Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps we need to have a proper debate in the House about people-centred design in our villages and towns. As I cycled to the convention centre from the Liberties, something I have done since last July, I noticed how much the city has changed from full lockdown to opening up again. I had to cycle around a couple of trucks and vans. Things have changed a lot. I noticed that the quality of the air has vastly decreased. I was struck by the difference this morning.

It led me to consider how instead of people we seem to have prioritised vehicles, and the bigger the vehicle the more people can break all of the rules and park wherever they want, even if it is only for a couple of seconds. I am on a bike and can get off and walk around on footpaths, but I am thinking about older people, people with disabilities and people with buggies. It is a nightmare.

It should no longer be socially acceptable for big delivery trucks and vans to stop wherever they want as close as possible to where they need to deliver something. God forbid they should park in a loading bay around a corner, take stuff of a truck and wheel it around a corner. It is no longer acceptable for them to pull up right outside the shops where they need to deliver to. That social norm which we have been putting up with for years needs to stop. Not all of them do it, but it is happening all over the city every day. I see it in my home town in Clare. It is a social norm that we have accepted that larger vehicles are prioritised over people.

We need to design for our people and for not trucks and cars. There is a town where pedestrian crossings are 1 km apart. That does not serve people who need to cross roads safely. We have seen a significant increase in car use. We all got to experience roads as quieter places during the pandemic. We do not expect to go back to that, but it made us realise how much space we give over to vehicles. There may be three lanes for cars and a narrow lane for bikes. People think it is okay to park in a cycle lane despite the space allocated to vehicles, but they would never stop in the middle of a road for cars and block them.

A cyclist means there is one less car on the roads. That person could have driven instead. We need to change the narrative. It is not a case of bikes versus cars; there are just people. Today I had to cross a lane and a lad in a Merc let me out. We smiled and went on our way. It was grand. We were two people sharing a space and being polite with each other. We need to examine how we design spaces.

There are some really good road engineers all across Ireland, but the name gives it away. They have been designing roads for years. We do not have good urban designers and architects who put people first. Why does there need to be a big campaign to get a playground anywhere? Why it is so hard to get a pedestrian crossing or water refill station? I have been working for two and a half years to get one in place in Clare. Why are these things which are basic and should be prioritised for humans so difficult to get? We need to examine that because we have best practice in certain places. That should be the case across the board in every county in Ireland.