Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Active Travel and Urban Planning Focusing on Cycling: Discussion

Dr. Rachel Aldred:

Something that came up is also a theme that was mentioned before. It concerns mainstreaming active travel into all areas of planning and ensuring it is not seen as an afterthought. We have had that problem in London. We finally get good new infrastructure and then it gets dug up by a water company and everything goes to pot. It must be in there and part of everything. It has to be in the planning.

Regarding the issue of gender in cycling, it is particularly important for women and other under-represented groups in cycling to have access to cycling. If we think about women as a group, they tend to have lower car access and earn less than men. Having this low-cost form of personal mobility is especially important, so again it is a case of double disadvantage. The way our roads are designed particularly excludes women.

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