Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

The updated Cork Transport Strategy was released a few months ago and today the Limerick one has just been released. Looking through the Limerick one gives a good idea of how the Galway transport strategy might be rejigged when that gets released in Q3 next year.

The full document is available at

Summary

The core measures are

• Improved frequency of public transport services to regeneration areas;
• The provision of safe and secure cycling facilities;
• The provision of pedestrian linkages to surrounding areas;
• Public realm improvements;
• Reducing the need to own a car and car dominance
• and Managing the movement of Heavy Goods Vehicles

Current mode share breaks down as follows with the planned shares listed also

• Public transport - 4% grow to 13%
• Walking - 23% grow to 33%
• Cycling - 3% grow to 10-15%
• Car - 70% reduce to 41%

The mode share %'s for PT and cars are not called out the same way so its hard to say what the post implementation % is aimed to be e.g. for bus it states "156% increase in AM peak bus passengers between 2016 & 2040". There are also totals for each of the above called out in various sections which conflict so the %'s are a bit of a mess to be honest but the overall picture is clear regardless of which source in the doc you pick, cars are getting squeezed out and sustainable modes are getting prioritised.

Walking

• Priority at junctions
• Increased permeability
• Improved accessibility measures in line with universal access standards
• Multiple audits of areas over the lifetime of the strategy to identify further opportunities for improvement

Cycling

• Bike lane network consisting of primary, secondary and feeder lanes with quality & safety level decreasing the further you move off primary
• Expanded bike share scheme
• Priority at traffic signals
• Increase in parking provision
• Inter-urban and greenway networks completed

Public Transport

Bus

• 4 P&R locations proposed(Ennis rd, M20 raheen, N24 Ballysimon & M7 Mackey)
• Bus connects
• Roll out priority measures at multiple junctions
• Higher frequency
• More routes

Rail

• Dual tracking between colbert & limerick junction
• upgrade Ballycar line
• Improve commuter rail
• New stations at Moyross and Ballysimon
• Increase frequency
• Upgrade existing stations

Cars

In terms of demand management for cars, theres a lot planned

• New developments, removal of parking requirements for near city and significantly reduced requirements for parking provision in suburbs
• Maximum parking provision will be applied in future
• Undeveloped residential on well served routes must be high density with low parking provision
• car-free area within 800m of Limerick city center
• A steady reduction in on-street parking until it is no longer provided (with a few exceptions e.g. blue badge spaces)
• Increase parking costs
• Increase costs of parking permits
• Alternatives to car ownership e.g. bike share, car clubs, bike storage, PT provision, P&R's
• Traffic signal optimization towards walking, cycling & PT and lower priority for main car lanes
• If the above does not lead to a significant modal shift congestion charges will be brought in to further discourage the use of cars in the city

One of the main drivers behind the measures planned is the strategy is now required to meet the national emissions reduction target of 50% emissions by 2030. The document as it stands states it can achieve a 35% reduction. It lists 3 options to achieve the last 15%

• Increase fuel prices to discourage the use of petrol/diesel
  • Ruled out as not feasible as it is controlled at a national level
• Increase the amount of emission free vehicles (cars & LGV & HGV) to include battery and hydrogen
  • Possible to do by working with the likes of delivery stakeholders and setting up hubs for last mile low emission delivery modes
  • Not likely to achieve the desired reduction though
• Implement a congestion charge/low emission zone/tolls
  • A feasible option which can significantly reduce the volume of emissions
  • Not for implementation, yet, but not ruled out for later application

More Pretty pictures

There's loads I haven't covered and its about 150 pages long so feel free to waste a morning going through it yourselves

Incompetence plays a big part in it. I can think of 4 different things in the last 2 years we've (louth/drogheda) have not got funding for because the CC submitted bad applications for funding or failed to draw them down. The most recent for funding for sports clubs, they were told their application was rubbish and not good enough as to the reason why funding for the sports clubs would not be forthcoming. 100's of thousands of euro were involved based on what other counties were getting. Now if I'd had that happen to me in my job, my feet wouldn't touch ground on the way out.

Another was 200k to redo a pathway along the river, sitting there waiting to be claimed and lost in the end iicr. Local TD got the run around from the CC on 3 occasions and had to go the minister to get answers.

Same up my way, they are in some crazy places. At least those appear to have the nuts/bolts cemented over. They left them exposed here. I expect a few more in the coming weeks to get budget spent. Though traffic islands where nobody would ever think or want to cross a road appear to be flavour of the month for that these days.

Tony Lally had the assault charges against him dropped I see.