Ireland’s second city has grand plans for a sustainable transport revolution as it looks to break commuters’ dependence on their cars and develop a large urban extension into adjacent docklands.

 

Hop aboard a bicycle in central Cork, ride east along the River Lee and in less than 10 minutes you will be far removed from the hustle of the city; surrounded by trees and opulent suburban homes with enviable views across the water.

 

Sandwiched in between city and suburb is a large, 162 hectare docklands site whose heyday may have passed but where potential for redevelopment is huge.

 

Housing for around 20,000 people and jobs for 29,000 are promised on the site, set to increase the city’s population by 15%.

 

Such growth will also make a sizeable contribution to ambitions set out by the Irish Government to increase by half the number of people living in Cork and its wider city region; to 324,000 by 2040.

 

But long before the City dock project and other major housing developments are complete Cork will have introduced a series of bold measures across the city to reduce traffic and encourage the use of public transport and active travel, ensuring that future growth does not add to current congestion.

 

Work starts early this year to ban cars for six hours every afternoon from principal retail thoroughfare St Patrick’s Street – pictured on this issue’s cover – and change the direction of permitted travel for private cars and buses on several key streets across Cork’s central area. 

 

Broadly speaking these efforts aim not only to stimulate economic growth and better manage deliveries but create a more attractive urban realm, improve bus reliability, provide safer conditions for cyclists and make an easier task for pedestrians wanting to cross major streets at key locations.

 

Ireland’s National Transport Authority will shortly publish a regional transport strategy including a draft metropolitan transportation strategy for Cork, which is set to give details of planned new transport infrastructure including a bus rapid transit scheme, that may one day lead to the introduction of a light rail network.

 

There are hopes too that Cork’s strategy will heed calls for the building of further segregated cycle lanes and an expansion of the city’s successful cycle hire scheme.

 

Improving the public transport offer and conditions for those on foot and on bicycles will no doubt help to influence the travel patterns of some, if not many. But Cork still has work to do to convince local people to reduce the number of miles they drive. Nearly two thirds of trips in the city and suburbs are currently made by car, with buses accounting for 9% of journeys to work.

 

But it is hoped that measures introduced soon will bring about a dramatic change in how people get

around the city. A recently published long term vision for Cork sets out the aim of a six fold increase in

the number of people using public transport in 2050 compared to today.

 

In just over three decades it is also hoped that 55% of commuters will travel to work by sustainable means and the private car’s modal share across the wider metropolitan area will have reduced by nearly a third.

 

According to Cork City Council’s chief executive Ann Doherty the need to change travel behaviours is essential if local growth ambitions are to be realised in a sustainable manner.

 

“People in Ireland love their cars and this stems from way back, where there was an association of owning a vehicle and being successful,” she says. “It later became attractive for more people to live near to Cork and this led to a greater dependency on cars.

“But we live in a new phase now. Urban living is becoming popular in this beautiful city as people realise they need to live where there are lots of other people if they want access to quality services and facilities. This means that accommodating cars becomes more challenging.”

 

Looking forwards, she adds that Millennials and their successors “will choose to live in the nicest places and companies will go to where the talent is. We have to make sure we create places where people want to live, otherwise growth won’t happen”. And she is confident that Cork has the “capacity, reputation and credibility to embrace a much larger population”.

 

Ann Doherty says some positive transport trends have emerged recently, with bus patronage up a quarter in three years. Part of this can be attributed to improved service frequencies to suburbs and a decision by a local operator to widen the area covered by a cheaper ‘city fare’.

 

Growth in cycling is another plus for the city, with a bicycle hire scheme introduced four years ago now attracting over 20,000 trips a month.

 

Segregated cycle lanes, which started to be introduced to Cork around the same time, have reportedly been very successful and a series of cycle ‘greenways’ into the city are well used.

 

“Every day I am asked when we are extending the cycle lanes and the hire scheme; there is a huge appetite for them,” Ann says.

 

Another key objective for the city is giving priority to buses. A series of dedicated corridors are currently being developed ahead of the introduction of a bus rapid transit network in the

coming years.

 

Renewed efforts are also being made to promote park and ride into the city

which is currently, she concedes, “not as popular as it could be”.

 

Demands from a growing population for even better public transport provision could then lead to a light rail network, the chief executive adds. “We hope that by the time we get to 2050 we will have the population to support it.”

 

Cork is Ireland’s second largest city and represents, Ann Doherty adds, a viable alternative to Dublin for people and businesses who want to live and operate in a thriving urban centre.

 

“When you look across the city skyline you see a series of tower cranes, showing the confidence of both the public and private sectors to invest here.”

 

But a flip side to ongoing development in the city is growing volumes of traffic. “There are choke

points at peak times now, whereas during our financial crash of 2008 our roads had very little traffic,” Ann says.

 

“We all got a bit comfortable with the ease of getting about. Fortunately, now we are seeing a growth in jobs which is translating into more activity and people on the move, so we are seeing a return to longer travel times.

 

“This is why we need to see a shift towards cycling and the use of public transport,” she adds. “Congestion and delays sometimes make people reassess how they make their journeys, and may encourage more of them to make a switch.