Learning how to safely ride a bike should be taught in classrooms, the Greens urged today.
Putting the activity on the school curriculum is among the party’s proposals for the Government’s new sustainable transport strategy.
The Greens want Dublin to resemble Danish capital Copenhagen by increasing daily bike trips by tenfold and rolling out safe cycle routes.
In a ten-point plan, the Greens also called for schools, businesses and local authorities to encourage cycling and walking.
The Government must reduce its dependence on oil and fast-track rail projects to help the country meet EU emissions-reduction targets, the Coalition partners said.
The Green Party strategy was today presented to the media aboard a Dublin Bus travelling around the capital.
Transport spokesman Ciaran Cuffe TD said: “As a country we can, like Sweden, break our dependence on oil, but that is not going to happen if we continue down the same path.”
The Greens also want feasibility studies on light rail systems in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford to be completed.
The Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) has already begun taking suggestions from commuters and other stakeholders via the new website, www.2030vision.ie The new strategy which will run up to 2030, will replace Transport 21.
The Greens also called for an overhaul of the 1932 Road Transport Act to allow more private bus operators into the market.
Green Senator Dan Boyle warned that the price of a barrel of oil is hovering under its all-time peak of 127.82.
“Let us remember that just a year ago oil was trading at 66 per barrel, and we thought that was expensive!” The finance spokesman added: “Economically, these are difficult times. We should be keeping a handle on our costs and economic competitiveness, and making sure that inflation stays under control. We simply cannot afford to allow our economic security to be dependent on the price of oil.
“We must wean ourselves off it and find ways to secure prosperity that don’t involve adding nearly 200,000 cars to the roads and chugging out 13 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.”
PA