And people in rural areas can’t claim to be shocked.
Anyone who bought/built a house in a country area in the last 20 years would have known this.
We have been told for years we are going to have to reduce our car use.
My proposal would be free school bus’s for all as a start.
I live in the centre large town beside 4 schools, there is only 1 hour of traffic a day really, 30 minutes in morning and evening.
I reckon if I tried to use public transport to drop the kids to school/childcare, then get to work, then get back to school at lunchtime to drop to childcare, get back to work, and then collect the kids from childcare and get them home again, I’d only actually get about 3 hours in work and spend the rest of the day faffing around on buses/trains…
Step 1. Provide viable public transport alternatives
Step 2. Disincentivise the use of private cars
Step 2. Without Step 1. is gouging.
To “you will own nothing and be happy” we can add “and you will go nowhere”.
It’s not just people in rural areas. I live in Kildare. Try getting from most of the towns and villages to the county town Naas on public transport. You won’t be able to. Just last week, JJ Kavanagh’s canceled the local Clane, Sallins, Naas route.
One problem with public transport in Ireland is that in many places, urban or rural, unless you’re going to/from Dublin City Centre, or somewhere on that route, there is no public transport. Another problem is that the recently privatised routes run by Go Ahead are not as reliable as when they were CIE.
They need to also have a look at the BIK system in Ireland. The amount of company car drivers doing hundreds of extra kilometers a week to avoid tax is crazy.
The current system of the more you drive the less you pay is madness
This is an issue that’s come to a serious point for many people in the coming years and decade.
Unless you’re in a densely populated urban area, public transport won’t replace cars. In less densely populated areas this expectation of there being regular public transport from basically your home to a local town isn’t going to happen (i’ve seen comments on this sub numerous times where there’s almost been an expectation of a system in place). There will be a need to compromise whereby people must buy an EV, walk the distance to a public transport stop (possibly a few km) or move. And the latter two will be unthinkable for many.
The fact that you need a car to even get to the public transport says it all. I have to drive 30 minutes to the nearest bus station and despite living on a busy main road only one bus passes by a week, on a Thursday, at 10am.
I had an appointment at 9am yesterday morning in the city centre. I left the house at 8.20am and made it on time. If I had got the bus I’d have needed to leave the house at 7.50am. That’s a half hour time saving by driving.
The car is a private space, like an extension of my home where I can relax, listen to podcasts, turn the heater on or off, speak on the phone (handsfree). I can’t chill out like that on public transport. Also I can drive places looking a bit of a mess. Have to groom myself up better for shared public transport
The car is also the place where I have a jacket, umbrella and other things I might need as the day goes on
Yes I’m car reliant
The public transport that exists is too expensive. We have a great train line to Dublin. Daughter went on it yesterday to Dublin (student price) 13 euro return. Add in the Luas and it’s 16 which isn’t too bad. Problem is for an adult it’s double that. Even with the new 20% off it’s nearly 30 for an adult to get public transport. Drive up, park for free in phoenix park and walk in is less than 20.
Too many commuter towns classed as InterCity journeys rather than commuter journeys.
If it’s cheaper to live rurally and drive everywhere than it is to live closer to public transport and save on petrol then that’s what will be the deciding factor for most.
Thing is its not always about cost and many people choose to pay more on transport like petrol, tax, insurance, repairs specifically so that they can live outside towns/cities.
Either way there needs to be more incentives to consolidate towns in a way that is attractive and liveable, while also providing safe and reliable alternatives to driving to work/places of leisure.
Car takes me 30 minutes so nope, you think I’m getting up as early as it would have to be to get into work for 8am think again !
Shared route
From Kilcoole to Work, departs from Monteith Park, Stop 4266.
2 hr 17 min
1. Walk
2. Board 84 at Monteith Park, Stop 4266
3. Arrive at location: Get off at Greystones Station, stop 4283
4. Head northeast on Burnaby Mews toward Church Rd/R762
5. Turn right onto Church Rd/R762
6. Board Dart at Na Clocha Liatha/Greystones
7. Arrive at location: Get off at Dublin Pearse
8. Head north on Cumberland St S toward Pearse St/R802
9. Turn left onto Pearse St/R802
10. Board 77A at Pearse Station
11. Arrive at location: Get off at Greenhills Road
12. Head northeast on Greenhills Rd/R819
13. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Ballymount Rd Lower
14. Exit the roundabout onto Ballymount Rd Lower
15. Turn left
16. Turn right
17. Arrive at location: Work
For the best route leaving now visit https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxuqnc78vXt4qf1y7
I’d have to walk 5 miles to the bus stop and get a 2 hours bus and another 20 minute walk to get to work
And be late an hour late for work or an hour and a half in my car…
You can’t remove car reliance through wishful thinking.
The correct way is to shout “cars cars go away” 3 times.
Cars are responsible for 8% of emissions. Agriculture is 40%. Who gets taxed, yet again?
There should be a transport minister for Dublin and a seperate one for the rest of the country. How can you rely on something that doesn’t exist.
>..but private cars are still the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.
The biggest form of transport is the biggest poluter. Well fuckin obviously.
Ireland has the lowest vehicle ownership rates per capita in western Europe.
We do need to clean up transport, but the opening paragraph feels like someone repeating a bit of govt. spin
>The number of electric vehicles (EV) on Irish roads last year almost doubled from 2020, but private cars are still the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.
1. It’s pretty easy to double feck all in two years.
2. Private cars also make up the largest number of vehicles with an engine by far, so duh… what, did you think someone was going to make a radical discovery that it was actually a hitherto undiscovered tribe of Mods hiding out here revving their Vespas since the 1960s? It doesn’t take into account utility vs. impact (and yes, HGVs and Buses are vital too, no-ones arguing this)
3. Transport in TOTAL – so that’s road, rail, ships going in and out of our ports, is still less than the biggest thing – agriculture.
Not trying to “whatabout” here, transport needs to be cleaner, but the wording does feel like lubing people up for more tax despite not doing much to reduce car dependence in the first place.
We can yak on about cycling – preaching to the choir, bicycles are great, I have cycle commuted a lot over the years, but it’s only part of a strategy and absolutely cannot be core o your transport strategy – you gotta do other, bigger things first in public transport infrastructure and planning.
The biggest, simplest thing we can do to reduce car *dependence* isn’t to provide alternatives to car journeys, it’s eliminating the need for routine journeys in the first place. I love cars, they’re my hobby, but no-one who likes cars dreams about trekking down the M50 every morning to some business park or whatever. Even car enthusiasts think being *dependent* on cars rather than just something you can own, tinker with and enjoy every other weekend is stupid. Look at the Japanese – drift park on Saturday for LOLs, but Bullet Train to work on Monday…
This is why post COVID it was disheartening to hear “returning to offices” as a sign of post COVID success rather than saying “hey lads, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to totally change the game here” ..things have changed permanently, just perhaps not as much as they could have. We could have said right, people work from home by default, and you’ve got to justify them coming in not the other way round.
Might be a little tin foil hat here, but can’t help think too many people have vested interests in office property and walk in business for such a sea change.
The other way you eliminate journeys is planning, and not just case by case, but an actual, over arcing long term plan of where you put things and how you join them up, rather than just throwing up a one off house or some housing estate on a plot of land, then realize, oh right, now we need buses and schools and shops and stuff. Part of it is the Government, but part of it us being resistant to this and just wanting to build stuff whereever we want, then moan there’s no services.
Hows about the people pushing this idea get voted out of office and we keep cars?
Public transport is a joke in this country.
Friends from other countries (even ones that might be perceived to not be as affluent as ourselves) have a much better infrastructure than us for public transport and other services.
It’s all anecdotal, but at the same time it can’t all be purely anecdotal.
Took the bus to work today as an experiment as the commute home yesterday nearly broke me. We will see what its like getting home but getting here was very easy. (Across Athlone)
Honestly, even with better public transport I’d still choose my car. I hate the general public on public transport. Bunch of plebs
It runs on my schedule, I don’t have to sit beside the any of you and your weird eating habits and smelly bags of crisps, no junkie playing music off their phones. I can sing full blast to my favourite songs. I don’t have to deal with it being late.
I agree more people should use the bus, so the roads will be less busy for my car 🙂
No public transport available in Ireland or even Dublin for half my shift hours, so car or no job. It’s been like that for over 35 years of my working life across many jobs and no sign that they are ever going to acknowledge that people don’t all work 9 to 5 weekdays. So not getting fixed anytime soon.
21 comments
This is no shock.
And people in rural areas can’t claim to be shocked.
Anyone who bought/built a house in a country area in the last 20 years would have known this.
We have been told for years we are going to have to reduce our car use.
My proposal would be free school bus’s for all as a start.
I live in the centre large town beside 4 schools, there is only 1 hour of traffic a day really, 30 minutes in morning and evening.
I reckon if I tried to use public transport to drop the kids to school/childcare, then get to work, then get back to school at lunchtime to drop to childcare, get back to work, and then collect the kids from childcare and get them home again, I’d only actually get about 3 hours in work and spend the rest of the day faffing around on buses/trains…
Step 1. Provide viable public transport alternatives
Step 2. Disincentivise the use of private cars
Step 2. Without Step 1. is gouging.
To “you will own nothing and be happy” we can add “and you will go nowhere”.
It’s not just people in rural areas. I live in Kildare. Try getting from most of the towns and villages to the county town Naas on public transport. You won’t be able to. Just last week, JJ Kavanagh’s canceled the local Clane, Sallins, Naas route.
One problem with public transport in Ireland is that in many places, urban or rural, unless you’re going to/from Dublin City Centre, or somewhere on that route, there is no public transport. Another problem is that the recently privatised routes run by Go Ahead are not as reliable as when they were CIE.
They need to also have a look at the BIK system in Ireland. The amount of company car drivers doing hundreds of extra kilometers a week to avoid tax is crazy.
The current system of the more you drive the less you pay is madness
This is an issue that’s come to a serious point for many people in the coming years and decade.
Unless you’re in a densely populated urban area, public transport won’t replace cars. In less densely populated areas this expectation of there being regular public transport from basically your home to a local town isn’t going to happen (i’ve seen comments on this sub numerous times where there’s almost been an expectation of a system in place). There will be a need to compromise whereby people must buy an EV, walk the distance to a public transport stop (possibly a few km) or move. And the latter two will be unthinkable for many.
The fact that you need a car to even get to the public transport says it all. I have to drive 30 minutes to the nearest bus station and despite living on a busy main road only one bus passes by a week, on a Thursday, at 10am.
I had an appointment at 9am yesterday morning in the city centre. I left the house at 8.20am and made it on time. If I had got the bus I’d have needed to leave the house at 7.50am. That’s a half hour time saving by driving.
The car is a private space, like an extension of my home where I can relax, listen to podcasts, turn the heater on or off, speak on the phone (handsfree). I can’t chill out like that on public transport. Also I can drive places looking a bit of a mess. Have to groom myself up better for shared public transport
The car is also the place where I have a jacket, umbrella and other things I might need as the day goes on
Yes I’m car reliant
The public transport that exists is too expensive. We have a great train line to Dublin. Daughter went on it yesterday to Dublin (student price) 13 euro return. Add in the Luas and it’s 16 which isn’t too bad. Problem is for an adult it’s double that. Even with the new 20% off it’s nearly 30 for an adult to get public transport. Drive up, park for free in phoenix park and walk in is less than 20.
Too many commuter towns classed as InterCity journeys rather than commuter journeys.
If it’s cheaper to live rurally and drive everywhere than it is to live closer to public transport and save on petrol then that’s what will be the deciding factor for most.
Thing is its not always about cost and many people choose to pay more on transport like petrol, tax, insurance, repairs specifically so that they can live outside towns/cities.
Either way there needs to be more incentives to consolidate towns in a way that is attractive and liveable, while also providing safe and reliable alternatives to driving to work/places of leisure.
Car takes me 30 minutes so nope, you think I’m getting up as early as it would have to be to get into work for 8am think again !
Shared route
From Kilcoole to Work, departs from Monteith Park, Stop 4266.
2 hr 17 min
1. Walk
2. Board 84 at Monteith Park, Stop 4266
3. Arrive at location: Get off at Greystones Station, stop 4283
4. Head northeast on Burnaby Mews toward Church Rd/R762
5. Turn right onto Church Rd/R762
6. Board Dart at Na Clocha Liatha/Greystones
7. Arrive at location: Get off at Dublin Pearse
8. Head north on Cumberland St S toward Pearse St/R802
9. Turn left onto Pearse St/R802
10. Board 77A at Pearse Station
11. Arrive at location: Get off at Greenhills Road
12. Head northeast on Greenhills Rd/R819
13. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Ballymount Rd Lower
14. Exit the roundabout onto Ballymount Rd Lower
15. Turn left
16. Turn right
17. Arrive at location: Work
For the best route leaving now visit https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxuqnc78vXt4qf1y7
I’d have to walk 5 miles to the bus stop and get a 2 hours bus and another 20 minute walk to get to work
And be late an hour late for work or an hour and a half in my car…
You can’t remove car reliance through wishful thinking.
The correct way is to shout “cars cars go away” 3 times.
Cars are responsible for 8% of emissions. Agriculture is 40%. Who gets taxed, yet again?
There should be a transport minister for Dublin and a seperate one for the rest of the country. How can you rely on something that doesn’t exist.
>..but private cars are still the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.
The biggest form of transport is the biggest poluter. Well fuckin obviously.
Ireland has the lowest vehicle ownership rates per capita in western Europe.
We do need to clean up transport, but the opening paragraph feels like someone repeating a bit of govt. spin
>The number of electric vehicles (EV) on Irish roads last year almost doubled from 2020, but private cars are still the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.
1. It’s pretty easy to double feck all in two years.
2. Private cars also make up the largest number of vehicles with an engine by far, so duh… what, did you think someone was going to make a radical discovery that it was actually a hitherto undiscovered tribe of Mods hiding out here revving their Vespas since the 1960s? It doesn’t take into account utility vs. impact (and yes, HGVs and Buses are vital too, no-ones arguing this)
3. Transport in TOTAL – so that’s road, rail, ships going in and out of our ports, is still less than the biggest thing – agriculture.
Not trying to “whatabout” here, transport needs to be cleaner, but the wording does feel like lubing people up for more tax despite not doing much to reduce car dependence in the first place.
We can yak on about cycling – preaching to the choir, bicycles are great, I have cycle commuted a lot over the years, but it’s only part of a strategy and absolutely cannot be core o your transport strategy – you gotta do other, bigger things first in public transport infrastructure and planning.
The biggest, simplest thing we can do to reduce car *dependence* isn’t to provide alternatives to car journeys, it’s eliminating the need for routine journeys in the first place. I love cars, they’re my hobby, but no-one who likes cars dreams about trekking down the M50 every morning to some business park or whatever. Even car enthusiasts think being *dependent* on cars rather than just something you can own, tinker with and enjoy every other weekend is stupid. Look at the Japanese – drift park on Saturday for LOLs, but Bullet Train to work on Monday…
This is why post COVID it was disheartening to hear “returning to offices” as a sign of post COVID success rather than saying “hey lads, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to totally change the game here” ..things have changed permanently, just perhaps not as much as they could have. We could have said right, people work from home by default, and you’ve got to justify them coming in not the other way round.
Might be a little tin foil hat here, but can’t help think too many people have vested interests in office property and walk in business for such a sea change.
The other way you eliminate journeys is planning, and not just case by case, but an actual, over arcing long term plan of where you put things and how you join them up, rather than just throwing up a one off house or some housing estate on a plot of land, then realize, oh right, now we need buses and schools and shops and stuff. Part of it is the Government, but part of it us being resistant to this and just wanting to build stuff whereever we want, then moan there’s no services.
Hows about the people pushing this idea get voted out of office and we keep cars?
Public transport is a joke in this country.
Friends from other countries (even ones that might be perceived to not be as affluent as ourselves) have a much better infrastructure than us for public transport and other services.
It’s all anecdotal, but at the same time it can’t all be purely anecdotal.
Took the bus to work today as an experiment as the commute home yesterday nearly broke me. We will see what its like getting home but getting here was very easy. (Across Athlone)
Honestly, even with better public transport I’d still choose my car. I hate the general public on public transport. Bunch of plebs
It runs on my schedule, I don’t have to sit beside the any of you and your weird eating habits and smelly bags of crisps, no junkie playing music off their phones. I can sing full blast to my favourite songs. I don’t have to deal with it being late.
I agree more people should use the bus, so the roads will be less busy for my car 🙂
No public transport available in Ireland or even Dublin for half my shift hours, so car or no job. It’s been like that for over 35 years of my working life across many jobs and no sign that they are ever going to acknowledge that people don’t all work 9 to 5 weekdays. So not getting fixed anytime soon.