Caroline O'Doherty
March 23 2021 03:55 PM
DUBLIN dwellers could cut their car ownership by 98pc and still move easily around the city and suburbs if transport sharing services were widely rolled out.
Research by the International Transport Forum (ITF) found the Greater Dublin Area was well suited to car-share, taxi-share, e-scooter and e-bike rental, and taxi-bus services to fill the gaps in scheduled public transport.
With plentiful supply and on-demand booking platforms, the need for privately owned cars could plummet to just 2pc of current numbers.
Replacing 20pc of private car trips with shared services would result in a greater than 20pc reduction in carbon emissions, and that’s assuming the shared vehicles continue to run on petrol or diesel. The reduction would be greater if they were electric.
Further research coming soon from the ITF will also show that if 20pc of car users in Dublin shifted to shared services, 40pc of road space could be repurposed as cycle lanes, walkways, green space and other public amenities.
The ITF is an international transport think-tank supported by 62 countries including Ireland.
Transport planner and economist, Elisabeth Windisch, who works on ITF projects, presented some of its findings to the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action which is examining how transport emissions can be halved by the end of the decade.
Ms Windisch said the changes to transport habits would not be easy but she warned they could not be delayed.
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While working from home during the pandemic had cut commuting and transport emissions, it was likely journeys would rapidly increase again post-pandemic even if working from home continued as people travelled more in their free time.
“Nobody should diminish the importance of bringing people from all walks of life on board, including the effort that this will take,” she said.
“It will require communicating the importance, and urgency of climate action, as well as the relevance of individual behavior.”
Professor Alan McKinnon of Kuehne Logistics University, Hamburg said vehicle-sharing should also be an option for freight transporters.
He said trucks in Ireland were empty 36pc of the time they were on the road – a proportion far higher than the EU average.
The wasted space could be used and the number of journeys reduced if companies had online platforms for trading spare capacity.
Part of the Government’s climate action plan is to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 but Dr Lynn Sloman, advisor to London transport authorities and the Welsh government, warned the impact would only be felt much later as the average car was used for 14 years.
She urged an end to new road building and investment in public transport and cycle ways instead, including ‘cycle superhighways’ radiating out from towns for 15km or more to take account of the longer journeys achievable by ebike.
Dr Sloman said a pay-per-mile eco-levy on driving should also be imposed to encourage a shift away from cars, with the revenues being put into alternative transport.
“We should recognise a universal basic right for everyone to be able to have a decent life without having to own or drive a car,” she said.
