A wonderful illustration showing how much public space we’ve handed over to cars

Ignoring the majority of my points isn't "challenging".

Removing cars from private ownership would undoubtedly put many people out of work and have a not insignificant impact on the economy.

I'm not arguing against encouraging more people out of their cars through public transport. For instance I may be in favour of a free public transport system. Although the "free" part is a myth as it would be paid for through general taxation.

I just consider myself as more of a realist. I don't believe we'll convince any meaningful amount of people to stop using cars in favour of bicycles. It pisses down too often and for a large part of the year it's cold and dark.

Cars aren't going anywhere. What cars you can convince people to give up will be replaced by the growing population. So we will always need to at least maintain our current capacity. So reducing this for cycle Lanes etc will just increase congestion, cause more misery for everyone and increase polution.

I believe for a truly effective public transport system we'd need to look at places like Japan. I've never been there, but they seem to have an amazing system. 180mph trains that are scheduled almost by the second. But that's never going to happen, as here that would cost billions. Just look at the children's hospital.

In the cities cyclists are a law onto themselves, I have little sympathy for them. During my day in Dublin last week on the bus and on foot I witnessed no end of cyclists weaving across the road etc. The bus drivers must be driven mad by them. I wouldn't have the patience for that. I avoid Dublin like the plague.

To me this is very simple, build the infrastructure and people will use it. Look at the uptake in leisure cycling since greenways started cropping up. If you look at places where this has worked (like Amsterdam) you have a well thought out integrated transport system you can even bring your bike on the tram (imagine that on the LUAS at any time of the day), you take so many cars off the road, leaving space for buses, trams etc.

I think the simple fact is this, when a car is sold there is a lot of tax generated from it through VRT, more tax from motor tax, more tax from fuel etc. why would you kill the goose that's laying golden eggs? You get to tell people you are doing something about the environment by building very cost effective greenways while simply painting white lines on busy roads in city centres (again to be seen to be doing something) while secretly being delighted that people continue to buy cars and fuel (and soon electricity) and you can tell them its their fault that the world is warming up when you haven't given them real tangible alternatives in the first place.

If we were serious about this someone would be looking at models of what we want to do around the world and coming up with an fully integrated public transport system where people choose to use it because its more convenient than the car and more cost effective, but crucially (and I think this is key) safe and segregated from cars wherever possible.

I live a largely car-free lifestyle. Don't own one, rent occasionally.

To get to my desk guaranteed for 9am, I aim for an 8am bus. Will need to make it 7:45am from September- December. Which when I think about it is absolutely mad. Colleagues from Co Clare get to work quicker than I do!

I stick with this approach because I live in the city centre and parking costs a lot and is a lot of hassle. And I've no kids, dogs etc to be running around, so I can afford the time. But for most people life ain't like that. They need the time, and they need individualised routes via doggy-daycare, creche, elderly relatives etc.

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/dr-catherine-conlon-our-cities-can-lead-the-way-on-bike-friendliness-and-why-such-a-model-makes-sense/a1560318904.html

Dr Catherine Conlon: Our cities can lead the way on bike-friendliness – and why such a model makes sense

I’m at just over 9000klm for commuting by bike in 2023. If I keep going at this rate I’ll reach 14,000klm in total. I haven’t worn rain gear so far this year.

how do you convince people to leave their car at home and commute by bike? Answer is you don’t! Most already know that commuting by car (in Dublin anyway) is a nightmare! It’s not too bad at the moment but once the school runs return in September it will be a nightmare once again!

This whole tread is just people’s opinions!

If you only have to pay a bit of tax and basic 3rd party insurance when the old car owes you nothing then it's cheaper than Public transport, or replacing stolen bicycles! :-D

Where to you live? Its been raining at least 2 thirds of the last 50 days in Dublin. :) Sure havent we just had the wettest July on record?