Dr. Lorraine D'Arcy:

I welcome the content of the strategy. It is comprehensive, and it is clear that the RSA listened to its stakeholder consultation. There is a broad reach to it. In my opening statement, I mentioned that traditionally we have been about protecting the people in the car and driver safety. That was the remit of the RSA when it was set up but there is a broader viewpoint now and it is great. We do not know what we do not know. Sometimes, speaking from experience as a civil engineer, we get taught a particular viewpoint on something and to solve problems in a certain way. It is only when we start to consider different viewpoints that we understand better. The RSA has been great in commissioning and funding research but we need more research in this space. From an Irish perspective, we need to invest in more active travel research. We do not have enough. Active travel interventions have a high burden of proof, as we well know. Every time we try to do something, we come up against the fact that we do not have Irish research. There is a lot internationally for us to feed from.

I will use one example that has come to mind a few times when people have mentioned putting the foot down and speeding between junctions. When we design for walkability and put the pedestrian first, as per the street user hierarchy we are meant to be implementing as part of DMURS, and put more pedestrian crossings along a route, it slows the car because it moves slowly between the sections. A driver can feel he or she moves faster but then is waiting, when actually the average speed over the journey can be quicker by travelling at lower speeds. Slower is faster in some cases.

Preliminary results have emerged from London recently concerning when lights are on a default pedestrian mode. Respecting that hierarchy, in urban areas the pedestrian has priority at every light. The default setting of lights is the green man. When a car approaches, the microwave technology causes the light to change if there is no pedestrian waiting. This was found to have resulted in no overall change in travel times. Travel times have not increased for cars but have been greatly decreased for pedestrians. We then get more people walking and cycling on 2 km trips or short trips in our neighbourhoods and have more walkable neighbourhoods because it reinforces itself. People will drive more carefully because they expect to see pedestrians and cyclists and have got used to seeing them.

A cultural change needs to happen. In neighbourhoods like Donnybrook, Ballymun and around the country, such as in Sligo, wide roads cut through urban areas. We have to consider how we redesign these because we have segregated neighborhoods and there is a research area around that. We do not want segregated neighbourhoods because of the impact on climate, population health and road safety.