We Have a Problem

Just over a month ago I attended a public talk hosted by the Cork Climate Action Group chaired by Deirdre O’Shaughnessy and attended by Micheal Martin TD (Fianna Fáil), Mick Barry TD (Solidarity & Socialist Party), Eamonn Ryan TD (Green Party) and Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD (Sinn Féin). It was as eye opening as it was familiarly depressing to listen to them all speak. I shall address the reasons why further down.

But firstly I’d just like to touch on the background issues. The first one is one specifically dealt with by the forum I attended and is one we all know is of paramount importance: Our climate. It requires action now. Not in 20 years. It requires politicians to say “change needs to happen now for the good of the climate, our local environments and us, the people.”

But it’s not going to happen. How do I know?

Mere headlines speak volumes:

NGO’s rebuke government over their inertia

Our climate advisory council criticising the governement.

Vague Plans

And simply – it’s just that obvious

Secondly, we have another impending disaster looming in the near Irish future: obesity.

This issue is going to cost us €7.2 BILLION.

If only there was a way to help tackle this in the same way as we can tackle our emissions problems...

And thirdly - Mental health in Ireland

We have a growing problem here with our mental health. Our car culture plays a huge part in this.

Sitting. Stuck. Traffic. Rush Hour.

Think of the psychology of hearing those words every day in your metal box.

Words that I should never think about on my bike. But I have to think about them for safety reasons, not impractical reasons.

What cycling shouldn’t be: stressful.

What is it? A daily struggle to survive.

Even Chris Boardman, cycling ‘tsar’ of Manchester is affected by the state of cycling on roads. I use his example because Ireland and the UK have a similiar media hysteria with regards to the cyclist and cycling and therefore an ‘accepted’ hatred of cyclists and cycling exists.

He said “I don’t want to see people behaving on a road in an aggressive way because, more than making me angry, it makes me depressed to see human beings treating each other that way. To see a human being treat someone who is vulnerable as an obstacle and give them no more thought than that. So I just avoid putting myself in that situation.”

It’s terribly sad. But what all cyclists can do is relate to each other. Read this shameful thread. 

A highlight includes “It's regular for cars to come so close here that kiddo can stick out her hand and touch them!!!!”

A reply from @GaryTraynor1 to @mitsuko045 stated “I gave up my car in sept [sic] as I’d changed jobs I go from Merlin - Cappagh Park 2 months in cycling and having to dodge cars got so ridiculous I got my car back”

So you have a champion cyclist, now a cycling commissioner for Manchester speaking the same language as two commuters in Galway. It’s so sad when again – studies are proving the benefits to everyone of exercise, of which cycling can be simply provided for

Now I’d be surprised if anyone reading this post (you are reading this…. Right?) didn’t agree that the actual immediate answer to the above three problems is the bicycle. One that we could invest in tomorrow morning. That guarantees results in the short term. But only if the will was there.

It’s not.

How can I say this for certain? Because i try to follow our national dialogue. And there’s silence. Nationally, the thing that can save us from so many of our created, societal ills, is but a mere afterthought. Allocated only €100 million from a €10 billion “smarter travel” budget over 5 years.

Is that very smart?

It’s not.

Now, moving onto the forum I attended, we had the four Cork TD’s listed above present. No representatives were available from Labour or Fine Gael apparently. The form the public talk took was simple:

Two questions were asked. One was a general, party specific question coming off the back of the Citizens Assembly recommendations:

“ Will Your Party ensure the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill Makes Swift Progress Through the Oireachtas?”

The second question (seen here also) offered each attendee the opportunity to pick their top three issues of concern (from five options) when it comes to Ireland and our climate responsibilities.

Every one of them picked transport.

“Ok” I thought! Cycling has to get a mention. Eamonn Ryan at least will mention it.

All Four TD’s spoke.

Not one offered cycling as a solution.

Not. One.  

This is utterly shameful. How do we begin to include cycling as a transport option when it’s not even discussed on a local level in a forum about climate? On your own chosen topic of conversation?

Not including it in the conversation means this continuously happens, and this and is widely accepted:

Firstly, lets look at the language: 

“The development opens the station onto Horgan's Quay via a new internal roadway and aims to better connect the station with the city centre particularly for pedestrians and public transport users.” (emphasis mine)

Secondly – the actual design. The cycling lane has to be crossed to enter the drop off zone meaning any cyclists are now in a ‘dooring area’.

Thirdly, the conversation:

4,000 extra cars using the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork says the Echo.

“Infrastructure deficit” says the AA spokesperson who seems to be everywhere when it comes to traffic and congestion and speed limit conversations and toll talk and just about anything transport related. (Seriously – how did the AA get this gig?)

Mentions of ‘the thing’? Zero.

I mean, it’s not like there are any statistics anywhere to prove ‘the thing’ can fix any of our problems. The only thing ‘the thing’ does is cause more traffic mayhem. DON’T EVEN SPEAK ITS NAME LEST YOU DISPLEASE THE GOD OF TRAFFIC.

And fourthly: the design and planning.

Not a cyclist in this picture

Now I know Eamonn Ryan is a campaigner for cycling. But can you assume everyone else at that forum knew? After I pointed out on Twitter that cycling wasn’t mentioned once, I received a reply from Oliver Moran [Cork Greens] pointing out that Eamonn has been a long time advocate and campaigner for cycling and that any lack of mention wasn’t intentional. 

Except...... there’s no other explanation is there? He picked transport as one of his three topics to speak about. He spoke about the lack of vision and ambition from the NTA and he mentioned future goals, one of which should be a Cork Light Rail, from Ballincollig to Mahon Point.

Yes, this is a badly needed option, but realistically - between planning, funding, tendering off (lol), building and final operation - what time frame would you be looking at?

He made other points on carbon capture and renewables.

 

He could have chosen to say “cycling, cycling, cycling.”

Investment back into irish economy (unless cycle lanes tendered off in PPP Ponzi scheme…. You laugh now….) - helps pay for Light Rail

Improvements in health

Local economy

Easing of congestion.

 

Then Michéal Martin spoke. 

To say that his speech baffled me puts it lightly. The main points of his speech were thus:

Firstly he said that “transport is an area that we’ve been neglectful.

He went on to say that Electric Vehicles (EVs) must be a key objective and that he wanted to transform the quality of life for people. He said Benefits in Kind (BIKs) must be offered to encourage people to change to EVs.

A: How does encouraging people to swap one sedentary mode of transport for another do anything for public health?

B: where does he expect EV traffic to go?

He went on to say that we “have to be real and credible with public transport [in regard to financing it].

I agree with this in principle but when you tender off your profitable routes all around the country how do you reinvest anything? It’s imperative for a public transport system to balance - profitable city/intercity routes pay for investment in less profitable rural area routes.

His next point again showed how carcentric our politicians are. When acknowledging his awareness regarding “mickey mouse” issues at Midleton train station (Cork suburb), he went on to say that the main issues that need to be fixed at the suburban rail stations are car parking issues.

No. They’re not. This is your main issue:

How about allowing bikes on trains? How about having a carriage dedicated to ‘wheeled mobility’? By that I mean space not only for bikes and their riders, but wheelchair users and by proxy, prams. How about giving people the option to commute FULLY from the suburbs with their bikes? Not everyone will do it. But a lot would. We just aren’t afforded the choice today.

More space would open up on busses in the city. Healthier workforce. More reinvestment made possible in public transport.

I mean, just look at some TfL stats:

London segregated cycle lanes “are moving five times more people per square meter than the main carriageway” 

Five. Times. More. People.

Let that sink in.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire also promoted the benefits of a light rail option for Cork and noted that there’s “only so much traffic that can be sustained.” I absolutely agree with this. Traffic, whether EV or fossil fuelled, is still traffic. It clogs our roads, our streets and our footpaths. However, quoted in the Echo article he said “We need to look at introducing some form of light-rail transport for commuters and we need to look at it now for the future. We need to assess if the Cork of ten or fifteen years needs a system like that.”

Ten or fifteen years?! We need action now! Will we get it? Altogether now:

No. We won’t.

Donnchadh also pointed out that Sinn Féin, in their pre budget submission, set aside €5.5million for cycling. Their generosity knows bounds apparently.

He was also suggesting that grants be made available for battery operated vehicles.

More carcentric thinking. More traffic.

No inspiration.

Finally, returning to Michéal Martin, he threw out a comment at the end of the forum that I found so strange. It was to the effect of “at least we are in a Liberal Democracy because if we were in a Russia or a China we wouldn’t be able to deal with (or speak about) these issues. [Climate]

I had my notebook put away so I could be paraphrasing slightly but that was the gist of his comment. I emailed him two days after the forum and included in my email was the following regarding his strange comment:

“Now I am not going into a pointless ‘our system is better than your system’ debate because our system is far from flawless. But please, tell me, on first glance where you think this is:

If I told you this was the City of Almetyevsk in Russia – would you believe me?

Why is it this way?

Briefly (as discovered by the Copenhagenize Team): “There is impressive political will in Almetyevsk.”

The Mayors goal? Simple: “To create the gold standard bicycle city in Russia.”

The Copenhagenize team noted that Russia has struggled to reestablish the bicycle as transport in its cities. 

Why?

“What most often lacks is real political will in recognizing the bicycle as a legitimate mode of transportation.”

Sound familiar? If not, let me remind you that we currently have, in my opinion, the worst Minister for Transport we have ever had. From openly admitting he is underfunding cycling:

“What the Deputy said about cycling facilities being underfunded is fair. I intend to address that after the mid-term capital review and, if possible, before that,” said Minister Ross at the end of the debate; to bizarrely saying the rain is at fault for our attitudes:

“Currently, the car remains the dominant choice of transport in Ireland. The rain may have something to do with this.”

He states this despite the proof that most of the population of Ireland is living in areas that have a lower or similar yearly rain fall as Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

China

Briefly: China intends to spend more than $360 billion through 2020 on renewable power sources like solar and wind, the government’s energy agency announced in January and would scrap plans to build 85 coal-fired power plants.

The government agency said in a statement that China would create more than 13 million jobs in the renewable energy sector by 2020 and curb the growth of greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.

Ireland? Briefly:

·      We have an NGO suing our government to just meet our obligations for 2020

·      Our emissions are projected to increase by 7.5 -10 percent by 2020 (in just three years) when they should be reduced by 25 - 40 percent compared to 1990 levels

·      Just three days before Ophelia made landfall Denis Naughten, our first ever ‘Climate Action’ minister, went to Brussels to demand special treatment and to look for loopholes regarding emissions reductions.

We really and truly are an embarrassment when it comes to climate action. In essence, we’re still sitting around talking future tense Deputy.

China is acting. Now.

Give me one example of a city or a town in Ireland that has even remotely comparable political foresight or remotely comparable facilities to Almetyevsk. I beg you. 

What environmental projects are we undertaking or even discussing (taking into account our vastly different planning laws) that is even comparable to what the Chinese are doing?

Please Deputy Martin, before throwing out a statement that is trying to paint our system in a positive light and pour scorn on others - have the facts to hand. Our system is far from infallible and when we have an elected official in the Dáil, during a climate change debate, saying that “‘Only God controls the weather.”

We are in no position to throw insults in others direction.

Climate is not something to score political points on. Each and every person, town, city and country on our amazing planet needs to do their part. Russia and China while far from perfect, have people that are looking at their cities and societies and not merely wondering how to change, but effecting change. Where are our examples to be proud of?”

Did I get any response?

None.

Granted I know it was a long email, but an acknowledgement would have been nice. Especially since it was encouraged to email the politicians at the Forum and they were accepting of this.

In summary:

Change? It can be done. By people and politicians who want to do it.

 

It can start tomorrow. With politicians who are serious about it.

It can have positive effects mere months after investment.

But here in Ireland we delight in shoving cars to the forefront of everything. Even the opening of a new pedestrianized village, pier area:

We have a Car Association who fights any recommendations to reduce speeds. Check out the first four results from a simple ‘AA 30km/h speed’ Google search:

I mean… evidence? Pah. 

 

I swat away your evidence with ignorance. I feel their pain though. The stronger the laws that are brought in to stop me murdering someone – the stronger my urge to disregard all laws altogether. I feel no societal obligation to the safety of anyone outside of my little metal bubble.

Our financial systems are geared towards car loans.

We sell speed.

But how about a simple change of thought? Inspire kids and adults to not only to save for that special bicycle? (It’s something that I’m trying to follow up on here in Cork too) How about promoting conversation between people?

Amazingly, people can actually change their minds when they see the evidence for themselves:

We do have a major problem. But it's one we needn’t have much longer. 


*My first posting of this blog claimed that the original tweet from Oliver Moran was no longer there. This was incorrect and I apologise for any misunderstanding caused. Oliver kindly tweeted me the link to the original reply which can be found here