Shane Ross claims he's a cycling convert. But Government spending on cycling is now revealed to be in absolute free-fall.
Transport Minister Shane Ross a "cycling convert"
Having sounded very unconvinced about the merits of cycling when he first took office, Minister for Transport Shane Ross now claims he is a “cycling convert”.
The news may come as surprise to some, especially cyclists still waiting for him to fulfil cycling-related political promises.
Ross’s “conversion” to cycling has done little to improve spending on cycling during his term. Indeed, spending on cycling is plummeting.
Figures provided to journalist Brian Hutton of the Irish Times in recent weeks revealed spending on cycling was falling.
The Department of Transport data shows €19 million was allocated to cycling infrastructure in 2015.
However, this fell to €10.5 million in 2016. And it decreased further, to €7 million, in 2017.
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That means the spending allocation for cycling projects in 2015 compared to 2017 plummeted by 63 per cent.
But Ross insists he has seen the light. And he says he was “converted” by cycling advocates, specifically naming Staying Alive at 1.5 safe-pass campaigner Phil Skelton.
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Ross accepted in a recent Dáil debate that he took his time in implementing the statutory instrument providing for the promised new close-pass legislation.
But in a Dáil exchange with Robert Troy TD (FF) he insisted his thinking had been changed by cycling campaigners.
“I am a convert to cycling,” he told Troy in the Dáil. “I took some time to be converted to the urgency, not only for the imperative of the modal shift, which must be more dramatic; but also for all the bells and whistles that go with that shift.
“I am a convert to the need to not only protect our cyclists but to encourage people to get out of their cars and on to bicycles, and that is working.
“It may not be working fast enough... but it will accelerate during my tenure.
“I am not in any way hesitant to say that I was not persuaded of the need for the minimum passing distance by a large number of the groups led by Phil Skelton and others.
“I was being educated and I have been converted to the need to transfer people to bicycles and to protect them.”
Cyclists will hope Shane Ross seeing the light, as it were, will mean his promise to introduce a minimum passing law is honoured.
And cyclists will also hope Ross will stem the reduction in spending on cycling facilities and infrastructure in recent years. It is hoped he would increase that spend to bring it into line with best practice internationally.
Dublin Cycling Campaign, and other groups, are pressing for 20 per cent of the overall transport budget to be assigned to and ring-fenced for walking and cycling projects. The current provision is about 2-4 per cent.
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