European Car-Free Day today is aimed at encouraging motorists to leave their cars at home but the lack of public transport infrastructure was cited yesterday as the real cause of traffic congestion. Christine Newman reports.
With car sales growing every year and the number of road deaths escalating, European Car-Free Day targets motorists by telling them to walk, cycle or use public transport to ease congestion.
However, Mr Conor Faughnan of the AA said: "If everybody entered the spirit of car-free day, there is no possibility that public transport would be able to function."
One of the problems of the car-free day was that it put the blame on the driver and car-user but people used cars for want of public transport, he said. He had no problem with a car-free day as such but it would be better if it was called public transport day, which would focus the debate.
In Dublin, for instance, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on weekdays there were approximately 460,000 journeys, of those 71 per cent were by car.
Dublin Bus carried 85,000 passengers and the AA had every praise for the company.
"But the point remains that all public transport modes available still only cater for less than 30 per cent of commuters," he said.
Inevitably, Dublin was quoted because it is the largest city, but the problem was reflected in other cities and towns throughout the country.
Mr Faughnan said more park-and-ride facilities should also be provided.
The chief executive of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, Mr Cyril McHugh, said there were 1.45 million cars on Irish roads and this had increased by 3 per cent every year.
"We are very much in favour of public transport infrastructure. There is not much point in telling people to leave their cars at home if there is no public transport and park-and-ride facilities beside them," he said.
"I don't particularly welcome car-free day but I would welcome an improved public service facility day," Mr McHugh said.
If public transport and facilities were increased for people to use, they would be able to leave their cars at home outside the city, he said.
So far this year 287 people have died in road accidents in Ireland, up 40 on the figures for the same period last year.
The chairman of the National Safety Council, Mr Eddie Shaw, said no doubt one of the issues in road safety was the volume of traffic.
He said car-free day would have an effect as it illustrated how dependent on the car everybody had become.
All evidence showed that people would use public transport when it was convenient, safe, reliable and consistent.
"We are constrained in that we do not have park-and-ride and public transport facilities, this is not integrated. It would reduce the likelihood of accidents," he said.
The Green Party yesterday accused the Government of indifference because of its poor response to the car-free day.
Dublin celebrates car-free day with usual gridlock: page 14