Dr. Damien Ó Tuama:

There is consensus among all present that we need high-quality cycling infrastructure. The NTA design manual forms part of that. The first point is that it should be used. Many schemes are developed without reference to it. The manual needs to be tweaked and improved, and it needs to be used. The provision of high quality routes is partly a technical challenge. It is often a political decision on to whom one wishes to give the space. In too many instances, not enough high-quality space in the road environment is given to school children, older people, women or other groups which currently do not cycle to the same extent as is the case in many other countries. There are political and technical elements to the problem.