As Velo-city, the world’s premier cycling conference, took place last week in Dublin, Ireland, all eyes of the global cycling community were focused on how the island performs in making cycling a natural choice for daily mobility. The overall sentiment among the 1,400 participants: Dublin and Ireland still have a long way to go!

However, in its brand new Climate Action Plan, published just the week before Velo-city, Ireland announced some key measures it its bid to slash CO2 emissions from the transport sector, hereby contributing to an ‘Irreversible shift to low-emission mobility’ and bringing about an ‘additional 500,000 public transport and active travel journeys daily by 2035’.

Among its most prominent cycling-related decisions was this commitment: “Current transport infrastructure programmes to immediately be revised to achieve at least 10 % expenditure on facilitating cycling”.

10 % for cycling as a share of all transport investments has been a long-standing ECF recommendation to develop a safe and attractive cycle route network that serves the needs of all (potential) cyclists, including children and elderly. The caveat here is that the commitment only relates to current transport infrastructure programmes. Does this apply to future investments too, and does programmes equal all transport spending? This remains to be seen.

However, in order to put the 10 % into context: the Netherlands invests about 7 % of its transport budget into cycling. Given the fact that the country has been promoting cycling for the past 40 years or so, investments in the order of at least 10 % are justifiable in order to catch up with Dutch standards.

Another key decision of the Irish Climate Plan includes the establishment of a ‘Cycling Project Office’ within the National Transport Authority, which will publish a 5 year strategy considering to develop an overall cycling implementation plan across Dublin and other main Irish cities, with the objective of building 200km of segregated cycle lanes. The fact that the strategy will only consider the development of an overall cycling implementation plan again is a reason to be cautious about the intentions of the government.

While implementing these measures would point into the right direction for cycling development in Ireland, the National Climate Strategies’ e-mobility focus falls clearly short. According to the strategy, 936,000 e-vehicles should roam Irish streets by 2030, thereof 840,000 passenger EVs, 95,000 electric vans and trucks and 1,200 electric buses. Not a single word about electric bicycles!

In a public session of the Joint Committee on Climate Action on 26 June, ECF’s Senior Policy Officer, Fabian Küster, pitched to elected representatives to pursue a balanced e-mobility strategy. In order to increase sales of e-bikes on the island, he recommended three measures:

1. Introduce a national purchase subsidy, for example by following the French example. In France, e-bike sales almost doubled from 2016 to 2017 when the national government introduced a 200 Euro purchase subsidy. According to ex-post surveys, 61 % of e-bike trips replaced car trips and hence made a significant contribution to reduce carbon emissions of the transport sector.
2. Stimulate (e-)cycling to work. Irish employees can get a bicycle from their employer every 5 years, this policy is fiscally stimulated. However, a cap on the sales price at 1,000 Euro effectively excludes e-bikes. Therefore, this cap should be revised upwards. In addition, Ireland should introduce a bicycle allowance scheme for commuters, following the Belgian example. There for every km cycled to and from work, the employer can pay the employee a tax-free 23 Euro-cents. Cycling to work has grown by 42 % over the last 12 years in Belgium.
3. Introduce minimum off-street bicycle parking requirements at national level. Easy access to secure bicycle parking is essential for daily usage, even more so for E-bikes as they are more expensive and heavier than conventional bicycles. At this moment, Ireland has only non-binding national guidelines in place, contrary to a whole set of other Member States in the EU.  

In conclusion: earmarking 10 % of transport infrastructure programmes for cycling to build a high-quality cycle route network in and around the main Irish cities is a promising start but should be extended beyond the current programming phase and be applied to all transport infrastructure spending! However, its proposed e-mobility measures are completely unbalanced and should fully include the promotion and usage of the electric bicycle too!

Notes:

• Government of Ireland: Climate Action Plan 2019 to tackle climate break down, 2019.
• Government of Ireland: Climate Action Plan 2019 to tackle climate break down. Annex of Actions, 2019.
• ECF interactive tool: Fiscal incentives for commuting https://ecf.com/interactive-tool-fiscal-incentives-commuting
• ECF, Holger Haubold: Electromobility for all. Financial incentives for e-cycling, 2016.
• ECF, Küster, F. and Peters, M.: Making buildings fit for sustainable mobility – Comparing regulations for off-street bicycle and car parking in Europe, 2018.