Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Amendment No. 618 is in this grouping as well. Again, it is around the hierarchy of road users model. What I am looking for with this amendment is to optimise access to public transport or active travel networks. You will often see where a development or housing estate takes place, the developer decides where the walking routes will be and where people are going to walk. In fact, I have heard it said that you should never put in pathways at the outset, just put down grass, and in a year's time you will know where people want to walk because there will be a path across the grass, and you can then put down the pathway. However, I am not suggesting we should do that.

It is about optimising direct access to make it as easy as possible. I know people who live in housing estates where the bus stop is 20 m away as the crow flies - as the NTA likes to measure its transport fares by these days - but it could be a 200 m or 300 m walk around the estate to get to the bus stop. Easy access at the early design stage is how we get people on board and help that modal shift. I do not even know if "optimise access" is the correct wording but if we are trying to align with the road users model, then we should provide that accessibility, access or egress from those developments.

Is there better wording for that? What is the response on amendment No. 618?