I’d like both. Providing transport infrastructure isn’t a zero-sum game.
I’ll keep my car thanks.
Why not both? When it’s done well, public transport is a fantastic option, but it’ll only be realistic in high-density areas. Cars will always be necessary to some extent for anyone living rurally.
Also – better cycling infrastructure please!
With electric cars is there pretty much no resale value as the battery will deteriorate over time ?
The Dutch infrastructure for cycling and public transport would be the absolute dream here.
We have moved office recently. 70% of the office have to drive into work as there is really only reliable public transport (rail) from the east. The ones that live close to the city can catch a bus, but it requires a 2km walk from the bus stop to the office. There is no additional bus that goes in that direction.
The appetite for affordable public transport is there too. When Irish rail cut the fees by almost 50%, the volume of users has evidently more than doubled. The commuter rail services in the morning and evening are completely full for at least 2 hours in the morning and evening. It’s absolute madness that there is not a reliable public transport system in the main cities outside of Dublin.
I mean yes I would love this, but you’re not going to overhaul the public transport of Ireland overnight, and there needs to be a way to commute in the meantime.
Also Ireland’s population is still more rural than most other European countries. It’s not feasible for public transport to cover the entire country so progress needs to be made in other areas also.
Public transport and bikes are the way to go, but that hardly means abandon everything else.
I always thought it was kind of sad that we have such a limited rail service, surely wouldn’t be that hard to cover most of Ireland between rail and buses
I’d like both.
As an American, I wish we had public transit that is half as good as in Ireland 😢
This sub has weird issues with EVs and it’s counter productive to climate action. Not least because they actually receive more animosity than ICEs.
You’re living in a fantasy if you think quality public transport alone is going to result in the end of car ownership. Nothing short of outright banning cars will achieve that.
There’s empirical proof of this right now. I used to live in Japan. You can get from almost anywhere to anywhere else in Japan by train. Even depopulated villages had them. My train to work had a few stops in the middle of a rice paddy.
And yet, Japanese people haven’t shunned the private car. Far from it. Their cities are full of cars. They have a hugely successful car industry.
The fact is that for some people a car will always be a necessity. People with large pets don’t have as many public transport options. Some people need to carry a lot of materials to and from work. And there’ll always be some people not connected to the public transport network, especially in a country with a low population density like Ireland.
And that’s not to mention the large amount of people who don’t need a car but simply prefer to have one.
So cars are here to stay whether you like it or not. Given that inescapable fact, surely it makes sense to ensure that as many of these cars as possible are EVs and not ICEs.
Decades. Doubt I’ll see a good public transport system across the country in my lifetime.
Electric ⚡ cars powered by child slaves in the Congo. There needs to be a halt on electric car production until working conditions approve for child slaves mining cobalt..
it’s pretty hard to have good public transport with people so spread out. To have decent transport Ireland would have to stop building cul de suc neighbourhoods
/edit atm Ireland follows american urban sprawl model that is essentially incompatible with efficient public transport
Do you know what I dislike about EV? That before we had to deal with assholes blocking footpath with their cars. Now we deal with blocked footpath and cables that goes from houses thru public footpath onto public road because people bought EV and don’t have a driveway. There is at least 5 cars charging like this where are live. Currently one of neighbours installed pole with charging point on public parking in my estate. Is this even legal? Waiting for time when someone else park there and outrage on Fb/WhatsApp about “somebody parked on my spot”
I agree on need for better rail and bus links, but fact is that a lot of people do not work in the city centres, but in industrial estates outside the towns.
Those industrial estates would also need public transport, and until that is sorted, the cars will remain.
At this moment we need both.
Let’s shoot for a date close to 2145, perhaps by that time we will have it sorted (going by the delays in getting the metro off the ground (in the ground), I think that 120 years is reasonable).
What we need is ACTION.
Actually build the infrastructure, actually start the work rather than plan and talk and plan and review and push back and plan and talk and review and whatever else it is that our thumb-twiddling politicians are doing.
Every serious project takes way too long to get underway, partly because governments change and cancel out progress made by a previous government…
If EVs are coming into the country they should prioritise putting chargers in places where public transport infrastructure isn’t there yet or isn’t viable (Like North Leitrim or Cavan) then subsidise it for residents for those counties, I don’t personally feel like people living in Dublin should be getting subsidies or as big as subsidies as the other counties as they are the counties that effect carbon footprint the most.
Public transport has the public on it though. Always a huge negative
Doesn’t matter how nessecary or unnessecary it is, people are still going to drive!
How do you not have anxiety going by public transport?
I used to go by public transport when I was a kid and it was very dangerous.
Not to mention it´s a disease ridden environment.
Also the smell of all these people who don´t really care much about personal hygiene 🙂
I don= t really want my kids to experience this shit.. how do you guys not mind? (not trying to be insulting in any way.. )
I have free travel. To get to my nearest hospital takes almost three hours by public transport – 25 minutes driving. Then I have to get home, much more difficult, as by the time the train/bus gets to me there’s no room, so standing room only or next bus please!
“Public transportation so good that cars aren’t even necessary” is impossible.
Why not wish for cold fusion and a cure for all diseases while you’re at it
I think we lack the density to make public transport a viable alternative .
Currently getting a train home from Dublin to Cork as I only get reimbursed for travel if I take public transport.
There was no bus to get me to the train station in the morning at 6 and it was a 50min walk in the dark as a lone female so I drove and parked in Kent Station for €8.50 which is good value.
When I arrived in Dublin at 9:30, two buses didn’t come in a row and I had to get a taxi to arrive at my destination on time (€12). Bit sickening having got up at 5:30am. I also got a flexi train ticket as I wasn’t sure what time I would be finished. The diesel would have cost me about €50, this has cost me closer to €100.
And disembarking for this return leg, the train broke down so we were half an hour late leaving. Left at 3:30 and we’re only at limerick junction now at 5:20.
Also the route it goes is fucking ridiculous. I’m actually going to be about 40 minutes slower getting home than if I drove because of the delay and the ridiculous stations it stops at along the way.
Plus no offence to elderly people who are able to maintain their personal hygiene but I have literally had to not breathe in for almost six hours today because a couple of old people who have been around me stink of BO and/or shit.
Sorry I’m just hungry now and there’s no fucking catering on board. Plus the only fag I had all day was outside Heuston and I was mobbed by eight different people looking to bum rollies and take all my change.
I am missing my car today.
…and cycling infrastructure
Transport in Dublin it’s worse than anything
Electric cars aren’t meant to help against climate change. There only purpose is to save the private motor industry.
I want the rail lines doubled up so I don’t have to wait for a train to go past
We are one of if not the most sparcely populated country in Europe. It’s hard to imagine a public transport network that could reach everyone.
Absolutely we need more public transport.
But we also need more EV’s, more chargers, more car sharing, more e bikes, more push bikes more walking.
There is no silver bullet to decarbonising transport. No one solution. Whatever the recipie for success is, it will have lots of ingredients.
Vote Green
Or in the North where there is neither good transport or electric car infrastructure.
Yawn
They can’t make money off rail infrastructure.
The clowns in Dublin keep talking about getting 5G to rural Ireland. We don’t want fast internet. We want functional transport infrastructure.
As always what’s the answer for people who have to travel out from cities to rural low density places. Rail can’t cater to everyone and taxing cars as a luxury when they’re still needed while investing nil in infrastructure is doomed tbh.
Why not both?
Priority on rail though.
Switzerland has entered the chat.
I think you might like r/fuckcars. And r/transit. And r/notjustbikes. And probably a few others!
I appreciate that people can care about more than one thing at a time, and about making minor improvements when you can. But the public transport talk on the local radio station that plays in the office really annoys me. An age spent complaining about the lack of a trolley service, getting councillors, and even twice an Irish rail rep to talk about it. Never long discussions about frequency, capacity or anything about actually transporting people. Just whinging about not being able pay too much for shit coffee and a stale sandwich.
Rail is more of a shelbyville idea
Me wanting better public transport so there’s less traffic and I can drive places faster. I like my car.
45 comments
Yes, Yes and YES!
I’d like both. Providing transport infrastructure isn’t a zero-sum game.
I’ll keep my car thanks.
Why not both? When it’s done well, public transport is a fantastic option, but it’ll only be realistic in high-density areas. Cars will always be necessary to some extent for anyone living rurally.
Also – better cycling infrastructure please!
With electric cars is there pretty much no resale value as the battery will deteriorate over time ?
The Dutch infrastructure for cycling and public transport would be the absolute dream here.
We have moved office recently. 70% of the office have to drive into work as there is really only reliable public transport (rail) from the east. The ones that live close to the city can catch a bus, but it requires a 2km walk from the bus stop to the office. There is no additional bus that goes in that direction.
The appetite for affordable public transport is there too. When Irish rail cut the fees by almost 50%, the volume of users has evidently more than doubled. The commuter rail services in the morning and evening are completely full for at least 2 hours in the morning and evening. It’s absolute madness that there is not a reliable public transport system in the main cities outside of Dublin.
I mean yes I would love this, but you’re not going to overhaul the public transport of Ireland overnight, and there needs to be a way to commute in the meantime.
Also Ireland’s population is still more rural than most other European countries. It’s not feasible for public transport to cover the entire country so progress needs to be made in other areas also.
Public transport and bikes are the way to go, but that hardly means abandon everything else.
I always thought it was kind of sad that we have such a limited rail service, surely wouldn’t be that hard to cover most of Ireland between rail and buses
I’d like both.
As an American, I wish we had public transit that is half as good as in Ireland 😢
This sub has weird issues with EVs and it’s counter productive to climate action. Not least because they actually receive more animosity than ICEs.
You’re living in a fantasy if you think quality public transport alone is going to result in the end of car ownership. Nothing short of outright banning cars will achieve that.
There’s empirical proof of this right now. I used to live in Japan. You can get from almost anywhere to anywhere else in Japan by train. Even depopulated villages had them. My train to work had a few stops in the middle of a rice paddy.
And yet, Japanese people haven’t shunned the private car. Far from it. Their cities are full of cars. They have a hugely successful car industry.
The fact is that for some people a car will always be a necessity. People with large pets don’t have as many public transport options. Some people need to carry a lot of materials to and from work. And there’ll always be some people not connected to the public transport network, especially in a country with a low population density like Ireland.
And that’s not to mention the large amount of people who don’t need a car but simply prefer to have one.
So cars are here to stay whether you like it or not. Given that inescapable fact, surely it makes sense to ensure that as many of these cars as possible are EVs and not ICEs.
The problem with public transport, is the public.
https://preview.redd.it/7r67imxftlia1.jpeg?width=740&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=2730de81bf19120f4142fec57d5e2f19fb987614
Decades. Doubt I’ll see a good public transport system across the country in my lifetime.
Electric ⚡ cars powered by child slaves in the Congo. There needs to be a halt on electric car production until working conditions approve for child slaves mining cobalt..
it’s pretty hard to have good public transport with people so spread out. To have decent transport Ireland would have to stop building cul de suc neighbourhoods
/edit atm Ireland follows american urban sprawl model that is essentially incompatible with efficient public transport
Do you know what I dislike about EV? That before we had to deal with assholes blocking footpath with their cars. Now we deal with blocked footpath and cables that goes from houses thru public footpath onto public road because people bought EV and don’t have a driveway. There is at least 5 cars charging like this where are live. Currently one of neighbours installed pole with charging point on public parking in my estate. Is this even legal? Waiting for time when someone else park there and outrage on Fb/WhatsApp about “somebody parked on my spot”
I don’t want to rely on the state for transport
Thanks
I made this post last week. I 100% agree with OP
https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/10wy8h0/strong_towns_a_timely_study_on_why_american/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb
I agree on need for better rail and bus links, but fact is that a lot of people do not work in the city centres, but in industrial estates outside the towns.
Those industrial estates would also need public transport, and until that is sorted, the cars will remain.
At this moment we need both.
Let’s shoot for a date close to 2145, perhaps by that time we will have it sorted (going by the delays in getting the metro off the ground (in the ground), I think that 120 years is reasonable).
What we need is ACTION.
Actually build the infrastructure, actually start the work rather than plan and talk and plan and review and push back and plan and talk and review and whatever else it is that our thumb-twiddling politicians are doing.
Every serious project takes way too long to get underway, partly because governments change and cancel out progress made by a previous government…
If EVs are coming into the country they should prioritise putting chargers in places where public transport infrastructure isn’t there yet or isn’t viable (Like North Leitrim or Cavan) then subsidise it for residents for those counties, I don’t personally feel like people living in Dublin should be getting subsidies or as big as subsidies as the other counties as they are the counties that effect carbon footprint the most.
Public transport has the public on it though. Always a huge negative
Doesn’t matter how nessecary or unnessecary it is, people are still going to drive!
How do you not have anxiety going by public transport?
I used to go by public transport when I was a kid and it was very dangerous.
Not to mention it´s a disease ridden environment.
Also the smell of all these people who don´t really care much about personal hygiene 🙂
I don= t really want my kids to experience this shit.. how do you guys not mind? (not trying to be insulting in any way.. )
I have free travel. To get to my nearest hospital takes almost three hours by public transport – 25 minutes driving. Then I have to get home, much more difficult, as by the time the train/bus gets to me there’s no room, so standing room only or next bus please!
“Public transportation so good that cars aren’t even necessary” is impossible.
Why not wish for cold fusion and a cure for all diseases while you’re at it
I think we lack the density to make public transport a viable alternative .
Currently getting a train home from Dublin to Cork as I only get reimbursed for travel if I take public transport.
There was no bus to get me to the train station in the morning at 6 and it was a 50min walk in the dark as a lone female so I drove and parked in Kent Station for €8.50 which is good value.
When I arrived in Dublin at 9:30, two buses didn’t come in a row and I had to get a taxi to arrive at my destination on time (€12). Bit sickening having got up at 5:30am. I also got a flexi train ticket as I wasn’t sure what time I would be finished. The diesel would have cost me about €50, this has cost me closer to €100.
And disembarking for this return leg, the train broke down so we were half an hour late leaving. Left at 3:30 and we’re only at limerick junction now at 5:20.
Also the route it goes is fucking ridiculous. I’m actually going to be about 40 minutes slower getting home than if I drove because of the delay and the ridiculous stations it stops at along the way.
Plus no offence to elderly people who are able to maintain their personal hygiene but I have literally had to not breathe in for almost six hours today because a couple of old people who have been around me stink of BO and/or shit.
Sorry I’m just hungry now and there’s no fucking catering on board. Plus the only fag I had all day was outside Heuston and I was mobbed by eight different people looking to bum rollies and take all my change.
I am missing my car today.
…and cycling infrastructure
Transport in Dublin it’s worse than anything
Electric cars aren’t meant to help against climate change. There only purpose is to save the private motor industry.
I want the rail lines doubled up so I don’t have to wait for a train to go past
We are one of if not the most sparcely populated country in Europe. It’s hard to imagine a public transport network that could reach everyone.
Absolutely we need more public transport.
But we also need more EV’s, more chargers, more car sharing, more e bikes, more push bikes more walking.
There is no silver bullet to decarbonising transport. No one solution. Whatever the recipie for success is, it will have lots of ingredients.
Vote Green
Or in the North where there is neither good transport or electric car infrastructure.
Yawn
They can’t make money off rail infrastructure.
The clowns in Dublin keep talking about getting 5G to rural Ireland. We don’t want fast internet. We want functional transport infrastructure.
As always what’s the answer for people who have to travel out from cities to rural low density places. Rail can’t cater to everyone and taxing cars as a luxury when they’re still needed while investing nil in infrastructure is doomed tbh.
Why not both?
Priority on rail though.
Switzerland has entered the chat.
I think you might like r/fuckcars. And r/transit. And r/notjustbikes. And probably a few others!
I appreciate that people can care about more than one thing at a time, and about making minor improvements when you can. But the public transport talk on the local radio station that plays in the office really annoys me. An age spent complaining about the lack of a trolley service, getting councillors, and even twice an Irish rail rep to talk about it. Never long discussions about frequency, capacity or anything about actually transporting people. Just whinging about not being able pay too much for shit coffee and a stale sandwich.
Rail is more of a shelbyville idea
Me wanting better public transport so there’s less traffic and I can drive places faster. I like my car.