SUMMARY

1. Celbridge Road – our top priority is for the delivery of improved cycling and walking provision at  Celbridge Road where two primary schools are located.
2. “Leprechaun” Climate Targets  – for Kildare County Council to get rid of “Leprechaun” Climate Targets -targets which are unachievable as adding up the percentage modes of travel comes to 150% rather than 100% of journeys.
3. WHO’s H.E.A.T. tool – for Kildare County Council to introduce WHO’s H.E.A.T. tool to calculate the benefits of active travel schemes and to estimate reductions in carbon emissions as carried out in multiple countries.
4. Reporting of Committee Minutes – for Kildare County Council to publish draft minutes of SPC and Sustainable Transport Forum meetings within 2 weeks as opposed to the current practice of circulating them nearly three months after the meeting.
5. Kiss the Gates Goodbye – for Kildare County Council (1) to identify substandard accesses to greenways and other active travel routes which are barriers to entry by cyclists and mobility impaired people; and (2) to seek funding for their removal.
6. Safety Concerns at Moyglare Educational Campus – we support the concerns of the three school principals as detailed in their letter dated 21^st April to Kildare County Council re taking in charge, pedestrian crossing, shared paths and Moyglare Road traffic calming.

FURTHER DETAILS

1.         Celbridge Road

Celbridge Road forms part of the R405 regional road. Two primary schools open onto it – with more than 850 pupils attending Gaelscoil Uí Fhiaich and Maynooth Educate Together. Kildare County Council  granted planning to them more than 20 years ago, yet planning permission was granted despite having no cycle facilities and substandard walking facilities. Kildare County Council proposed a scheme some three or four years ago – a design that we opposed on account of its very poor quality. The scheme has been redesigned but now has been held up for reasons of cost.

The EPA in their recent report on progress on meeting 2030 carbon reduction targets stated that even if everything proposed was actually carried out, Ireland’s emissions would still only reduce by 29% instead of 51%.  The continuing failure to provide quality walking and cycling to school cannot be allowed to continue – Celbridge Road should be the number one active travel priority. 

2.         “Leprechaun” Climate Targets 

As part of its action on Climate Change, the Kildare County Development Plan 2023-2029 gives most recent estimates of how Kildare people travel using different modes. It also includes a number of targets for future change in modes of travel.

The baseline figures for existing modes were derived from the Census 2016 results. The baseline figures and proposed targets are as follows:

Mode of Travel To Work	Baseline	Target
Walking	6%	10%
Cycling	1%	20%
Bus	5%	13%
Train	5%	14%
Car Share	4%	8%
Car	74%	50%
TOTAL	95%	115%

Mode of Travel To Education	Baseline	Target
Walk	28%	50%
Cycling	2%	15%
Public Transport	20%	25%
Car	50%	40%
TOTAL	100%	130%

The baseline travel percentages are fine. They essentially add up to 100% for travel to work and 100% for travel to education. The Census gives the actual numbers so, if you want, you can combine the work and education numbers and calculate the overall percentages.

The problem is with the targets. At the draft stage of the County Development Plan, Maynooth Cycling Campaign thought that it was an error  but after raising it for a second time, the Council stated that they should be

“…. aiming for as high as possible for the sustainable modes and less high for the unsustainable ones”.

This is true but the targets should also be “reasonable” and “achievable”. They should be challenging for those who have to achieve them but not something so unrealistic that those who have to achieve them, throw in the towel at the start.  The key principle is that the total target  percentages should add up to 100% so if you increase the percentage target for some modes of travel, you MUST decrease the percentage target for other modes of travel. The European Cyclists’ Federation which has more than 40 years of working for increased cycling  has identified monitoring and reporting as a key requirement in effecting modal change.  Adopting modal share percentages in excess of 100% makes no sense except as a “Get Out of Gaol” ticket for the future failure of KCC to deliver on the said targets. It will also impact  unfavourably on Kildare’s contribution to the Irish government’s commitment of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

Leprechaun economics was a term coined by Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman to describe the 26.3 per cent rise in Irish 2015 GDP, later revised to 34.4 per cent. The adoption of Leprechaun targets is related to Leprechaun economics in that both are factual but both have a tenuous link to reality. 

3.         WHO’s H.E.A.T. tool

The World Health Organisation (WHO) developed a spreadsheet to calculate the benefits of active travel schemes and to estimate reductions in carbon emissions.

In Kildare, there is rarely a measurement of existing levels of walking or cycling and no forecast for future use of proposed active travel infrastructure. As a result there is no benchmark to assess the success of a scheme or even to alert if levels of walking or cycling are reduced.

4.         Reporting of Committee Minutes

After committees meetings of, for example, SPC and Sustainable Transport Forum, Kildare County Council circulates draft minutes some 10-12 weeks later to committee members for review, The  minutes are then approved at the next meeting which often takes place 13 weeks after the previous one and may be uploaded to the Council website any time after that. Some minutes are  uploaded quickly afterwards while others are not uploaded unless someone draws attention to their absence.

There is no good reason why draft minutes could not be uploaded to the Council website within 2 weeks of a meeting. The current practice is indicative that the meeting is a talking shop and one where no followup actions are required to be carried out as a matter of urgency.

5.         Kiss the Gates Goodbye

Kildare County  Council, unlike many other local authorities,  has responsibility for very few roads or footways which contain barriers like kissing gates to active travel.

However as a Planning Authority, Kildare County Council has overseen and/or granted permission to Waterways Ireland for substandard accesses on and to the Royal and Grand Canals. In particular, there is a series of substandard accesses which are not to best international practice or meet Irish standards between Leixlip and Kilcock on the Royal Canal Greenway. Recent works on the Royal Canal at Louisa Bridge and on the Grand Canal at Sallins and elsewhere also ignore the advice by the Minister for Transport that accesses should be designed in line with the principles of universal access. The result is that Maynooth Cycling Campaign is unable to travel from Maynooth to Kilcock along the greenway with our Cycling Without Age trishaw.

Kildare County Council should identify substandard accesses to greenways and other active travel routes which are barriers to entry by cyclists and mobility impaired people, and seek funding for their removal.

6.        Safety Concerns at Moyglare Educational Campus

Kildare County Council should consider the concerns expressed by the school principals and propose how best to reduce the risk of harm to pupils.  In our view, Kildare County Council’s  choice of a shared path in a location with very high numbers of pedestrians was predictable – with pupils cycling on the road,  pupils cycling on the footpath opposite intended for pedestrians only and pupils taking alternative on-road routes where possible. Cyclists, elderly pedestrians and disability groups dislike shared paths. In Denmark and the Netherlands, the authorities segregate pedestrians and cyclists because of the risk of a collision arising from the different speeds. If Kildare County Council wants to emulate the level of cycling in such countries, councillors should not approve such schemes except in exceptional circumstances. It is accepted that there are locations where there are no reasonable alternatives.