Launching the Active Travel Towns Initiative at Tralee Wetlands on Tuesday were Anna Meria Costelloe, Planner Kerry County Council (KCC); Tom Sheehy, Senior Engineer KCC; Charlie O’Sullivan, Director of Operations KCC; Mayor of Kerry John Brassil; Micheál Ó Coileáin, Environmental Officer KCC; Joe O’Connor of IT Tralee; Mayor of Tralee Jim Finucane; Kieran Ruttledge CEO Tralee Chamber Alliance; Eamon Scanlon, Senior Executive Engineer, KCC; Sadhbh Corkery and Eoghan Bradshaw. Photo by Dermot Crean
AN exciting new initiative which will change the way people travel in town was launched yesterday at Tralee Bay Wetlands.
The Active Travel Town Initiative will see a 6km new cycle route through the town, a ‘shared space’ in The Mall and the extension of of the Tralee Fenit walkway to name but a few changes.
The Initiative is also about getting people to examine alternatives to the car for their travel needs, whether to work, school or for leisure and day to day activities.
Some of the work on the Initiative will be completed in 2015 with the remaining changes in place the following year.
IT Tralee lecturer and referee in RTE’s Tralee’s Fittest Family, Joe O’Connor, who helped launch the initiative, believes that itis a great opportunity for the people of Tralee town to choose a healthy lifestyle.
“By making the decision to walk or cycle to work, school or college this type of travel will become the norm and a health and fitness culture will develop across society as a whole. This active culture will pass onto the next generation and thus reduce cardiovascular and obesity related diseases,” he said.
Tralee is one of only nine towns across Ireland to be awarded the Active Travel Town status. In 2011 Kerry County Council commissioned a Transport Strategy forTralee town -Tralee Transport Strategy (TTS). The strategy examined the movement of people around and through Tralee.
A series of public consultations were held in relation to the strategy and a number of key recommendations arose from the process.
Continued below image of proposed initiative (click on it to enlarge)
The Active Travel Town programme will now look to deliver on some of the recommended pieces of infrastructure identified in the strategy.
Funding of €1.3million from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTT&S) with Kerry County Council funding of €900,000 is in place to deliver on these recommendations.
The Council will shortly start on these infrastructural works, improvements to the town centre’s public areas as well as provide a number of behaviour change programmes over the next two years.
The infrastructural measures include:
· Creating a 6km cycleway from Forge Cross, connecting the I.T Tralee to Blennerville via the Town Centre,
· Introducing a 30km / hr speed limit in Tralee Town centre,
· Creating a shared space in the Mall area.
· Creating a two-way traffic movement on Denny Street with cycle and pedestrian facilities.
Cllr. Jim Finucane, Mayor of Tralee, in welcoming the Active Town Travel Initiative stated: “The aim is to provide the necessary measures and infrastructural investment to encourage and facilitate a greater move towards sustainable forms of travel, such as walking, cycling, public transport or car pooling in Traleetown”.
CEO of Tralee Chamber Alliance, Kieran Ruttledge, welcomed the cycling facilities especially.
“The cycle lanes will certainly be beneficial. If can move towards more people cycling into town it would be great. There’s no charge for parking a bike!” said Mr Ruttledge.
Over the coming weeks a number of travel audits will take place at various locations in town for members of the public. The questionnaires will only take a few minutes of the public’s time to complete.
Kerry County Council will also be working with schools in the town to gain an understanding of the travel patterns of students in the area. As part of the traffic surveys, the public may notice survey equipment set up on key identified routes in the Tralee town area. All information gathered will be used for the purpose of this study only and will be treated with the upmost confidentiality
Active Travel Tralee will also involve a number of behavioural change programmes aimed at encouraging the general public, students and school children to walk, cycle, car pool or take public transport.
Such events will include;
· Tralee Travel Transformation Competition
· Cycling workshops in primary and secondary schools
· WOW days (Walk on Wednesday), COW days (Cycle on Wednesday) in primary and secondary schools
· Bicycle maintenance programmes
Active Travel Tralee will also be working with the staff and students of IT Tralee on a number of initiatives to make the programme more accessible to all.
