One-third of Irish drivers have no intention of reducing car usage for the sake of the environment
by MaelduinTamhlacht
One-third of Irish drivers have no intention of reducing car usage for the sake of the environment
by MaelduinTamhlacht
37 comments
That’s because four thirds of us have no access to any alternative.
I’ve a choice of a 40 min drive or a 2 hour bus commute…
Fix public transport. I don’t have a choice
I would have an intention if there was an option. And a reliable one at that.
I’m one of those and the reason is, there’s just no public transport for where I want to go. Also my child didn’t get a bus pass for school transport this year so now that’s an extra 60km driving a day for me, thanks government
Blame the populace, that’s the way to do it.
I’m more surprised 2/3 plan on reducing car usage for the sake of the environment.
Ireland does exist outside of the M50 you know
What a pompous, out of touch article.
I started using the bus and train to get to work instead of the car when the fares went down to €2 each way.
It takes me 20 mins longer, but now that I don’t have to pay for the train and bus one after the other it doesn’t cost me a fortune.
Make the public transport network useble for everyone and then you don’t need to convince them to drive less.
Whike I have an option for.public transport it woukd be 1 bus that arrives 3 times a day to take me to a different town. That travel takes 45 minutes. Then I’ve to wait for a different bus that the takes about 2 hours to get to tge city. Then I have to get another bus or dart across the city..which will take between waiting and walking maybe another 39 minutes. So I’m already over the 3 hour mark. Or I can drive and it will take at most 2.25 hours IF there’s congestion on the m50, maybe 2.5 if the port tunnel.is closed. Combining home is worse cos that first bus doesn’t exist. So.im stranded a 45 minute drive from.home
.
In this country if you’re not self sufficient you’re screwed. Anyone who relies on the government for anything (housing, healthcare, transport) gets shafted.
We need an underground network similar to London.
I’m in that rural 18% and my car usage is determined by how often my employer demands I’m in the office 100km away. Public transport is 3 hours each way via Dublin
So I bought an EV, because the monthly repayments were less than diesel was costing me
But I can charge overnight at home, which is the most important factor in EV ownership
1. We have no reliable or widespread public transport alternative;
2. The government failed to protect work from home rights which would have reduced transport emissions because it was more profitable for them to pander to big business;
3. The government continues to fail to meet its decarbonisation/environmental commitments and still allows business and agriculture to run largely unchecked on our environment.
So, no, I will not be reducing my car usage
Love the spin. How about, “The majority of Irish drivers intend to reduce car usage for the sake if the environment”.
Guess bad news sells.
>And I must say, the findings bear out my feelings (prejudices?) that the environment comes way down the checklist for most drivers when it comes to running or buying a car.
The author basically owns up to confirmation bias from the start.
A large part of the population lives in rural areas with no public transport, so they have no option but private cars. In that context the results of the survey are unsurprising
If the government actually put effort into electric vehicles infrastructure then I might go electric but it’s just not worth it now.
We are a car dependant country and that’s fine as if you don’t live in a city you will need one.
Ultimately to make electric driving feasible the cost of it needs to come down and make it more accessible to do it too.
No intention or no other option?
These are very different things. You would be very foolish to rely on public transportation outside of Dublin and impossible to hold down a job due to disgraceful non existent services.
Speaking from experience.
Part of the problem is school transport, or lack there of. The fact I’m driving my daughter to secondary school because they won’t put on another bus is fucking ridiculous. Another 30 seater bus would get 30 cars off the road.
This assumes most people have a choice, which they certainly don’t.
Govt had the opportunity to make WFH a viable alternative to commuting and they botched it. I’m one of the lucky ones who is 95% WFH if I want so I don’t have to spend 1.5 to 2 hours commute each way.
I’d reduce my car usage if my employer would allow me to work from home.
I’m a shift worker, public transport will never accommodate my hours. Not to mention the last thing I want to do is deal with people after my 12h shift.
A car is a small freedom we have.
I have no access to public transport to get to and from work, which is 20km away, or to go to the shops etc. No bus passes within almost 5km from my house, and no bus stops outside of work or even passes at the times I work.
I have no intention of reducing my car usage because there’s no alternative.
Everyone here acting like one third is a big majority. This is positive news
This headline makes it seem that there are viable alternatives to driving available. Public transport in Ireland is embarrassingly bad and cycling infrastructure, while getting better, is extremely poor.
I live in the country soooo yeah not happening
People need to understand that we are inherently selfless, it’s how we’re molded in a capitalist (kinda) society.
The only solution to making a system more environmental friendly, is by making it more efficient than the alternatives.
That’s all people really care about at the end of the day, no matter what the tell themselves.
This isn’t hard. Gradually improve public transport. Invest the money from gradual increased usage back into it. Not just in Dublin. Where I live in the past 8 years there have been changes but no improvements.
Why would I stop driving my car when there’s billionaires flying over my head in private jets every day, and there’s people in Asia that still send their dead relatives floating down rivers?
Course not , with the state of public transport
You mean reducing car usage in Dublin. It’s not an option in the western part.
If you live outside Dublin you basically have no alternative. Depending on where you live and work in Dublin you may have no alternative. Like if you live in Howth and work in the airport, you have to take the dart into town, and then switch to a bus. Ofc only available during daylight hours.
Unfortunately for those of us who live rurally, cutting out our car use is not possible! We live about 5km from the nearest town so walking to the shops for milk is not really feasible!
I work about 20 minutes from home. The only bus that goes near my work leaves at 6:45 and I’d have to drive to the bus stop anyway. On top that I have a teen who needs to get her own bus and a preschool drop off. There is absolutely no way to make public transport work for us.
Having said that, I saw a woman yesterday drive her little one to preschool despite the fact you could see her house from the preschool gate!
I would tomorrow. Problem is, I need to drive for work and shopping because we have *drum roll*…a shite public transport system! I would have to travel 2 hours with three changes to make it to my job which is only 25 miles away.
Across Ireland, North and South, we have one of the worst public transport networks in Europe.
I want to travel by bus and/or train. Just can’t.
The attitude to driving since the schools started going back this year is irritating the life out of me. Seen several tweets bitching about how the adults commute is so much longer because of ‘lazy’ parents insisting on driving their kids to school. Suggesting kids should go on the bus, cycle or walk to school.
I’m convinced most of these people do not have kids because I would not be letting my child walk to school in a busy town until at least their last 1/2 years of primary if even then. As for cycling, not until they were at least 15. Bus? Yep great if it’s available to you, but what if the bus doesn’t leave until 15/20 mins after you have to start your commute to work? Not gonna leave a 4-9 year old wait for the bus alone either.
I personally live rurally so there is no option but to drive anyway, however I do understand that these people are talking more about people living in cities/towns.
And no, I have no plans to reduce my car usage unless public transport improves substantially. I would have an hour walk to my closest bus stop and even if I somehow managed to move into the village so that I was closer in the middle of a housing crisis, there are no busses that would get me to work on time anyway. Stop blaming the public. We have been left with no other choice.