Ms Zena Deyassa:

I am going to be talking about active travel in Carlow town. I will be talking about the cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in Carlow town. We did a lot of research for this project and walked and cycled around Carlow town, took photos and made notes and observations. We compared what we have to other towns in Ireland and around Europe. We found that there have been some recent improvements in our town but there are many places that need to be made far safer for us, the children of the town.

Most of us can cycle so why do we not? There is a great cycle and pedestrian lane from the roundabout to our school. It is wide and separated from the road. It is shared with pedestrians, like the one on the way to Tyndall College. Why is it that this bicycle track by our school is nearly empty? Only one person cycles to our school daily. He is a senior infant who cycles in with his parent. That is one person out of nearly 450 pupils. Some teachers and students cycle occasionally in the summer months. We compared those statistics to similar towns and places in Europe and nearly 75% of children are able to cycle. Some 65% of students in a German school in suburban Hanover with which we have been doing an Erasmus project self-cycle to school. What is the difference in Carlow?

There are some good, short segments of cycle lanes in our town but very few of them are joined up. We surveyed children in fifth and sixth classes and the main reason people do not cycle anywhere is due to road safety concerns. As part of our research, we cycled along the new protected bike lanes near Hanover Park and concluded that being separated from the traffic makes an enormous difference. We cycled around the town on the cycle path that runs alongside the N80. Some of the time, we were on the roads with the trucks and cars. At other times, we were off the road but crossing many entrances to industrial estates. We were also up and down and on and off kerbs every few seconds. Many of the bike lanes ended when we came to junctions. There was no infrastructure to allow us to cross safely at points on the roundabouts. In fact, at our school one must travel almost 800 m in one direction to cross the N80. In the other direction, there is no pedestrian crossing at all.

Bike lanes are not expensive in comparison with roads. Even if we cannot have segregated bike lanes everywhere in the town centre, school bikes and pedestrians should have more rights of way. Perhaps cars should also have to drive more slowly. Outside our school, the speed limit is 60 km/h, which is too high. I hope we can make Carlow more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians so they can feel safe and ride happily all over town.

Adding more bike lanes, and safe bike lanes, at junctions would promote cycling to school. Bike lanes would give children and teens more freedom to go places without needing their parents to drive them.

Hardly anyone cycles to school or GAA training or into the town centre. Carlow town is only 4 km or 5 km in diameter. It should be possible to cycle nearly everywhere and reduce the amount of unnecessary traffic. The main thing stopping us cycling is having to share busy roads with cars. We are relying on you, our elected representatives, to ensure the engineers and the council make this happen.

A bike share scheme would increase the number of bike users. Carlow would be an ideal town for a bike share scheme. Kilkenny and Sligo, which are similar in size to Carlow, had schemes installed recently and they are very successful. There is an electric bike share scheme in Kilkenny. Why can we not try something like this in Carlow? The Carlow development plan says we are meant to be prioritising active travel. We have the CTU campus at one end of our town and many schools in the centre. Carlow would be an ideal town for a bike share scheme, with bike drop-off locations at the bus station, train station, town centre, schools and colleges. This has worked well in many European cities, especially for commuters who use buses and trains.

There are many benefits to going on a bike instead of in the car. Reducing air pollution will help keep us healthy and the environment healthy. Cycling also creates the space for more greenery, more trees and less traffic. We should have cycle routes to the commuter towns and villages like Palatine, Bennekerry, Ballinabrannagh, Leighlinbridge and Killeshin. Maybe there could be a cycle lane of sorts along stretches of the River Barrow.

Over 72% of all commuting, work and education trips associated with Carlow town are done by car, according to the 2016 census. Within the town's urban areas, including Graiguecullen, that means these trips are mostly less than 4 km. It would be a lot easier if everyone who could cycle just cycled or walked. Walking is great exercise, is accessible to everyone and is great for health and well-being. I know not everyone can cycle or walk. If you really need to drive, you need to drive, but for a lot of people a change in habits and attitudes towards active travel would be very beneficial at many levels.

There should be more pedestrian crossings in Carlow so people can be safer walking. We did a survey and there are very few pedestrian crossings in Carlow town. Drivers are walkers. We should make it safer for everyone. Pedestrian crossings do not cost all that much and are very easy to put in. It is hard to walk safely in the town centre anymore. We believe we need better protection for cyclists, people on scooters and pedestrians in Carlow. By doing this, more people might rethink how they travel. I thank the committee members for listening. We hope they will take some of our ideas into account.