Rollout of more cycle lanes will remove ‘unnecessary traffic’ in Waterford

The rollout of more cycle lanes will remove “unnecessary traffic” in Waterford, a council official has claimed.

Independent councillor David Daniels enquired about Active Travel schemes at the January plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.

Cllr Daniels enquired as to how the council plans to measure the success of such schemes.

He said: “Around the Active Travel schemes, how do we intend to measure these schemes?

“How do we measure these schemes before we put the shovel in the ground and how are we measuring the schemes when the schemes are done?

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“Is it based on usage or CO2 emissions or whatever? What are the targets now and what are the targets in the future and can that be made available for all the schemes in the city and county?

“What are the cost benefits of [those] done and [what are] the targets for the future?”

In response to Cllr Daniels, Director of Services Gabriel Hynes said that the success of the schemes cannot be measured yet.

Whilst acknowledging that initial uptake has been low, he said that more Active Travel schemes will be rolled out over the coming years.

The council intends to link up these schemes to “complete a full circle of footpaths and cyclepaths”. Mr Hynes also mentioned the need for improved public transport.

He continued: “We’ll find in time then, people [will] find the schemes are there, they’re linked up, they’re safer and there’ll be more public transport as part of our Decarbonisation Programme.

“We’ll find that usage as we increase the rollout, will increase. So initially, if you do a small scheme and we haven’t the next part of it done, you’ll find usage will be low.

“But once you link that up completely, just take for example, the city here, once we link all the schemes up, we’ll find usage will increase and the benefits will be significant.”

Mr Hynes went on to list some of the benefits which he believes the schemes will bring.

“Not only from a safety point of view, but also from a well-being point of view. The other thing is that you’re removing traffic, unnecessary traffic, you’ve less air pollution and you’ll have a more sustainable city.

“To judge it initially on one scheme alone, isn’t a fair way of doing it. Unfortunately, we will have challenges as we roll it out and we expect that.

“Within time, over the next five or six years, when we look back at it, we will appreciate then when we see how effective our schemes have been.

“Initially, we can’t judge one scheme by itself until we roll them all out,” he concluded.

Waterford City and County Council’s Active Travel Programme is funded by the National Transport Authority.

It involves the promotion of walking and cycling and encourages a shift away from private car use.