OPINION: Scaremongering, cycling and the status quo

Veteran journalists such as Liamy MacNally need to stop acting as if people in offices in Dublin are going to take cars out of rural Ireland. There’s no such plan. His Mayo News column on the Westport Local Transport Plan (‘The car is a necessity, not a luxury’, published on October 31) uses the usual cliches in the fight to protect the status quo.
As someone from and living in Ballina, I used to think Westport was the kind of place where the old saying ‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’ applies.
There’s pretentiousness in quoting President Kennedy, but I thought Westport was different to other towns. It was a town that could see there are other ways of doing things and there was a collective drive for better than the status quo.
If MacNally captures the current spirit of Westport, that’s definitely not the case today.
But the worst part of evoking Kennedy is not the pretentiousness but rather how the council’s transport plan is fairly mild. This is sadly something which is repeated over and over again — opponents claim that the mildest of changes will destroy a town, and people who want better are left fighting for mediocrity.
MacNally portrays the plan as some kind of radical manifesto where Westport will be ‘sacrificed on the altar of’ what he calls ‘desktop studies’ (code for a plan by outsiders and experts). All while pretending there’s no issue with the status quo.
Then he mentions the number of people driving as a defence of the status quo, but there’s ample scope for local trips to switch from cars to walking and bicycles and some longer ones to electric bicycles and public transport.
He fails to mention the clearer madness of more people driving themselves to education than cycling to school.
MacNally writes: “Westport transport and development is dependent on a southern relief road”. But this position – a position which the authors of the draft plan also take – is just not dealing with reality.
A full bypass should have been built but after spending €300 million on the N5, Westport is unlikely to get extra major road funding for some time. Hard to hear maybe, but a bit of Realpolitik is needed. Under MacNally’s charter for the status quo, Westport has to ask itself how fast it wants to stagnate.
MacNally says there are ‘some good proposals’ but that ‘Westport is a business town’ and for the plan ‘to continually state that we need to reduce cars and car-parking spaces ignores a major factor of everyday life in Westport – that of supporting businesses’. This begs a lot of questions.
Is Westport a mini case of a society which has morphed into just an economy? What about the other aspects of life? Health, safety, attractiveness, and — dare I say it — the environment and climate action too? Why does MacNally avoid discussing the very reasons for the plan?
Regardless, there is no evidence that making a town more walking, cycling and public transport friendly is bad for business. The opposite is true.
The trend is that towns and cities are evolving to be less car-dominated. As that ramps up, towns that turn their back on this change will see a long-term impact, including on business.
MacNally quoted the Westport Business Association that ‘cycleways are misguided’; look at approach roads instead they say. But that is a false choice. Cycle paths are needed in both areas.
He also quotes a businessman saying ‘But where are these extra cyclists coming from?’. But is it unimaginable that more people will cycle when conditions are improved? Especially in a town where a greenway started as a foreign concept and was proven a success?
Such business owners highlight how important it is for customers to park as close to their businesses as possible. It might be worth a parking survey to check how many of them are parking day-long in prime spaces rather than parking a little further away or – God forbid – using an alternative to driving if practical.
MacNally tops off the article with destructive tired populism re ‘those in power’ and quangos etc, which is a massively over the top reaction to such a mild plan. The kind of thing you hear from a politician who’s known for ‘telling it like it is’ – simplistic and sounds somewhat right, a bit like Brexit or the rise of Trump.
The people of Westport should have their say on the plan. Hopefully, while considering the issues in the round and not falling for scaremongering.

Cian McGinty is editor of irishcycle.com.