More than 150,000 people will cycle to work and at least 10 per cent of all vehicles will be electric by 2020, the Government said today as it outlined its plan for sustainable transport.
The action plan has been designed to tackle traffic congestion and reduce CO2 emissions.
Under the plan car usage will drop from the current rate of 65 per cent to 45 per cent of total commutes by 2020.
Launched jointly by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan, the plan aims to ensure that electric vehicles account for 10 per cent of all vehicles on our roads; move over 150,000 people to work by bike; move over 500,000 potential car-based commuters to more sustainable forms of transport; cut CO2 emissions by at least 4 million tonnes; and create regional e-working centres to help cut commuting times.
The Smarter Travelplan also aims to create an all island car sharing website, Invest in new, safer cycling and walking routes and in more park-and-ride facilities on the outskirts of major cities.
Mr Dempsey said the strategy represents “a radical transformation in transport policy”.
“While changing travel behaviour will take time these benefits, particularly the health, environmental and quality of life dividends, will accrue not only during the implementation phase of the proposals but also beyond 2020,” he said.
Mr Ryan said the plan is the beginning of a "major change".
“Our current transport patterns are unsustainable and make travel costly time consuming and stressful. It [the strategy] is the first step in changing how we move and how we live,” he added.
Ibec welcomed the plan and said it would work with Government to achieve the objectives of the policy. The employers' group's transport executive Paul Sweetman said businesses would work with Government to "achieve the objectives of this important plan.
"Cost-effective emissions reductions and eliminating the negative impact of chronic congestion on the movement of goods and people must be a top priority," he said.
However, Labour’s transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said the plan was “hugely disappointing and lacking new ideas, any specific targets, funding and credibility”.
“It is worrying that Minister Dempsey has described Smarter Travel as the new transport policy for Ireland up to 2020 given that it is filled with vague unachievable aims and recycled policies that have already been announced by a range of other Ministers,” he said.
“Nowhere does Minister Dempsey lay out any strict prohibitions on massive developments going ahead without proper transport services being in place for new residents,” he added.
Fine Gael’s Fergus O’Dowd said the plan was “detached from reality" because bus services in Dublin and around the country are being axed.
"This plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. It aims to encourage commuters to use buses more, at the same time as Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus are preparing to axe routes,” he said. “Crucially, the plan has no funding and no timetable”.
While the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) welcomed the aims of the strategy, they warned a greater emphasis on integrated land use and transport planning was needed. “Well-planned developments such as Adamstown in west Dublin show how lifestyles can change with use of public transport for commuting and well-designed routes to local schools to allow children to walk in safety to school,” the group said.
