories of non-renewable energy for the same
  distance
• A person using this mode of transport expends
  less energy than any other creature or machine to
  travel an equal distance

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Policy ( legal) context

• National Development Plan 2007-2013
• National Spatial Strategy 2002-2020
• Transport 21 (2006-2015)
• Galway City Development Plan 2005-2011
• Sustainable Residential Development in Urban
  Areas (DoEHLG, 2008)
• Health policies also, eg Report of the National
  Taskforce on Obesity 2005
• Bicycle legally a vehicle Road Traffic Act 1961
• Roads Act 1993 needs of all road users

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Huge growth in private cars

• 134 increase

Source Irish Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver
Statistics 2005
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CO2 emissions from the transport sector 1990-2003
Road transport accounts for an estimated 93
of emitted CO2
Source Department of Transport
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Very large overall decrease in number of people
cycling
40 decrease
Source Central Statistics Office, Census 2006
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Huge decrease in numbers of children cycling

• Children at school aged between 5 and 12 years
  down 83 1986-2006
• Students aged between 13 and 18 yearsdown 85
  1986-2006
• Now more secondary school girls who actually
  drive their own cars to school rather than cycle

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Physical reality space is finite
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Squeezed out cyclist attempting to cross at
Kirwan Roundabout