I want to ride my bicycle

We need more active travel

If you go on holidays to France or the Netherlands, you see all sorts of people on their bikes, from families with grandparents and young children to people on their commute. While the (long and wet) Irish winters may not inspire you to dust of your helmet, the summer is in full swing! With warm(er) and dry(ish) weather, we might expect that we are walking and cycling much more often than in the colder months.

The new Behavioural Energy and Travel Tracker (BETT) report looks at the everyday energy behaviours of people living in Ireland and shows us our assumption is wrong - we don't see this seasonal trend that we might expect. In fact, there is pretty much no change at all in the proportion of journeys taken by active travel (walked or cycled) across the year.

Only around a quarter of journeys are walked or cycled, and just one in twenty are taken by public transport - regardless of whether it is January or July. Cars dominate our roads, with seven in ten journeys on a given day taken by car across the year.

Thinking about journeys that could potentially be taken by active travel or public transport, we consider journeys either under 2km or 5km where public transport is available. For these shorter journeys, we still see one in five people travelling by car consistently across the year - and how warm or dry it is doesn't have any effect on these journeys.

Ireland needs to reduce its carbon emissions in the transport sector by 50% from 2018 to 2030 as set out in the Climate Action Plan, which means reducing car use and increasing active travel. While we might guess that people walk and cycle more often in the summer, or when the weather is better, BETT findings show that car use is consistently high across all months of the year, regardless of the weather. So, if it isn't the weather that is affecting our decisions, what is?

We need infrastructure that makes cycling low-stress

In high-cycling nations like the Netherlands, the availability of coherent, safe, direct, and comfortable cycling infrastructure - alongside wider motor traffic calming measures - allows a wide range of people enjoy a distinctly casual and social style of urban cycling.

The Dublin City Centre Transport Plan includes road space reallocation measures that can improve segregated cycle networks, which are essential for facilitating a more relaxed, accessible cycling culture in Irish cities.

When we look at how people get to and from public transport, walking dominates. Enabling people to cycle as part of a larger journey that incorporates public transport could grow public transport figures significantly. Walking 40 minutes to the bus stop might not be an attractive prospect to many people, but a 10-minute cycle may be more acceptable.

Alongside improved cycling networks, providing safe and secure cycle parks at bus and train stations could help grow cycling as a way of starting or finishing a multi-modal journey.  

E-bikes can make active travel more accessible and versatile

The Behavioural Economics Unit is carrying out research exploring how people incorporate e-bikes and trikes into their everyday mobility.

 According to our research, through e-assisted cycling, active transport can be enjoyed by people who might find conventional cycling an unrealistic or intimidating option. This might include adults learning to cycle for the first time or returning to the saddle after a long break, those looking to continue cycling as their physical capabilities change, and individuals whose physical abilities are better suited to the e-bike or trike.

The school run and the 'big shop' are two types of journeys that can be less suited to conventional cycling. E-cargo bikes (and trikes) may offer many practical advantages of a private car for these cargo-carrying journeys that can often take place over short distance. On this basis, e-cycling can play an important role in progressing modal shift. And just like the conventional bicycle, e-bikes benefit from high-quality urban spaces where active transport is 'low-stress' and public transport is free from motor traffic congestion.

E-cycling might also benefit from some extra considerations, that would help advance a broader vision of cycling for all ages and abilities. For one, e-bikes need charging. Authorised workplace spaces for charging e-bike batteries could help popularise longer-distance e-cycling commutes.

E-cyclists might take longer everyday journeys and replace the car more often than people using a conventional bike. Expanded segregated cycling networks could be helpful to support this longer distance cycling behaviour.

E-bikes can be a lot heavier than conventional bikes, and this can make parking and lifting tricky. Cycle parking with more generous supply and clearance space, greater availability of dropped curbs and cycle ramps, and accessible entrances to greenways that don't require cyclists to dismount can all help support e-cycling and its advantages as a more accessible type of cycling.

Prioritising active travel and public transport in urban areas is essential to achieving modal shift

In rural areas people are generally more dependent on the private car - populations are more dispersed, public transport may be less available, and a lack of foot and cycleways mean active travel can be less accessible. Urban areas are better suited to modal shift, but appropriate infrastructure is required.

By redistributing private car space and access, to prioritise a multi-modal transport system primarily designed for cycling, walking, wheeling, and public transport, people can enjoy safer and more direct urban mobility with less need for the private car.