Car usage drops by 1% in over a decade

For me compared to 10 years ago I use the car far less. There are no public transport links between my house and my place of work so I have to own a car as work is 16km away, I also have an electric bike that I sometimes use to do this commute. I work remotely 60% of the time so that's a lot of commuting cut down on compared to 10 years ago.

I think things would be similar for most people, you have to own a car because public transport doesn't exist, cycling/walking to work is difficult/dangerous or you have to drop kids to school etc on the way. For most people whether you are doing 1000k or 100000k per year, you are paying your tax and your insurance and the car is outside your door, it will keep you warm dry and safe so of course you are going to use it 99% of the time. For a lot of people its a case of 'I have it so I may as well use it' and until there is a proper (not token) effort to make other forms of transport a lot more viable (and I don't mean simply banning cars from certain areas at certain times) nothing will change.

Build infrastructure like they did in Amsterdam and people will use it, but it must all be integrated, if you cycle your bike to the station, you either need to be able to bring it with you or lock it securely, same with buses. Cycle lanes and footpaths need to be fit for purpose, not painted lines on a road that most motorists ignore or have to drive in anyway because the road is so narrow.

Employers too need to make it easier for those who commute in these ways, my employer provides showers (about 1 per 500 employees) which helps me to cycle in, but I bet its not the same for a lot of people.

Someone needs to be put in charge of integrating all of this and if money needs to be borrowed to make it happen then do it, because the health benefits and reduced medical fees, improved mental health etc. will all be well worth the investment. These projects are proven to be worthwhile investments the world over so all it takes is the political will to do it.

Bottom line, you can't expect people to give up their cars if you haven't given them a real alternative to it in the first place. The lack of a decent public transport infrastructure is not something that is in the hands of the general public, so hazard a guess at where the problems lie.

Does inner city Dublin have space for cycle lanes though? Not sure I'd fancy going down the quays, Dame Street or O Connell street on a bike, tbh.

The same arguments always come up, "its faster for me to drive and costs less".

Until car use in cities is slower and costs more, people will not change. Less car lanes and congestion charges/tolls are the obvious solutions on both points.

Until car users are sitting in traffic for ages waiting and paying for the privilege while watching the buses/trams/cyclsts fly by as they wait, nothing will change.

For me, this is the only solution for our cities.

Getting people out of cars in rural areas will be next to impossible due to our low density rural sprawl, only changes to our planning system can resolve this and even then it would take generations.

Just see today ... 2 kids killed in road traffic accidents yesterday. There has been an increase of road deaths of 30% since 2019. Also, how many more horrible serious injuries.

I dunno. I think we lose the run of ourselves when ever we get some extra money in this country. It's rarely invested in anything long term. Just new cars etc etc etc.

Obviously not. Its like smoking. You must pretend to be trying to eradicate it while keeping the tax take up. Have you seen how much the government get out a €50k car?

I have a few roads like that along my cycle too. Its scary cycling along them.

But wouldnt it be easier to CPO land along the road and make it a cycle lane, or make the footpath a cycle lane and CPO some land for a nicer footpath the other side of the hedges, houses etc. That way you can have peds, cyclists and cars who all need the road, because there is no other viable road or that one wouldnt be busy, segregated.