FUNDING from the Smarter Travel programme, designed to encourage local authorities to develop environmentally sound means of travel, has been stalled.
Limerick County Council have greatly invested in creating green routes in the city environs in the last few years, in a bid to secure an estimated €11.5m from the government’s Smarter Travel fund.
The local authority put forward a successful project, making it through to stage two of the application for funding, with the final decision to be made in June 2010.
However, a year later the council remains in the dark as to when and if the funding will be assigned.
“When we made the submission for funding, Noel Dempsey was the Minister for Transport, and we were to hear the outcome last June, but there has been no announcement made”, Pat O’Neill, senior engineer at the Roads Department, told the Limerick Post.
“We haven’t gotten any funding from that specific project, but we are still hopeful”.
He said that the aim of the Smarter Travel programme was as much a behavioural change as an infrastructural adjustment.
Mr. O’Neill told a Transportation and Infrastructural SPC meeting that the key to the Smarter Travel initiative was to encourage people to use public transport, walk or cycle, rather than always using their car.
“People living in Elm Park in Castletroy, had been driving to the university and parking further away than where they live”, he told the meeting.
“It’s about changing the way people think.
“We got a fantastic response from our efforts to encourage smarter travel, and that’s why it was so successful”.
The areas of Castletroy and the city were used as a pilot for the county, with cycle lanes and walkways installed.
This model is to be used throughout the county, once funding is secured.
“There is a demand for sustainable transport out there.
“It improves the quality of life of our residents and stimulates investment,” Mr. O’Neill added.
The county council secured €300,000 in funding as part of a separate incentive for sustainable transport in cities and their environs.
Cycle lanes and driver feedback signs are to be developed for the Groody and Kilmurry roads with the funding, while €145,000 is to be spent on improvements to the Golf Links Road.
A further €50,000 will be used to create pedestrian crossing in the environs, and €55,000 on bus shelters.
There are further applications in place for green routes, including the development of a cycle lane between Limerick and Nenagh, along the old R445 road.
“It would cost about €877,000, so Limerick County Council and Tipperary would each apply for funding.
“We’ve also asked for money for everywhere out as far as the county boundaries.
“We’ve put in for the kitchen sink so hopefully, we’ll get some money out of it”.
