Cars need to give way for effective public transport

Whatever hope we have of meeting our climate targets will disappear if we can’t get people out of their cars, writes Dr Declan Jordan,  senior lecturer in economics at Cork University Business School

A computer-generated image of what the Cork Luas would look like. The population of Cork is forecast to grow by 105,000 in the next 20 years.

There are major changes underway in public transport in our cities. Last week the National Transport Authority published a revised transport strategy for Dublin. It essentially shelved the DART underground line and the metro lines linking the city and the airport.

It's now over 16 years since Metro North was adopted as government policy — it will be at least another 21 years before this project is delivered, if at all. Meanwhile, the NTA’s BusConnects plan for Cork is out for public consultation.