Irish Teacher: I don't like cars — we should fine unnecessary driving

Here's the carrot-and-stick approach to transport sustainability

Pic: Larry Cummins

I know someone my age who drives to the local shop and the local school.

I know a person in their twenties who drives to work when they could walk there in less than thirty minutes.

In 20 years’ time, I hope I will not know these people because these people will no longer exist.

Full disclosure: I like people but I don’t like cars.

As a parent and teacher, I don’t like them near schools and small children. I don’t like them clogging up cities. I don’t like drivers who bully other drivers and beep their horns in my ear when they’re angry. I reject their anger.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

I don’t like how drivers won’t let me cross roads, even when their traffic jam isn’t moving – how they keep edging forward, incessantly nudging, to not let me cross.

I don’t like how cars make it dangerous for people to walk or cycle, to have babies in buggies, to be disabled. I don’t like what cars are doing to our planet.

The Carrot

And yet, I also don’t like that my husband has to drive a lot because I won’t. In a lot of instances, there are no alternatives. People need to be facilitated and incentivised for change to happen. The BusConnects plan is a good start.

Schools could also play a role.

Schools are great places to initiate social change because they’re bursting with creative, enthusiastic, awe-inspiring people who have a bigger claim on the future than the rest of us. Children.

The Department could offer wet gear, umbrellas, bikes, scooters, anything to encourage children, or more accurately parents, to leave the cars behind. I know of schools where the parents’ council members take turns walking kids to school. This should be the case everywhere. And all children should attend their local schools. This of course is a bigger issue.

My school has finally been granted planning permission for its new school. The plans were blocked for some time, partly due to residents worrying about congestion. I hope we can avoid congestion by encouraging children to carpool, bus, walk, skip, scoot, skate or hop to school. I’d like the Government to support us in this.

The Stick

As well as incentives, and once they are up and running, I believe that people should be penalised for unnecessary driving.

I sometimes imagine every car as a cigarette. It’s similarly harmful. Driving cars is a kind of addiction too – something we do even when we know it’s healthier for us, our health system, and our planet to get up off our arses and walk.

This time twenty years ago I was smoking in bars. What was better than meeting a group of old friends, ordering a drink, reaching for the ten-box, and lighting up? That delicious initial inhale, that hit. That magical plume of blue-white smoke dancing between promising shadows at the bar.

Who could have imagined in 2003 that cigarettes could be banned? Surely us Irish would be the last to stub out the reckless, feckless joy of fags?

But we were the first. We ended up being global leaders.

Could we do the same with cars? Do we want to?

Before the smoking ban a survey found that 67% of the Irish public supported it, including 40% of smokers. Following the ban, that went up to 82% of the Irish public. The cool smoking areas and ‘smirting’ helped. Remember?

So imagine if, along with better transport options, people were told they could only drive locally with a permit? What if only disability or old age, long-distance travel, or working for emergency services gave you free private transport reign? Would the average Irish person finally take their foot off the accelerator and use it to walk or get to the closest bus stop?

Before the smoking ban, people were convinced it would be too hard to police. Levels of compliance ended up being astoundingly high. Sixth months later, it was at 92%. Publicans had argued that they were not “smoke police” and that the ban was “unnecessary, unworkable and unjustified.” It ended up being the opposite.

Remember the downside of the smoking ban? The nasty smells? Remember how bars suddenly became a lot less romantic? Well, curbing our cars could bring about the opposite too. Imagine children walking to school without the noise and air pollution of cars. Imagine them hearing the birds in the trees again. Everyone one of us can play a part in that.

I’m up for it. The petrol-burning question is: are you?

• This might help: Get your school walking (hse.ie).