Kildare Sustainable Transport Forum

The second meeting of the Sustainable Transport Forum took place on the 18^th October last. The minutes were only circulated for approval prior to the follow-up meeting with the result that they were not made available to the general public – even in draft form – until the 14^th March. The main items on the agenda were

• Bike Libraries
• Policy on Quiet Roads
• Consideration of a Work Programme

The first item was relevant to people with a particular interest in cycliing. However, the publication of the minutes came too late for groups who might wanted to apply for bike library funding under the Community Climate Action Programme. There was no indication that Kildare County Council would directly fund any such libraries and as the Maynooth Cycling representative on the forum was already aware of bike libraries, its  inclusion in the agenda appeared to be an information opportunity for councillors and the other external representatives.

The second agenda item was discussion of a policy on quiet roads. This was an item where it was proposed that Kildare County Council would provide funding directly for the implementation. of a quiet road policy.  There were a number of diverse views expressed after which the Chair concluded that the Forum would recommend in favour of “quiet roads”. When the Maynooth Cycling representative called for a vote on the basis that only a small number of members had expressed an opinion, the Chair initially agreed to a vote but on the advice of a senior official, changed his decision and instead proposed to report the two opposing views to the SPC.

Who are the members of the Kildare Sustainable Transport Forum? The members are Cllr. Paul Ward (Maynooth – Clane MD) who is the Chair and representatives from the six municipal districts including Cllr. Peter Hamilton from Maynooth. The members also include two officials as well as a representative from the following external groups:

• Local Link Kildare/ South Dublin
• Slainte Care
• Healthy Ireland
• National Transport Authority (awaiting nomination)
• Maynooth University
• County Kildare Access Network (CKAN)

The Maynooth Cycling Campaign representative was not permitted to sit on the Sustainable Transport Forum on the basis that he was sitting on the Transport SPC as a Public Participation Network nominee. Consequently, the Chair reluctantly resigned from the Transport SPC. He was the only person who had to resign from a post in order to sit on the Forum.

Generally the Council uploads the agendas and minutes of full council and municipal district meetings as well as meetings of the various SPCs. However, the minutes of the Forum do not appear on the Council website. However, members of the public who are interested, Maynooth Cycling Campaign has uploaded the minutes of the October and June meetings here and here.  

Maynooth Cycling Campaign – Public Meeting

Maynooth Cycling Campaign will be holding an in-person public meeting at 8:00pm on Thursday 26th October in the ICA Hall, Leinster Street.

The agenda will include asks for candidates in the Local Government Elections in May 2024 and developments in cycle campaigning nationally which will have ramifications for Maynooth. There will also be a report on the second meeting of the Kildare Sustainability Forum. If you are in favour of everyday cycling and already cycle around Maynooth or would like to cycle but are put off by the existing road environment, come along and have your say. Everyone welcome!

MEETING AGENDA

1. County Development Plan’s Climate Targets
2. Cycling Without Age
3. Maynooth Cycling Finance
4. Priorities for Local Elections (May 2024)
5. Restructuring of Cyclist.ie/Dublin Cycling Campaign CLG
6. Kildare Public Participation Network /KCC’s Strategic Policy Committee /KCC’s Sustainability Forum

Waterways Ireland’s Demotion of Cycling

Waterways Ireland is in the process of revising its Byelaws. The previous ones were passed in 1988 more than 30 years ago so a revision has been long overdue.  The proposed Byelaws are arranged in some 40 sections. Most of the changes affect the boating fraternity but buried deep in the document is a clause which is aimed at cyclists.

Under Section 35 Protection of biodiversity, water quality, heritage, environment and prohibited activities,  Waterways Ireland includes subsection  (10) Prohibited Activity on canal property. The subsection refers to bicycles and powered personal transporters in two clauses

No person shall

(m) Use any bicycle, tricycle or powered personal transporter in a manner that endangers causes a nuisance to themselves and other users of any greenway.

(n) Exceed a speed of 15 kilometres per hour on any bicycle, tricycle or powered person transporter while using any greenway.

Maynooth Cycling Campaign has no issue with the first subclause. However, we strongly oppose the proposal to introduce a speed limit for cyclists on any Greenway or Blueway under the control of Waterways Ireland.

• The general design speed for greenways is 30 km/h (ref TII Rural Cycleway Design (2022).
• A bicycle is not legally obliged to have a speedometer. Therefore there is no way for a cyclist to know if he or she is travelling above or below a specific speed.
• The introduction of such a proposal would discourage cyclists from using a greenway or blueway, and cause them to divert them to trafficked roads. Introducing such a proposal at a time when road fatalities are increasing sharply is wholly irresponsible.  
• Extreme weather events are worsening as a result of climate change. The result of  suppressing the number of cyclists using the greenways and blueways will be to make it harder to meet our international obligations to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.
• Internationally, many adult utility cyclists in urban areas travel in excess of 15 km/h. Imposing a limit of 15km/h for cyclists in rural areas in the vicinity of few other users is therefore ridiculous.
• There is no speed limit on equivalent cycle facilities internationally. The introduction of such a speed limit would be to discourage international (as well as local) touring cyclists from using greenways along canals and waterways. This would reduce the potential financial benefits to adjacent businesses.  

Waterways Ireland claims that the revisions were introduced following research and consultation with key stakeholders. Certainly Maynooth Cycling Campaign was not consulted and neither was our parent body Cyclist.ie who, for many years, has campaigned for development of the Royal Canal as part of the trans-national EuroVelo Route 02 the Capitals Route which runs from Moscow to Galway.

Waterways Ireland should be encouraging cyclists instead of discouraging them. Waterways Ireland is noted for an ambivalent attitude to cyclists. Cyclists are potentially a greater source of income than walkers or boaters on many waterways but Waterways Ireland want to provide low quality cycling infrastructure. This was demonstrated by their provision of kissing gates in the past. It is demonstrated by the large number of substandard gates provided between Leixlip and Kilcock. This has been repeated with the barriers on the Royal Canal at Louisa Bridge where the openings arer 1.3m and 1.0m.  It is hardly rocket science. They just need to provide bollards at 1.5m spacing to enable all types of cycles but instead of learning from their mistakes, Waterways Ireland insist on repeating them.  

The closing date for submissions on the ByeLaws was the 2nd October but Waterways Ireland has extended the date for submissions until 27th October so there is still time to make your views known. To be fair to them, Waterways Ireland has announced that they will be having discussions with Cyclist.ie.

European Mobility Week

(This article was taken from the European Commission website.)

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK is the European Commission’s flagship awareness-raising campaign on sustainable urban mobility. It encourages behavioural change in favour of active mobility, public transport and other clean, intelligent transport solutions.

The main event takes place from 16-22 September this year, culminating in the popular Car-Free Day. Local authorities are encouraged to use the main week to try out innovative planning measures, promote new infrastructure and technologies, measure air quality, and get feedback from the public.

Towns and cities are able to register all of the activities they plan to carry out to celebrate the campaign, including: organising activities focused on sustainable mobility during the main event week, implementing one or more permanent transport measures throughout the year, and holding a ‘Car-Free-Day’. Participating towns and cities are strongly encouraged to implement all three activities!

With more towns and cities joining every year, and with its huge media appeal, the campaign is widely recognised as a driving force towards sustainable urban mobility in Europe and beyond. In Ireland, the Dublin local authorities and Cork are participating. Kildare??? Eh, no…..

Progress Report on Maynooth Cycling Without Age

Delivery of Trishaw

Maynooth Cycling Campaign took possession of the Trio trishaw in early March and launched it publically at the St. Patricks Day Parade.

Training of Pilots

As we had 8-10  volunteer pilots, the first priority was training. We contacted Clara Clark who first set up the first Cycling Without Age chapter in Ireland in Dun Laoghaire. It took number of weeks to arrange a date that would suit volunteers in Maynooth and at the same time suit Clara. Training was eventually arranged for Saturday 27^th May but only three were able to make the training . The Cycling Without Age manager received training some weeks later.

Currently, we have five people who have received  training to operate the trishaw and who are confident to take out members of the public. Four are pilots.

With a number of pilots fully trained, our second priority was to start offering cycles to the people who were unable to cycle on their own. After that, we planned to concentrate on increasing the availability of pilots.

We brought the trishaw to the Picnic in the Park which was organised by Maynooth Community Council and Kildare County Council (Climate Action Section). The objective was to publicise the trishaw and to offer cycles to members of the public without having to book.

Software

Maynooth Cycling Campaign proposes to use Book2Go software  – an internet based booking system which was developed by Copenhagen Cycles to manage pilots and bookings. It is an email based system. Final details have still to be confirmed.

Reporting System

We developed a reporting procedure for pilots to highlight either safety or mechanical concerns.

The report also records key data such as distance travelled and battery condition.

Open for Business

Maynooth Cycling Without Age opened for bookings on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays from the start of August.

We have been in contact with Maynooth Access Group, Celbridge Access Group and Kildare Access Group to inform them of our operations. We have also contacted Maynooth Lodge Nursing Home, Moyglare Nursing Home and Parke House Nursing Home in Kilcock. We have had discussions with Maynooth Library and they agreed to make booking for people who prefer to book in person rather than via a smart phone or tablet.

For a number of reasons, we have not been in recent contact with Genil Training – St. John of God re use of the trishaw between Monday and Friday.

Next Steps

The next steps are to as follows:

• Increase publicity and public awareness of Cycling Without Age
• Organise a “Train the Trainer” session.
• Organise a training session for the volunteer pilots who haven’t received training yet.
• Organise a training session for John of God pilots.

Acknowledgement of Contribution

We would like to thank Kildare County Council, Kildare Sports Partnership and Healthy Ireland who have contributed financial support towards the purchase of the trishaw. Kildare County Council has also allocated funding for ongoing costs during the year from the Kildare Community Fund and from the Local Property Tax.

We are also grateful to Maynooth University for permission to store the trishaw on their premises.

TRANSPORT EMISSIONS CONTINUE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

Cyclist.ie Press Release – Urgent Pivots in Policy, Practice and the Sponsorship of Media Programs Needed

Cyclist.ie is incredibly concerned by the latest data released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that show transport as by far the worst performing sector in Irish society and the economy in terms of tackling its emissions. 

The EPA’s data, as issued on 13 July 2023 (see [1] and [2] below), show that transport emissions increased by 6 per cent in 2022; transport’s emissions were 10.978 Mt CO2 eq in 2021 and this increased to 11.634 Mt CO2 eq in 2022. The EPA reports that “overall higher transport activity – both private cars and freight transport – is eroding the impact of electric vehicles.” 

Cyclist.ie is deeply disturbed by the absence of real and urgent action in transforming our transport system so that we can enter a rapid period of decarbonising the sector. We know from our legally binding sectoral emissions ceilings that transport needs to halve its emissions from 12 MtCO2eq (2018 figures) to 6 MtCO2eq by 2030 [2]. Furthermore, we are all acutely aware that the EPA’s figures have been released in the week that a heat wave is sweeping across parts of southern Europe, and temperatures are expected to surpass 40C (104F) in parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. [3] 

National Cycling Coordinator with Cyclist.ie and An Taisce, Dr. Damien Ó Tuama, stated “we are simply on the wrong trajectory with transport. At this point, emissions from transport need to be reducing every single year from here on in – not rising by 6% in a single year”. He continued: “We need rapid action in multiple domains immediately. We need to be increasing further the spend on high quality active travel schemes and the ‘quick-wins’ with enhancing public transport provision. When are we going to see a halt to the domination of our airwaves by adverts urging us to buy ever-bigger Sports Utility Vehicles for our micro-urban trips? When are we going to have our most popular public radio and TV shows not sponsored by car companies with the inevitable framing of ‘normal life’ as being characterised by owning super-sized 2000+ kg metal boxes?” 

Cyclist.ie asks – “where are the political and business leaders articulating a vision of a low carbon future where one can lead a fulfilled life without owning climate destructive personal transport vehicles? Where is the moral leadership on all of this?” Cyclist.ie points to the leadership shown in Paris recently where city hall is to impose higher parking fees on owners of SUVs in its battle to reduce pollution in the capital [4]. Vice-Chairperson of Cyclist.ie, Dave Tobin, added “We need similar policies introduced in Irish cities so as to completely rebalance how mobility happens. Without such urgent action, we are complicit in passing on a burning planetary ball to our children to deal with.” This is the opposite of the mature and responsible approach we now need. 

ENDS

Notes for Editors
Cyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network, which brings together 35 groups/branches around Ireland who are campaigning locally on cycling safety and promotion, is the organised voice for cycling advocacy in Ireland. It was founded in 2008, building on the campaigning work of its founding member groups, who themselves came into being in the early and mid 1990s in response to the virtual exclusion of cycling and walking from transport policy and practice, and to the massive danger posed to walkers and cyclists by the systematic growth in motorised mobility. https://cyclist.ie/  

[1]  https://www.epa.ie/news-releases/news-releases-2023/irelands-2022-greenhouse-gas-emissions-show-a-welcome-decrease-but-much-work-remains-to-be-done.php 

[2] https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring–assessment/climate-change/ghg/latest-emissions-data/

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66183069

[4] https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/dab6d-government-announces-sectoral-emissions-ceilings-setting-ireland-on-a-pathway-to-turn-the-tide-on-climate-change/

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/paris-charge-suv-drivers-higher-parking-fees-tackle-auto-besity

PICNIC IN THE PARK

Maynooth Community Council working in partnership with Kildare County Council invite you to a great day out, the “Picnic in the Park”, on June 18th-there will be good food, ice cream, face painting, nature walks and various acts. Community groups will have their stalls for you to chat to them about all the wonderful and diverse activities that take place in our town.

With the focus this year is on sustainability and climate action, the event has a serious side and officials from the Climate Action Section will be present. With our interest in the the promotion of cycling as part of decarbonisation of transport, Maynooth Cycling Campaign will be there so if you are passing, why not drop in for a chat and find out our plans fpr the future.

Bike Week 2023

NOTE : The FILM NIGHT has beed postponed until SUNDAY

Kildare County Council has organised a number of events in the county to celebrate Bike Week 2023. Maynooth Cycling Campaign wishes to support Kildare County Council in its efforts to promote cycling in the county and has organised a number of additional events. The programme is as follows .

19.-ver3-bike-week-poster-editable-large-box-its-a-breeze-english-word-1Download

The Cargo Bike Life in Maynooth: Why You Need One Today

If you live in Maynooth you may have seen me trundling around town on my big blue cargo bike. We bought it a couple of years ago and since then it’s replaced 90% of my car journeys. Let me tell you about it, and why I have found it to be a far more useful urban vehicle than any car I ever owned.

Our town has a wealth of amenities, but accessing them can be difficult in a car since the town centre is often congested with traffic. A bicycle cuts through the traffic with ease, but how then do you carry your purchases, kids, or raincoats? That’s where a cargo bike comes in, being a bicycle with room for shopping, passengers, and even cover against the rain!

Cargo bikes are fun for all the family

Even An Post are wise to the utility of cargo bikes

Awkward loads are no problem

Kissing gates can present an obstacle on the Royal Canal, but these will soon be replaced by Waterways Ireland

If it fits in a car, it will fit in a cargo bike

A full week’s worth of shopping? No problem!

Let’s dive into the top five benefits of cargo bikes, and why you should consider getting one today.

1. Practicality

One of the most significant advantages of a cargo bike is its practicality. No longer do you need to worry about fitting everything into a small car boot or pannier bags on a regular bike. With a cargo bike, you can easily carry kids, pets, groceries, and even awkward loads like furniture. The versatility of cargo bikes makes them ideal for families in Maynooth, as they provide ample space and support for your daily needs.

2. Fun and Enjoyable

Who doesn’t love a good bike ride? Cargo bikes add an extra layer of enjoyment to your trips. They beat sitting in Maynooth’s notorious traffic, and kids love them! Whether you’re riding to school, work, or just exploring our lovely town, a cargo bike can turn a mundane trip into a fun, memorable experience. Plus, it’s a great way to bond with your family and enjoy the outdoors.

3. Health Benefits

Incorporating a cargo bike into your daily routine is an excellent way to get regular exercise without even noticing it. Instead of driving, you’ll be actively engaging in physical activity while running errands or commuting in Maynooth. You’ll also be contributing to a cleaner environment by reducing your carbon footprint, which is a win-win situation for both your health and our town.

4. Fast and Efficient

For short urban journeys in Maynooth, cargo bikes are often faster than driving, as they can navigate traffic more easily. With a cargo bike, you’ll never have to worry about finding a parking spot, which can be a real time-saver in our busy town. Additionally, cargo bikes allow you to explore Maynooth in a whole new way, discovering shortcuts and hidden gems along the way.

5. Affordability

While the initial investment in a cargo bike can be pricey, there are ways to offset the cost, such as the €3000 Bike to Work scheme. Furthermore, cargo bikes are far cheaper to maintain and run than a car. There’s no need for fuel, insurance, or parking fees, and they require minimal maintenance. Over time, the savings can add up, making cargo bikes a cost-effective and practical alternative to using a car in Maynooth.

Models To Choose From

Mine is a Larry vs Harry Bullitt, made in Copenhagen and imported by Thinkbike of Ranelagh. The Bullitt is a type of “bakfiets” (box bike), with the cargo area situated low and in front of the rider – think MTB with a shopping trolley out front. It’s an arrangement that enormously versatile and surprisingly graceful, but it can be difficult to store.

For those with less space, or who prefer a more traditional riding style, there also exist rear-loading “longtail” cargo bikes like the Tern GSD.

To Electrify Or Not ⚡️

Most all cargo bikes are available with an electric motor. I opted for a non-electric model, and in the flatlands of Kildare that’s been enough for me. If you anticipate regularly carrying heavy loads or commuting to neighbouring towns, an electric motor would be a worthwhile upgrade, flattening hills and shortening journey times.

Conclusion

The cargo bike life has provided me with countless benefits and transformed my daily routines in ways I never imagined. From the practicality and versatility they offer to the fun, healthy, and efficient nature of their use, cargo bikes are truly an investment worth considering for Maynooth residents. If you’re looking for a more enjoyable, eco-friendly, and cost-effective way to navigate our charming town, it’s time to take a closer look at the world of cargo bikes. Who knows, you might just fall in love with the cargo bike life as much as I have!