Cycling and Marketing Consultant. Created the Inishowen Greenway in 2014, a deliverable of Project Ireland 2040.
I'm in awe at the transformation Anne Hidalgo has brought to #Paris. For the last ten years she has developed a vision and overseen a plan to enhance the city and make it more liveable in the 21st century. Streets across the arrondissements of Paris have been transformed. More bicycles, safer walking routes for pedestrians, less air and noise pollution, yet greater economic activity. While local government in France is stronger than in Ireland, Paris remains a beacon for other capital cities as to what can (and should) be achieved. Now roll on to #Dublin, where weak local government continues to be undermined at every opportunity by narrow, vested interests. If I had a euro everytime I heard someone (living in Ireland) said 'I enjoyed my holiday in France/Italy/Spain, sitting on quiet streets outside a café having a beer or apertif' ... well, I'd be retired! The influence of the car industry in Ireland is very strong, as is a small cohort of businesspeople, particularly in our cities and large towns. They fear change and won't accept that a new way of life is possible, albeit a life that requires us all to make small changes to our daily existence. The Sustainable Communities Challenge, managed by Science Foundation Ireland, has as a goal of 'creating sustainable and inclusive ways for all people to live, be productive and creative, and to thrive in balance with nature, the environment, and our planet.' Looking in from the outside, Paris is heading in the right direction, but our own wee Irish capital, #Dublin, is dragging its heals in the lower divisions. Dublin is now on a yellow card, and while there is time to deliver the changes required, we must support local government to make change a reality, and not just the contents of another strategy or report of what should be done.
Dublin is crippled by motorised traffic. But the city council has adopted a transport plan that is aligned with its development plan and climate action plan. To speed up public transport in the city, the plan would introduce a small number of bus gates on the quays and other locations. Yet even modest restrictions (not bans) on private cars are being opposed by a tiny handful of businesses, mostly car park owners, who have lobbied IBEC and FG Junior Minister for Enterprise Emer Higgins to intervene and call for the implementation to be delayed. I'm so angry on behalf of Dublin and the city's transport users, workers and businesses that such idiotic interference in the city's democratic processes could be allowed to derail essential (and very modest) changes in the city's traffic management. It smacks of populism, cynicism and crass cronyism, and total indifference to the frustrations experienced by Dubliners on a daily basis. My piece in today's Irish Times:
