Budget 2020 and cycling

Tombo2001

Folks

A lot of talk on this. A lot of noise.

Anyone seen a proper breakdown of capital allocation to commuter cycling infrastructure?

(Not being smart, but for my money the Greenways are a tourist amenity, not a transport amenity).

Tombo2001

I have looked at Dept of Finance website - kind of hard to get to the bottom of it....

magicbastarder

i did see some comment that apparently shane ross has expressed displeasure that people are claiming only €9m was allocated to cycling - will try to find it, so see if he offered a useful rebuttal.

fat bloke

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Folks

(Not being smart, but for my money the Greenways are a tourist amenity, not a transport amenity).

Well absolutely they are yeah. Unless you live in Dungarvan and work in Waterford. .

fat bloke

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I have looked at Dept of Finance website - kind of hard to get to the bottom of it....

Have you tried scrolling down? :pac:

(sorry)

magicbastarder

https://twitter.com/Shane_RossTD/status/1181989084165787649

magicbastarder

'not at the races'? does he mean the balance of €105m is going to cycling *as a sport*?

magicbastarder

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/spend-on-cycling-hugely-overestimated-h3g2cn0kj

behind paywall.

ridelikeaturtle

magicbastarder wrote: »

'not at the races'? does he mean the balance of €105m is going to cycling *as a sport*?

That wouldn't surprise me; and cycling might get a lot more funding if it did petition for it on the basis of being a sporting organization, as pathetic as the system seems to be for such funding at all.

I suspect he's using some tired gambling or betting metaphor, sadly he always seems to do that. Shane Ross is by far the most disappointing public servant, I expected so much more from him.

mathie

Not so fast, Minister Ross.

Following the announcement of €9 Million carbon tax funding for cycling during the Budget statement by Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross tweeted that the government had allocated €114 Million to cycling in Budget 2020.

If that seemed too good to be true…

Mike McKillen, of Cyclist, writes:

This €114 Million was subsequently broken down as €23 Million for “cycling” greenways and €91 Million for walking and cycling facilities in urban areas.

Greenways are provided for both pedestrians and cyclists so out of an allocation of €23 Million, the cyclist proportion would be 50% or €11.5 Million.

Regarding walking and cycling facilities in urban areas, 31% of total NTA expenditure was spent on cycling in the Greater Dublin area and the Regional Cities.

For the purposes of forecasting cycling expenditure in 2020, this percentage was rounded up to 33% which equates to €30 Million.

Therefore Cyclist.ie, the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network, estimates that the departmental expenditure on cycling in 2020 will be approximately €42 Million.

Anyone who thinks that the Minister is committed to spending €114 Million on cycling, may be “at the races” (to use his own words) but is dreaming about the results…

Ah.

here.

Mr McKillen adds:

This exaggeration in cycle funding is not the first overestimation by the Minister/Department. In response to a recent parliamentary question, the Minister claimed that in 2018 cycling expenditure was 3.1% of the capital budget. Cyclist.ie estimates it at 1.0%.

There you go now.

Cyclist.ie

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/10/18/meanwhile-at-the-races-2/