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[PR] Cyclists survey the Cycling credentials of the Political Parties - Election 07

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21-05-2007 11:46pm

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Victor

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Press Release: Cyclists survey the Cycling credentials of the Political Parties - Election 07
From: Dublin Cycling Campaign
Date: Monday 21 May 2007

For Immediate use

The Dublin Cycling Campaign (DCC) has just released the results of survey of 88 candidates standing for Dublin seats plus the Minister for Transport. The election manifestoes of the various parties were also analysed.

David Maher, PRO of the DCC explained "in terms of Manifesto commitments and stated cycling policies the Greens - very good, Labour - good, Sinn Fein - some good intentions but little detail, FG and PD - are poor, FF - non-existent. Although some of the smaller political parties have good cycling policies it is very disappointing that the FF manifesto fails to mention cycling, while FG giving cycling only one line. FF has a proven track record in doing nothing to promote sustainable transport and FG appears to have a similar approach."

From the questionnaire we received 40 replies on a range of issues:

1. Widespread Introduction of 30 kph in all residential and business areas - 85% of candidates supported. 15% were either against 30km/h speed limits or gave only qualified support (including Fine Gael transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell)

2. Do candidates cycle regularly - 8 respondents said they use their bicycle daily and 9 weekly. 18 rarely cycle and 5 never. Half the daily cyclists were Green Party candidates, while most Fine Gael candidates cycle rarely or never.

3. Promotion of Cycling to Children - Nearly all candidates, from all parties, support more funding for "Safe routes to schools" programmes to get more children to cycle to school. There was also strong support across the board for cycling education in schools.

4. Preferred means to promote cycling - the most popular measures were making it easier to combine cycling and public transport and improving road design. Lower speed limits and better enforcement found most favour with Green Party candidates, along with Olivia Mitchell and Michael McDowell.

See manifestoes and survey results on: http://home.connect.ie/dcc/campaigns/election07/

ENDS

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