IT: State to fund cycle parking facilities

Mucco

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0817/1224252679134.html

OLIVIA KELLY

MINISTER FOR Transport Noel Dempsey is to provide almost €500,000 for cycle parking facilities in schools and businesses including €120,000 to 30 private companies.

The money, which will be used to provide cycle stands, and shelters where necessary, is being provided to encourage more people to cycle to work or to school. The €500,000 is being provided this year on a pilot basis and may be increased next year, depending on the success of the scheme.

Fewer than 2 per cent of commuters cycle to work. In Dublin more than 100,000 people drive a distance of less than 4km and 45,000 people use their car for a commute of under 2km, even though cycling is quicker for journeys of less than 6km in cities, the Department of Transport said.

More than 60 per cent of children are brought to school by car. The number of primary school children cycling to school has fallen by more than 80 per cent in 20 years. Girls are three times less likely to travel to school by bicycle than boys.

The bulk of the money, about €340,000, will be used to provide cycle parking facilities in 76 schools, which have agreed to promote cycling and provide cycle training for students.

The remainder will be available for about 30 businesses, mostly in the greater Dublin area. These companies will be chosen from organisations involved in the Dublin Transportation Office’s smarter travel workplaces scheme.

The scheme encourages cycling, walking, car-pooling, public transport use and video conferences as an alternative to business travel. Eligible companies include Vodafone, the ESB, the Dublin Airport Authority, KPMG and Eircom.

A spokeswoman for the DTO said a lack of facilities for bicycles had been highlighted as an issue for some organisations, in participating in the tax-free cycle to work scheme. In a DTO study on attitudes to cycling to work in Dublin, 35 per cent of car commuters said more secure cycle parking facilities would encourage them to switch to bicycles.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

kenmc

Hopefully they'll do it too, and not just talk about it before deciding it costs too much money we don't have.

Jip

Mucco wrote: »

and 45,000 people use their car for a commute of under 2km

Now that's just shocking.

Jawgap

The deeply cynical part of me suspects that most of this money will be spent in schools in Co. Meath.......


........and a disproportionate amount will be given to businesses in Co. Meath or on the Dublin / Meath border.

Why not build decent changing and parking facilities in places like the IFSC, the city centres and the universities and then contract out the running of them?

A few businesses scattered around the place with a few oul' bike sheds is hardly building up cycling infra-structure.

Finally, I'm all for kids cycling to school but it's not the want of facilities at the school that stops them, it's the roads they have to travel along to get there.

I also think that figure for commuting is just wrong.

Jumpy

Yay for Dublin. Limerick will get nothing as per usual.

DeepBlue

Jeez, cyclists are such cynics..........:pac:

Even if all the funding was pumped into Meath schools then at least that would be an improvement on what's currently available.

Besides why should the Govt be providing this for companies? Shouldn't they be doing it themselves? After all they provide car parking facilities for employees.
I'd estimate, for example, that providing secure bike parking for 20 cyclists would cost less than providing the same for 20 drivers if you take into account the cost of land.

Bunnyhopper

It's good that they're limiting it to "organisations involved in the Dublin Transportation Office’s smarter travel workplaces scheme". They should be using funding arrangements to encourage organizations to get involved in that, and in the Cycle to Work Scheme.

For example, if/when the charge for employee car-parking spaces comes in could they levy an additional charge on any employer who doesn't offer the Cycle to Work Scheme?

Dr_Colossus

Bunnyhopper wrote: »

For example, if/when the charge for employee car-parking spaces comes in could they levy an additional charge on any employer who doesn't offer the Cycle to Work Scheme?

Great idea and the scheme should be made available so that the employee can purchase a bike in any LBS and not just in one specific store the employer chooses thereby limiting choice and negotiating power. As it is how are small LBS stores supposed to sell new bikes if employers only allow their employees to purchase a bike in the bigger stores like CycleSuperStores etc, surely that's giving such stores free reign to up their prices and further contribute to rip-off Ireland's reputation.