Dr. Colm Byrne:

I agree with Dr. Ó Tuama. As I said in my statement, electric vehicles are heavier than their internal combustion engine counterparts. When we look at those vehicles' impacts in accidents, especially on vulnerable road users, there is a danger there in switching directly over to electric vehicles. Where families need bigger cars, unfortunately, a lot of the bigger cars are SUVs, and by design they are more dangerous again for vulnerable road users. In impacts they are not as safe. Maybe the industry needs to look at that and at the design of vehicles that are designed for families. Many of them are being pushed into SUVs when they do not want to be using them.

There are also impacts with regard to the physical space that is used and taken up by cars such as when parking overnight in our towns and cities, and when it comes to charging with cables and so on. We see this in London where there are a lot more electric vehicles. Cables are strewn across footpaths and block pedestrians, especially disabled pedestrians, from being able to walk around their locality. This is an important consideration when looking at how these vehicles are going to be charged in an urban environment without impacting on vulnerable road users.

Another aspect to consider is that with climate change our population is going to increase. We are probably going to have a migration of people into this country and our towns and cities will come under more strain. The amount of space cars take up in a city compared with the number of people who can be transported in a cycle lane or a bus lane is an important consideration in whether we should be using cars to get around our towns and cities or the more elegant solution of bicycles.