Points Raised from the Transport Mobility Forum and Cork PPN Public Engagement Meeting, January 14  in Cork City Council Chambers 

Spatial and Landuse Planning

• Implementation- Monitoring and Evaluation, clear goals and targets that are timelined, accountability for policies that are not delivered or ignored.
• Funding- less funding for roads and more to Public Transport and Active Travel
• Cork Focus- Active Travel Office/NTA office in Cork
• DMURS elevated as template document, any derivation must be justified
• Vision: Sustainable Mobility Policies should adhere to the Sustainable Mobility Hierarchy whereby pedestrians come first and single occupancy cars last along with air travel.

 

Public Transport

 

• Reliability before frequency
• Reduce dwelling times at bus stops and boarding/exiting times through smarter ticketing and more entry/exit doors open
• Increased frequency- early morning and late night services, 24 hour services.
• RTPI- accuracy, expansion to all routes and bus stops, appear on buses and inside train stations
• Connectivity- better modal interchange with buses, cycling and walking infrastructure
• Accessibility- ‘Multi-Modal’ must include people with mixed abilities, bike paths to facilitate non-traditional bikes, accessibility on buses, legible signage, universal design, disabled facilities along routes and in transport hubs.
• Affordability- must be prioritised, Free or better subsidised Public Transport, a ‘Medical Card’ type subvension for low income individuals/households eg ‘Travel Card’, global economic costs factored into pricing, ‘free week’ public transport initiative.
• Fare Structure- Integrated ticketing and simple fare structure, pay with app on phone, credit card payment, low cost annual pass eg Vienna €365 pa.
• Prioritise road space to Public Transport: Buses in Cork have uncompetitive travel times due to congestion and lack of bus priority
• Freight and Deliveries- Hubs on periphery with last mile deliveries done by small e-vans and bike couriers in urban and residential areas
• Cork to Youghal rail line- concerns over greenway development
• More joined up thinking and better management of Public Transport
• Incentives for private employers to implement 8/9 seater carpool services for their employees
• Water Transport
• Better linkages in rural areas to public transport
• Bike racks on trains and buses and bike storage in stations
• Electrify the bus network asap- Why are the state still buying diesel buses despite saying no new ones would be bought?
• Improve the comfort and interiors of buses, upgrade bus stops, local/neighbourhood mobility hubs
• Community based buses- mini-buses demand driven eg Local Link
• Further develop the Local Link services and expand to suburban and urban areas
• De-centralised route planning eg Little Island + Ringaskiddy ie where to higher % of people work?
• E-scooter regulation
• More evidence-based analysis and learning from abroad, apply best practice examples from Europe
• Carpooling incentives- company commuter plans, carpooling apps, Park and Pool/mobility hubs built
• Taxation of small, private airline use
• Incentives- pay people to cycle or use public transport

 

Park+Rides

• For small towns and rural areas, Smaller Park+Rides, both public transport and ride sharing use big data to identify locations and leverage data
• Public transport and active travel can replace/eliminate 90%+ of private car use in urban areas and planning should mean to more trip generators in areas where that is not true but the existing dispersed commuting population will still drive so the city needs to be ringed with park and rides and road pricing should ensure that it is substantially more expensive to drive past them then use them.

 

Cars

• Introduce a congestion charge in Dublin city centre eg No cyclist deaths in Oslo in 2019 due to less cars in city centre
• Dis-incentivise car parking in towns, cities, shopping malls, employment areas. Reduce car parking in city residential and office development
• Introduce a car park space charge in out of town shopping outlets
• Why are we considering putting 1 million ev’s on the road? Too much emphasis on evs and too much focus on roads. Ev production unsustainable and battery life too short.
• MaaS- Develop a GoCar type network, ensure all residential developments have a car sharing service integrated
• Priority lanes and car park spaces for High Occupancy Vehicles (HOVs)

 

 

Active Travel

 

Barriers

• Safety concerns
• Weather
• Lack of facilities
• No or poor bike storage
• Poor quality or no footpaths
• Lack of permeability
• Cultural barriers
• Lack of accessibility to public transport
• Cars prioritised in planning and design
• Free or cheap parking fees, free parking at work
• More funding to roads
• Consistency of cycle network- NB must be segregated lanes- mixed use paths do not work!
• Traffic light sequencing
• Enforcement of parking rules- harsh penalties for cars parking in cycle lanes and on footpaths

 

Enablers

 

Cycling

 

• All new and upgraded public ream plans should adhere to cycling plans eg Cork Cycle Network Plan and Euro Velo
• Cycling infrastructure must be continuous and segregated. Mixed use paths must be avoided as this leads to conflict between cyclists and other users. It should also be linked with public transport nodes and hubs
• DMURS should be legally adopted and implemented on the ground including both new infrastructure and retrofits
• Best practice from abroad should be adopted to ensure the cycling route is faster and safer than driving
• 30km speed limits for cars
• Facilities- High quality bike parking ie Sheffield stands
• Financial incentives to cycle- Higher mileage given to cyclists
• Cycle to work scheme extended to ebikes
• Bike Share scheme in Cork must be expanded immediately to CIT in the east and Douglas and Mahon in the South West
• Parking Laws should be strictly enforced eg cars parking on bike lanes

 

Walking

• DMURS should be implemented on all new infrastructure and retrofit into existing walking infrastructure
• Universal design should be applied
• Permeability should be built into new developments and retrofit into existing areas
• Parking Laws should be strictly enforced eg cars parking on footpaths
• Traffic Calming measures should be adopted along walking routes especially routes to school
• Pedestrians should be given priority in all urban and suburban areas
• Walking routes should be furnished with high quality facilities, green space and trees, mobility hubs, clear wayfinding signage.

 

Education Facilities

• Travel Action Plan for each school
• Install active travel routes to all schools including traffic calming and pedestrian crossings
• Retrofit school entrances to be car free zones
• Policy to encourage students to attend local schools
• Walking and Cycling buses set up in all schools
• Ensure all schools are on a bus route with a bus shelter outside the school
• Ensure all schools have school buses (evs) servicing the routes to school
• Encourage all schools to allow students to arrive 30 mins before start time to enable parents to actively travel with them before they travel to work. In some schools, the children are allowed play in the yard and are supervised by 1 teacher each morning. This also encourages daily exercise where by the children arrive in their classroom more alert.
• Remove or disincentivise parking by Students at third level institutes
• Public transport promoted in schools especially second level. Incentivise with free bus passes for students and green credits at school

 

Planning and Policy

 

Development locations

• Urban type development (housing other than one off, office retail etc.) should only happen in locations where residents/workers/customers can easily access without a car. If you need a car to get there don’t build there. If a location cannot easily be reached by the vast majority of its target residents/workers/customers both by active transport and public transport permission should not be given, exceptions should be made development which are inappropriate in high density urban areas, heavy/dirty industry. Mines/quarries, agricultural developments etc.
• Work/Office development: Centralised and Urban, but must not be allowed to force out housing.

 

Nature of Development

• Urban Living and high density- minimum densities need to be adhered to
• Minimum densities need to be set, absolute min 5000/km2 for any and all urban type development NO URBAN DEVLOPMENT BELOW THIS DENSITY
• Higher densities for strategic public transport corridors and nodes e.g. 10 or 20,000/km2
• City centres where residents and workers can live their life entirely as a pedestrian should aim for 50.000/km2
• Should be achieved by setting minimums for floor space per ha not just per house or apartment together with minimums for number of inhabited floors
• Maximums should be set of undesirable land use (such as paved area or area for exclusive vehicle use) not number of people or floor space
• Over development and suburban character should be addressed by setting minimums for desirable characters such as floor area, public spaces, garden area and maximums of undesirable characters such as road space and architectural height (for example a central city area could have and target population of 500/ha and a maximum of 20% paved area a minimum of 1000m2 public space, 35,000m2 residential floor space, 1500m2 retail and 500m2 community space per Ha giving a Floor Area Ratio FAR of 3.7 and average of 5 to 6 floors. While an area wishing to maintain a suburban character could have and a maximum of 25% paved area a minimum of 25% garden cover, 1000m2 public space, 10,000m2 residential floor space and 250m2 community space per Ha giving a Floor Area Ratio FAR of 1 and average of 2 to 3 floors.)
• Work/Office development: Centralised and Urban, similar requirements to achieve minimum floor space but should also have targets for housing a certain amount of floor space could be reserved for residential or community use.
• All residential and office developments should include a mobility hub where residents/employees can access bike and car share services, bike storage, public transport info and clear signage to nearest station, RTPI
• All new Office and Residential Buildings must include landscape designs in original plans. These designs must deal with linking the outside of the building with the Public Realm and Sustainable Transport infrastructure. They must also include bike parking and storage as well as shower facilities.

 

Policy

• A 20-minute neighbourhood planning principle for all cities and towns should be adopted so that journeys for everyday needs on foot or by cycle become the norm across the country
• More aspirational Targets ie modal share
• Streamline some aspects of ‘Quick Wins’ while still maintaining consultation
• Learn from other areas
• Incentives to actively travel: Mileage- no money for active travel modes, compensation, green credits, etc.
• Enforcement of planning policy. Stringent monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation and progress. Clearly defined targets and timelines. A policy ombudsman or separate office to ensure timely implementation of policy goals.
• Reform the public consultation process to include a pre-design consultation with residents and local advocacy groups
• Information on how to access the correct contact in Local Authorities, Transparency of services- ‘who does what’, cohesion between policies

 

 

Parking Spaces-

• disincentive land use for car parks
• A parking space in a city takes as much space and costs as much to build as a bed space car parking spaces should not cost less that renting a room if they do someone is subsidising them!
• Parking space tax to cover the social cost. Band below cost car parking employers, shopping centres etc. should not be allowed should be required to pass on the full cost of car parking to those who use it under the polluters pay principal rather than have it payed for indirectly including by those who don’t use it.
• Parking at work should either be paid for by workers or be taxed as a benefit in kind. Exceptions for disabled and occasional use (e.g. less than 20 days per year).
• Where parking is allowed as part of housing developments car parking spaces must be sold separately and for at or above the economic cost including the full cost of extra road space within the development and improvements to access roads.
• Car parking should only be allowed to be built where access without a car is difficult.

 

Urban Realm

• All urban space should be planned with the hierarchy of provision in mind first, provide for the pedestrian, then the cyclist, then public transport and if space remains and the urban realm is not diminished only then should private motor vehicle be catered for.
• More pleasant urban spaces with places to rest, public seating, pedestrianised areas, local mobility hubs, high quality facilities- toilets, water fonts, parklets open, places to play and accessible to all ie Livable Streets
• DMURS adopted and implemented
• Permeability needs to be measured and improved, we need to set targets for the average distance walked v’s the distance as the Crow flies new developments must adhere to them while permeability needs to be retrofitted to existing suburban areas. This is an important transport investment just the same as investing in public transport and cycle leans more important than building roads.
• Bike Parking
• Litter- create an accessible ‘open litter map’
• Positive engagement with young people to avoid anti-social behaviour
• More community guards

 

Funding

• All transport spending should be allocated with the hierarchy of provision in mind first, provide for the pedestrian, then the cyclist, then public transport and if money remains only then should private motor vehicle be catered for.
• Spending on Active Travel needs to be above a min % spend (~50%)
• For major new infrastructure projects just like there is a percent for art there should be a minimum percentage for active travel
• Let’s be creative- interchange facilities, more segregated cycling lanes
• Retrofitting Permeability is existing communities is exactly the sort of transport spending that could be funded by a percentage for active travel.
• Spending on Active Travel needs to be above a min % spend (~50%) for new infrastructure projects
• Let’s be creative- interchange facilities, more segregated cycling lanes
• Permeability needs to be measured and improved

 

 

Private Sector/Employers

• CSR should focus on providing buses and sustainable modes of transport
• Tax breaks to work from home
• Bike to Work scheme should be extended to include e-bikes and e-cargo bikes

 

Soft Measures

• RSA Driver education programme
• Continue to fund behavioural change programmes and initiatives such as Green Schools Travel and Bike Week. Increase funding in the Green Schools Travel programme to enable project officers to work with all schools in their area and not be limited to only working with schools who are working on their 2 year Travel theme.