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Last Updated: 12 Oct 2020 - 11:46:37 AM |
SMARTER TRAVEL A Sustainable Transport Future
By Gov. Press Release,
6 Feb 2009,
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Dempsey launches 'SMARTER TRAVEL' A Sustainable Transport Future
Sustainability Moves to the Centre of Transport Policy
By 2020 we will
- Move over 500,000 potential car based commuters to other more sustainable forms of transport
- Slash CO2 emissions by at least 4 million tonnes
- Ensure that electric vehicles account for 10% of all vehicles on our roads
- Move over 150,000 people to work by bike
- Create regional e-working centres to help cut commuting times
- Create an all island car sharing website
- Invest in new, safer cycling and walking routes
- Invest in more-park and ride facilities on the outskirts of our major cities
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(5 Feb) The Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, T.D., accompanied by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Mr Eamon Ryan, T.D. today launched Smarter Travel A Sustainable Transport Future. This is Government's action plan to free our towns and cities from choking traffic congestion, slash CO2 emissions and help car based commuters to leave their cars at home.
Speaking today Minister Dempsey said; Travel trends in Ireland are unsustainable. We can't keep pouring cars onto our streets. Cities are grinding to a halt with choking traffic congestion and that can't continue. This action plan that I am publishing today shows a different way and sets out how to get there. This is not simply a series of transport initiatives. It represents a radical transformation in transport policy that puts people, rather than vehicles, first. It has the potential to fundamentally change how we all travel.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Mr Eamon Ryan, T.D. said; Today's announcement is the beginning of a major change. It represents a fundamental reform of our transport systems. It is the first step in changing how we move and how we live. Our current transport patterns are unsustainable and make travel costly time consuming and stressful.
Smarter Travel A Sustainable Transport Future sets out measures so that by 2020 we can have thousands more people walking, cycling, using public transport and leaving their cars at home. With this action plan Government aims to change the transport mix in Ireland so that by 2020 car share of total commutes drop from the current 65% to 45%.
This will involve new ways of approaching many aspects of policy making in Ireland. It affects how we plan our schools and school curricula, influences where we develop residential areas and centres of employment in the future, opens up social and employment opportunities for people who experience reduced mobility and returns urban spaces to people rather than cars.
The 49 measures in Smarter Travel A Sustainable Transport Future can be grouped under four key headings:
Actions to reduce distance travelled by private car and encourage smarter travel, including focusing population and employment growth predominantly in larger urban areas
Actions aimed at ensuring that alternatives to the car are more widely available, mainly through a radically improved and more accessible public transport service and through investment in cycling and walking.
Actions aimed at improving the fuel efficiency of motorised transport through improved fleet structure, energy efficient driving, and alternative technologies
Actions aimed at strengthening institutional arrangements to deliver the targets.
"This new policy framework approved by the Government will have long-term positive benefits for all our citizens. While changing travel behaviour will take time these benefits, particularly the health, environmental and quality of life dividends, will accrue not only during the implementation phase of the proposals but also beyond 2020. We are today setting out our clear policy decision to put people not cars at the centre of our transport planning and delivery in future." concluded Minister Dempsey.
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