Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for bringing the Bill to the House. Many aspects of it are long overdue and need to be addressed, especially given we have to address spiralling transport emissions and the planning of the past 40 or 50 years that has led to car dependency and urban sprawl. We urgently need to get people onto public transport, but it is difficult to provide high-frequency public transport when settlement is so dispersed. The NTA recently appeared before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, of which I am a member, and many Deputies from all parties expressed enthusiasm about investment in public transport and rail and bus services.

The national development plan, whose review we recently launched, covers well the 2:1 split there will be in respect of investment in public transport versus new roads, along with considerable investment in active travel such as cycling, walking and safe routes to school. While we try our best to get people out of cars and onto public transport, many of those journeys, before they step onto the train, the bus or whatever it may be, involve active travel, whether by walking or cycling to the train station or whatever the case may be. That is where we have to focus our investment. Our inter-town objectives, and what we want to do to get people to be able to travel between towns more easily, are good and solid and there is investment in that. The issue is with intra-town travel, that is, where people try to get around their towns or children try to walk to school safely. Many of our towns have become quite hostile for children to walk around. I walk my children to school some mornings and it is dangerous for them. Many of the roads are dangerous for them to cycle on and the footpaths in many of our towns are narrow and dangerous to walk on. Many car drivers seem to think it is fine to keep the carriageway free but block the footpath. I recall an Oireachtas committee meeting about this, when the Road Safety Authority stated it was considering a publicity campaign to promote keeping footpaths free of vehicles. That is something we still have to aim for because it is a problem.

The Bill will address e-scooters, which will be a significant part of that move to active travel. As a transport mode, they are relatively easy to use, although I have had a go on an e-scooter and it does take a little practice. I would recommend people not go full throttle straight away because it takes a little getting used to. We need to introduce that legislation. I have seen e-scooters travelling at varying speeds and with varying standards of construction. Some of them look pretty flimsy. The legislation will mean there will be guidelines on the legal use of these scooters, relating to where they can be used, who can use them, permitted speeds and so on, and that is critical.

E-bikes, too, are incorporated into the legislation. It is critical that we be agile in our legislation to accommodate technology as it improves. Deputy Ó Cathasaigh mentioned automated vehicles. While they are not yet on the roads, we do not know how long it will be before they are. It could be a decade before we see them on the roads or it could be much quicker than that, given technology moves so fast. It is good that our legislation is agile, incorporating that aspect and allowing for that test bed and those opportunities in order that when technology advances, as it is doing and work is being done in that regard, our legislation will be there to cover it. It is critical that we legislate for it.

I do not know how many ordinary cycling or walking journeys might be replaced by e-scooters. I would much rather see whether short car journeys of 2 km or 3 km, which cause so much congestion in our towns in the mornings, will be replaced by e-scooters, rather than them replacing the journeys of people who already cycle or walk, and that will be a challenge. Throughout that switch, we need to provide safe infrastructure. Whether we walk, cycle or use an e-scooter, we need safe infrastructure to be in place. There is no doubt about that.

Part of the Bill addresses the traffic management measures on the M50. I have not driven on the M50 for quite a while because I now use the DART to get into and out of town but in my previous role I used the M50 frequently. Driving on that motorway, there are points where, for no reason, the traffic just backs up and it creates unsafe circumstances as drivers try to weave in and out and save 30 m on their journey.

It does create unsafe situations. If we are putting measures in place that will slow traffic down, then there should be good advance warning that is happening to keep the traffic flowing. People do not get as frustrated when they are in flowing traffic, even though they might be slowed down to 60 km/h or 80 km/h, or whatever it may be. It is good safe traffic management and I welcome that aspect of the Bill as well.

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