Donal Hickey: Do you let your kid cycle alone on the road?
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Even though the holidays are at an end, the great majority of children who got bicycles for Christmas will not be going back to school on their new bikes.
In the absence of designated cycle lanes, many parents rightly feel it’s far too dangerous to allow children take bikes onto public roads.
A survey carried out by Amárach Research for Newstalk radio found that 51% of children get to school by car; 22% use public transport; and the remainder walk.
In the case of rural schools, far more than half of the pupils are dropped off and collected by car. The days of Alice Taylor’s are long gone.
All of this contrasts sharply with the situation in other European countries: in Netherlands, for example, 75% of children cycle to school; in Denmark, it's 40%. The big difference is that these countries have safe, extensive cycle lane networks, used widely by people of all ages.
Here, there’s a related issue of parents leaving car engines running as they wait outside schools for their children to finish class. Nearly all our political parties have indicated support for a ban on "engine idling" — but legislation is awaited.
In Britain, research has shown that 27% of parents leave engines running. The practice is banned in some schools there with signs erected warning of £80 fines for those who flout the regulation.
From personal observation of the situation here, 27% seems a conservative figure — a primary school in Greystones, County Wicklow, found 81% of car engines were left running.
All of that adds to air pollution — an issue highlighted by Jennifer Whitmore, a Social Democrats TD who has drafted a Bill for a ban on engine idling outside schools.
Studies have found children are most at risk. A car exhaust is at the same height as the younger school children, who are taking poison into their bodies, Ms Whitmore pointed out.
Engine idling laws are common across Europe, but Ireland has yet to catch up. Though most modern cars have an automated engine-shut down feature that saves fuel and money, and reduces emission of harmful air pollutants, engine idling persists here.
Nice to see this protection for kids bodies & lungs. Great leadership in Dublin.
— Dean Venables (@DeanVenables) February 3, 2021
Forcing kids to breathe fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide from vehicle exhaust near school should be a definite no-no@CRAClabUCC @corkcitycouncil @PedestrianCork @CorkCyclingCrew https://t.co/vepSy6f9P2
On World Clean Air Day, last September, UCC became the first Irish university to roll out a no-engine-idle policy across its campuses.
Dr Dean Venables, of UCC’s Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, said engine idling causes multiple types of harm, and air pollution accounts for about ten times more deaths than road traffic incidents.
“Idling releases toxic substances like nitrogen dioxide, black carbon and particulate matter into the air that harms those outside, and inside, vehicles," he stated.