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Saturday, 21 January 2006 |
Breaking the car habit
 Increasing prosperity in Ireland in the 1990's has resulted in a huge increase in the number of cars on Irish roads. Between 1990 and 2002 over 600,000 more cars took to Irish roads. Inadequate public transport systems around the country mean a huge number of Irish people rely on their cars to get around.
As Dublin suburbs sprawl journey times are increasing and a lot of people start their morning with an hour or more long wait in noisy and polluting traffic jams. Below are a few facts about transport in Ireland.
- Traffic congestion and noise pollution in urban areas is increasingly a problem. In 1997, 431 people were killed on our roads.
- Cars emit carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide to the air, contributing to global warming, acid rain and respiratory diseases.
- Transport contributes to over 17% of national CO2 emissions and is increasing.
- Transport is now the largest source of emissions of nitrous oxide (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and carbon monoxide (CO) - with vehicles contributing 50% of national emissions of NOx, 60% VOCs, and 81% of CO.
- Demand for transport infrastructure encroaches on landscape, habitats and biodiversity.
- The transport sector accounts for the largest share of energy consumption - 31% of the total.
We do sometimes need to use our cars, however in many cases we hop in without thinking is this trip necessary?, is it a short distance I could do on foot or by bike? If we consider that over a quarter of all car journeys in Ireland are under 3km we can quite quickly see the opportunity for making the journey on foot or by bicycle. A study in Germany showed that in a city of only 100,000 inhabitants,
a 20% shift of transport from cars to bicycles results in
a reduction of air pollution by 36%.
Living in a more environmental manner is all about breaking habits and making choices, a start is being aware of how much you use your car in an average week. Take a guess of the distance and time travelled in one week and then keep note of what you really do - how do the figures compare?
Check out our 'In your Car' section for some tips on how to drive in a more environmentally aware manner.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 May 2006 )
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