"Outdated" cycling figures in draft Cork City Development Plan

Figures derived from the 2011 census would mean under-ambitious cycling targets for the Cork City Development Plan, cycling campaigners say.

Figures used to set a target of 4% for cycling as a share of metropolitan area transport by 2028 in the draft Cork City Development Plan are taken from 10-year-old census data.

The Cork City Development Plan for Cork from 2022-2028 is still in its draft stage and members of the public can make submissions on the plan up until October 4.

However, cycling activists say figures used to calculate how many people already cycle in the Cork Metropolitan Area, and as a result, targets for cycling up to 2028, are too low because they are based on the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (CMATS) published in 2018, which used census figures from 2011.

An “existing” figure of 1% in the draft plan and a “target” of 4%, in the CMATS are already so outdated that they are probably being exceeded, Conn Donovan, chair of Cork Cycling Campaign, said.

Chair of Cork Cycling Campaign Conn Donovan. Photo: Conn Donovan

More than 4% already?

“We’re convinced it’s already more than 4%, especially when you look at what happened during Covid and the increase in cycling we’ve seen since then,” Mr Donovan said. “We have data from cycling app Strava for 2020 showing a rise of 37% on the average of the three previous years.”

A Cork Healthy City report using CSO figures from 2016 shows Cork city already had a cycling modal share of 3.5% five years ago, while the modal share for city and suburbs was 2.4%.

credit: Cork Healthy City Profile 2018

Other cities of equivalent scale and population to Cork include Utrecht, where 33% of journeys are carried out by bike, Aarhus, where the figure is 27%, and Bruges at 25%.

A target of 4% would represent at best an under-ambitious target for cycling in Cork, Mr Donovan said.

“Because Cork is an urban area, we should be looking at 15% at a minimum for 2040,” he said. “Everyone wants to see Cork succeed, and it’s very hard to sell Cork as a progressive place if you’re operating such a model.”

8% by bike in the eighties

8% of Cork city’s transport was by bike in the mid-eighties, he pointed out. “So are we going to be in the bizarre situation that over 50 years later, and with over half a billion euros in investment, we’re aiming for half the bike trips that were made in the eighties?”

Cork Cycling Campaign made a submission to CMATS in 2018 calling for the cycling figures in the transport strategy to be scrapped due to how outdated they were.

“CMATS went ahead and we took it on the chin,” Mr Donovan said. “But our foresight came back to haunt us: now the draft Cork City Development Plan is quoting CMATS so we have no target, just a model based on ten-year-old data.”

“So much is being done and there has been an enormous cultural change underway and a lot of positive developments and investments in cycling infrastructure recently.”

Meanwhile, Cork City Council’s PR representative, in a response to queries by Tripe + Drisheen, pointed out that cycling shares are different in Cork city centre and in the wider metropolitan area, some of which was Cork county prior to the city boundary extension.

The projected figure of 4% cycling share “is city-wide and does not reflect the higher incidence of cycling in the city centre,” the PR representative said in an email.

“The figures were used for modelling and we would hope they would be exceeded considerably.”

“CMATS is also a dynamic document which will evolve during the lifetime of the next 3 City Development Plans, additionally post CDP Local Area Plans and Framework Plans will be prepared using revised modelling and targets to more accurately reflect the Active Travel patterns at a more micro level.”

Cork Cycling Campaign @CorkCyclingCrew

It's often mentioned in policy docs that #Cork had a 1% bike modal share in 2011. However, this doesn't paint the full picture and in some parts of the city, the bike for % of trips to work and school was in excess of 10%.

Public submissions to the draft development plan

Cork Cycling Campaign are hoping that members of the public make submissions to the draft development plan asking for more ambitious cycling targets to be reflected in the finished plan, Conn Donovan said.

“We have a team looking at the development plan at present and we’ll be publishing a list of recommendations on our website,” he said. “We’d encourage people to take a look and maybe make their own personal submissions.”