NTA plan for Cork includes drop in percentage of people cycling

cork | environment | news report

Tuesday June 25, 2019 14:27

by Irish cycle

— Deadline for public submissions on plan is this Friday.

A draft of Cork’s transport plan for the next 20 years includes policies which would decrease the percentage of people who cycle in the “the real capital” from 2.8% in 2016 to 1.3% in 2036.

“Hard not to look at this figures and wince,” the Cork Cycling Campaign said on Twitter. ( https://twitter.com/CorkCyclingCrew/status/1142116392466100224?s=20 ) “#CMATS ‘idealised’ scenario wants to see cycling modal share fall to 1.3% in Cork.”

The public consultation for the plan, the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy, runs until Friday.
https://www.nationaltransport.ie/consultations/consultation-on-cork-metropolitan-area-draft-transport-strategy-2040/

It is the second such regional city transport plan in Ireland which includes projections of a decrease in modal share of cycling — the business case for ( https://twitter.com/cosaingalway/status/1100491951730802694?s=20 ) the N6 Galway ring road project also includes a decrease for percentage decrease for cycling.

Tweeting the National Transport Authority (NTA), the Cork Cycling Campaign said: “Reminder: it has been Government policy since 2009 to have 10% of trips by bike by 2020.”

The group questioned why the NTA is not using 2016 Census data rather than the 2011 Census it is using as its traffic modeling baseline.

A Demand Analysis Report written by the National Transport Authority and published on its website, states: “The graph shows a significantly reduced car mode share in the Idealised Network scenario, reducing from 70% to 52% respectively, with uplifts in the public transport and walking mode shares. The chart below also shows a drop in the cycling mode share in the Idealised scenario. This is due to the high frequency and coverage of the unconstrainted public transport network attracting would be cycling trips.”

It said: “As before the tables show a drop in the car mode share particularly for education trips. However, despite the considerable public transport capacity in the Idealised Network and significant increased frequency and speeds the commute car mode share does not meet the Smarter Travel target of 45%.”

It adds: “There is also an uplift in the level of walking across all areas in the Idealised scenario, though the cycle mode share reduces due to the increased PT offering.”