Minister for Sustainable Transport, Ciarán Cuffe TD opened the Conference on Creating a Walking Zone in Sligo at the Glasshouse Hotel.

"The conference today is of particular interest to me in light of my responsibilities for both Planning and Sustainable Travel. Our public realm and our built environment have significant roles to play in shaping our society, and in building sustainable, healthy communities.

From the outset, I want to emphasise that the planning system must be geared towards the delivery of sustainable development. High quality, living communities are what we need to plan for and to implement. We need to ensure that development enhances the quality of life in our communities. Estates scattered around the country, poorly linked by transport, dependent on private car transport and distant from schools and other facilities must be consigned to the past.
 

In the new Planning and Development Act, passed earlier this year,  Minister Gormley and I have attempted to do just that: to support the emergence of more sustainable patterns of development through the requirement to include an evidence-based ‘core strategy’ in development plans. This will strengthen the development plan as the fundamental link with national and regional policies and, in setting the city or county policy context, for local area plans. The key objective of the ‘core strategy’ will be to ensure a strategic, prioritised and sequential approach to zoning.

Similarly, a key objective of the 2009 planning guidelines on sustainable residential development, is to ensure that as many neighbourhood facilities as possible are within walking or cycling distance of the homes they serve. High quality design and the provision of green space can bring about liveable, walkable communities and the Guidelines have a crucial role to play in setting out clearly the standards that are required to achieve this vision.

Key principles of the Sustainable Residential Development Guidelines include:

• All substantial new residential development must be plan-led, not development led.

•  Well planned and designed, higher-density developments at appropriate locations, will help deliver environmentally and socially sustainable communities.

• The existing natural environment should, as much as possible, be protected and enhanced within the development – it should be seen as a feature of the development and not an obstacle to be overcome.

• New developments must complement and be in sympathy with their natural and physical surroundings, with

access to proper public transport to reduce car dependency,

access to education and health services, and

access to shops and other community facilities.

• The developments themselves must prioritise walking and cycling, traffic-safety features and adequate open space and recreation facilities. The focus should be on ‘community’ - on building viable, vibrant, life-affirming neighbourhoods - and not consigning whole generations to sterile commuter wastelands.

Streets should not merely be transport corridors.

Streets should be places where people want to live and spend time. Essential to the achievement of this broader vision is improved street design whereby the impact of vehicles on residential streets is reduced, and the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and users of public transport are given a higher priority.

Currently, I am steering a collaborative initiative between the Department of Environment and the Department of Transport to prepare the ‘Manual for Streets’. The Manual will outline practical design measures to support and encourage more sustainable travel patterns in urban areas.  The ultimate aim of the Manual is to set out design guidance and standards for both new and existing urban roads and streets in Ireland, incorporating good planning and design practice. Design issues under consideration for the Manual include appropriate design speeds. The broader issues of ‘shared space’ and ‘home zones’ will also be considered in the Manual.

I anticipate that work on the design guide will be completed over the next year, so that it will be available for both designers and planning authorities.

The achievement of proper planning and sustainable development is inextricably linked with sustainable transport. In my capacity as Minister for State at the Department of Transport, I have responsibility for the Smarter Travel Policy Agenda. Indeed I’m delighted to see that there is a presentation on today’s agenda focusing on the application of Smarter Travel in Sligo. In broad terms, the 2009 policy sets us on course for a sustainable transport system by 2020. In achieving its vision for Smarter Travel, the Government has 5 key goals:

•     To reduce overall travel demand
•     To maximise the efficiency of the transport network
•     To reduce reliance on fossil fuels
•     To reduce transport emissions
•     To improve accessibility to transport

The vision and targets for Smarter Travel are undoubtedly ambitious- by 2020 model share for car commuting is to drop from 65% to 45%. This translates into 500,000 commuters switching to other forms of transport such as walking, cycling and public transport. The policy also contains a commitment to create a culture of cycling in Ireland. This commitment was cemented with the launch of Ireland’s First National Cycle Policy. The Cycle Policy aims to have 10% of trips to work being made by bike by 2020.

The impact of our personal choices on national travel patterns is easy to underestimate. Traffic congestion in Irish towns and cities is for the most part caused by people travelling to work by car and driving their children to school. In the Dublin region, 100,000 people drive 4km or less to work. An even starker statistic is that 45,000 drive just 2km or less to work in Dublin. At a national level, the 2006 census tells us that no less than 420,000 workers and students travel by car less than 4 kilometres to their destination each day. All of these statistics and trends show that there is significant potential for people to change; but the key challenge for Smarter Travel is to change people’s mindsets.

There are clearly social and health implications associated with all of these trends. Our lifestyles have become more sedentary as people travel by car more, even over short distances. Obesity now affects approximately one in five Irish adults, something that only become prevalent in the last ten years. The National Health Strategy, the Report of the Task Force on Obesity and the National Recreation Policy all call for a greater emphasis on promoting physical activity as the basis for improving and maintaining health.

So what roles can “space” and “place” play in combating these worrying trends? Well, both the physical environment and planning have a role to play in ensuring that the healthy choice becomes the easy choice. For example, the provision of safe walking and cycling routes to schools and workplaces can increase the probability that people will incorporate exercise into their everyday routine. Active travel as part of your daily commute or school trip can help enormously in combating sedentary lifestyles, not to mention tackling congestion and other transport issues. Also, the provision of protected green spaces where children can play safely is another obvious tactic.

All simple ideas, but sometimes it is the small changes that affect the everyday lives of so many.  Improved permeability and access for walkers and cyclists can result in behavioural change which will lead to the modal shifts required to meet the national Smarter Travel targets mentioned previously. We need to build these concepts into how we plan and build from the outset.

The 49 actions in the Smarter Travel Policy set out a range of measures to help us reach the national targets. The Government is committed to creating a culture of active travel in Ireland. Smarter Travel contains a commitment to publish a National Walking Policy. It is intended that the Policy will consider walking in the context of tourism and as a recreational activity, and how this can lead to a culture of walking as a mode of everyday transport.

On a very positive note, it’s worth mentioning the Green-Schools programme, which is operated by An Taisce, funded by the Department of Transport and supported by the National Transport Authority. Green-Schools is an example of a truly successful initiative to encourage pupils and parents to walk, cycle, and use other more sustainable modes on the school run.  Results from schools that undertook the programme between 2008 and 2010 indicate that over the past two years, participating schools experienced a 27% reduction in private car use to more sustainable modes of travel to school. The modal share for walking to school increased by over 8% from 18% to 26%, reflecting a 30% increase in walking to school. 73% of schools in the Programme run WOW days –Walk on Wednesdays. National Walk to School Week ran from 17th to 21st of May this year with schools all across the country participating. The week was a huge success overall with many schools organising walking initiative s and sustainable travel events to and from school. Wednesday the 19th of May was the designated National WOW Day (Walk on Wednesday Day) and a target was set to have 20,000 children walking to school on the day all over Ireland. This target was exceeded with a grand total of 32,850 pupils participating across the country. In addition, many schools organised events throughout the week to promote sustainable transport in their schools such as environmental talks and sponsored walks.

All of this shows that there is great enthusiasm and willingness amongst our children to take the active travel option where possible. We must plan and build our communities and facilities with this in mind. If we are to build on the considerable success of Green-Schools, we must ensure that there is a renewed focus on the quality of our public spaces and walking environment as a key part of our built heritage.

If we are to successfully promote cycling and walking in a wider context as realistic alternatives to the private car, we need to ensure that they are, as far as possible, a safe and pleasant experience. Pedestrian and cycle facilities will be most successful where they form a safe, coherent network and provide direction connections to key facilities and amenities. This links to a broader theme contained in Smarter Travel of aligning spatial planning and transport. Sustainability in transport is ultimately dependent on ensuring that future population and employment growth predominantly take place in sustainable compact forms, which discourage dispersed development and long commuting patterns. I am heartened to note that the Smarter Travel Policy is endorsed in the recently adopted regional planning guidelines and in development plans, as contributing towards the creation of more sustainable neighbourhoods"