Time to get moving, for the sake of our health and our environment

Only a minority of children and adults in Ireland get enough exercise. If we were to reverse this and move away from car travel, it would have substantial benefits for our economy, health, and our environment

Oliver Plunkett Street is seen as an example of successful pedestrianisation and clean air. The Government has set a target of a reduction of half a million car journeys per day by 2030.

The Government has set a target of a reduction of half a million car journeys per day by 2030. How is that even possible? Yet, on a week when schools are closed for the Easter holidays, the roads have an eerily quiet feeling compared to the usual suburban mayhem at eight-thirty in the morning. How many of these car journeys could be replaced by active travel — parents walking their children to school, cycle buses or safe-route-to-school initiatives?

And if parents get into the habit of walking or cycling children to school, how many of them would continue their journey to work on foot or on two wheels? Before anyone mentions the rain, I have had to drive to work less than a handful of times since I started working in St Finbarr’s Hospital in Cork, about three kilometres from my home, six months ago.