Engine Idling and Road Safety at School Gates
Question:
7. Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Minister for Transport his views on running a national communications campaign to address driving to, and engine idling at, school gates, to help improve education and awareness of the need for safe roads and clean air for children and to support the roll-out of the Green Schools Safe Routes to School programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41927/23]
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh
The Department is running a very successful campaign in Your Journey Counts. Has the Minister considered a similar campaign, one that focuses in particular on the dangers of engine idling outside schools and public buildings, and the dangers that are associated with being reliant on cars to get children to and from school, to complement the roll-out of the Green Schools and the Safe Routes to School programmes. The two can go hand in hand.
Deputy Jack Chambers
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which to my mind has two fundamental aspects. The first is education and awareness, as suggested by the Deputy, and the second is improvements on the ground around schools. I am glad that good progress has been made in regard to both aspects.
The Deputy will probably be aware of the Your Journey Counts campaign, which is a multi-platform integrated advertising campaign across TV, radio, print, out-of-home, digital and social advertising. While not directed solely at school journeys, this national campaign highlights the benefits of active and sustainable travel options related to reducing Ireland’s transport emissions in line with climate action plan targets, as well as significant Government investment in these options. The campaign forms part of our wider public engagement and communications strategy, as referenced in both the action plan for the sustainable mobility policy and the climate action plan. This strategy will include a multifaceted approach, incorporating among other things, developing, implementing and evaluating a range of pilot public engagement initiatives and associated studies across a range of areas, including education. Highlighting issues relating to idling at school gates can certainly be looked at as part of this strategy.
In terms of improvements on the ground around schools, the Deputy has mentioned the Safe Routes to School programme. This programme is improving the school environment through interventions such as school zones, which aim to create a safe protected area outside the school gate where children are prioritised. They use identifiable design features, such as pencil-shaped bollards and colourful road markings to highlight the presence of the school and encourage traffic to slow down in the school zone area, prevent parking on footpaths and encourage drivers to make legal and safe drop-offs outside of the school zone area and thus reduce the potential for school-gate idling as referred to by the Deputy.
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh
I also addressed this issue in a Topical Issue debate just last week, when I talked about the EPA report on air pollution and the impact that is having on public health, including excess mortality in our communities. Up to 1,400 people a year die as a result of air pollution. Although it is a very stark figure, it does not take account of the number of people who suffer adverse health impacts from air pollution. In the case of kids going to school, they are at the wrong height in terms of tailpipe emissions. I have skin in the game in that I bring my kids over and back to a school in Tramore. The most dangerous part of that journey is the last couple of hundred metres because that is where cars pull up and idle. We can see those physical dangers in terms of car movements, but what is less obvious and visible is the danger posed by tailpipe emissions coming from those cars. I do not think it is something on which we have adequate public awareness. A public awareness campaign could contribute to that.
Deputy Jack Chambers
As I stated, as part of the wider public engagement and communications strategy, we will be highlighting the issues the Deputy raised. They merit expansion, in particular the issues relating to idling at school gates. We must accelerate the infrastructure delivery of the Safe Routes to School programme as a preventative measure so that within 200 m of schools, as the Deputy mentioned, we can address the core safety issues that arise outside many schools by alleviating congestion and improving safety and air quality, while also addressing the clear public health concerns the Deputy outlined. We need to complement that with the wider campaign the Safe Routes to School programme involves. That is being ramped up by the Department and I appreciate Deputy Ó Cathasaigh’s input in that regard.
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh
Investment in this type of awareness campaign but also the physical infrastructure the Minister of State talks about is mission critical. It is not just an environmental or climate action policy; it is also a public health policy and a social justice policy. If we invest in infrastructure in this way, it is good for the kids. They get to walk or scoot to school. They arrive more awake and have cleaner air. It is good for the parents that they are not dropping the kids to the school gate. It is also good for our wider prosperity and eases congestion, which is to the good as well. We all know what happens to traffic levels when the schools are out; they reduce significantly. In Tramore, aside from the city-based traffic, a lot of the traffic is around the schools. Then there is the planet-wide dividend where we are doing things like reducing emissions but also improving air quality. We really have to go after this because it affects our smallest, most vulnerable group who are literally at the wrong height in terms of these tailpipe emissions.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle
Before the Minister of State responds, I call Deputy Leddin.
Deputy Brian Leddin
Thank you for allowing me to speak on this, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. At the risk of straying into the Minister’s other portfolio, given that we are talking about air quality, I will add to the points made by Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. I have a very strong concern that we do not have a true picture of the effect of traffic on air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, published a very good report last week. It provides a macro view of air quality across the 116 stations in the country. In a response last week, the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, noted that there were no further plans to roll out stations, so we really do not have the full picture of the effect of traffic on air quality. This is not just about awareness; it is about data and analysis as well. We need to do that analysis and get the full picture.
Deputy Jack Chambers
I thank both Deputies. The evidence is clear. An excessive number of trips to and around schools will have an impact on overall air quality. The science is clear on that. That is why we have to work with communities and partner with them to provide safe routes to schools. We must provide a safe alternative for families and children. If we look at the last 30 years, we are all aware of the data from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, showing that we had a very positive story to tell in the 1970s and the 1980s when it came to active travel and schools. I met the Safe Routes to School team and I know the Minister met it recently as well. We are seeing positive indications regarding the numbers of trips.
The infrastructure and the delivery of it will make a big impact on increasing the opportunities for active travel for children, but also on improving air quality around schools, both of which are issues the Deputy referenced.
On the wider issue with the EPA, access to data and the microanalysis of that, I will ask the officials in the Department to engage with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications on it. I appreciate the Deputy raising it.
Addendum: Follow up by Minister Eamon Ryan while answering a follow-up questions.
I cannot help noticing a connection with the Deputy’s previous question. There is another example that is very local to him, but which is relevant and important. He mentioned schools in Tramore. I had the great pleasure of being there recently and visiting Ardscoil na Mara. It is a fantastic school doing brilliant work and was only recently built, but it was designed around the car and for everyone to drive to it. As the Deputy said, we have got this incredible congestion problem outside the school with air pollution and an unhealthy transport system that does not serve our kids’ purposes. We need to look not just at business parks but at how we are building our schools, where we are building them and how we design. That needs to change because they are being built as if they are business parks, that is, with roads around them as if everyone is going to drive to school.
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh
The Minister might be interested in looking back on the discussion I had at the education committee this week. We had the forward planning unit of the Department of Education in and I raised the example of Ardscoil na Mara. It is a pretty hostile environment for pedestrians and cyclists. It is set up for vehicular traffic. There is a role for the Minister’s Department and the NTA to sit down with the Department of Education and make better planning decisions about how we situate our schools and how we use them as sustainable transport nodes within our local communities.
Returning to the business parks, there are solutions here. We cannot expect a bus route to divert through a business park and spend 40 minutes ferrying people around to the different places. We could look at things like shared mobility solutions. I can see e-scooters within business parks working. We could look at an electric shuttle bus within a business park, perhaps funded or co-funded by the different businesses there. I can seek that working. We should be looking at these as solutions.
