Ireland’s Lack Of Public Transport Is Proving Deadly For Young People

It’s becoming harder to ignore the fact that road deaths are increasing and we aren’t really being given any answers as to why. Looking at the lack of infrastructure to get people home safe, especially outside of Dublin, may give us some of the answers we are looking for.

Learner road deaths have increased by 500 per cent since 2019. That is a shocking figure. Newspaper headlines seem to be polluted by reports of young people dying in car crashes. It is not uncommon for those who live in rural communities to know someone who has been in a fatal car accident. Blame is consistently pushed onto irresponsible drivers, use of alcohol or illicit substances or simple teenage ignorance for these mishaps, yet public transport is rarely brought up.

Public Transport only accounted for 4.8 per cent of all journeys last year. Living in an urban bubble, seeing a cityscape punctuated by yellow and green busses, this state may seem inconceivable. Yet, the disparity between these facilities inside and outside of the Greater Dublin Area, is shocking. Public transport is used four times more in urban areas than rural areas and that is not because of a difference in preference.

The primary reason for not using public transport among young people is a simple lack of access. This could be a lack of services near them or services to their destination being non-existent. Dublin Bus covers 136 routes, with no other county coming anywhere near to this man routes per capita.

Over a third (37 per cent) of driver fatalities in Ireland have a positive toxicology for alcohol and almost three-quarters (71 per cent) of these fatalities occur on rural roads. If we as a society are pushing for more liberal nightlife legislation, then we need to maintain infrastructure to match that. There is no point in reviving a club in Cavan if everyone has to drive home at the end of the night. Young people are 70 per cent more likely to die in a car crash in Ireland than the EU average and this will only stoke the flames.

One-in-10 Irish motorists have driven after consuming alcohol in the last 12 months. That’s twice as many as those who take public transport. In Dublin, 0.6 per cent of people would be considered to not have access to regular public transport, in Leitrim this rises to 95 per cent, Longford 80 per cent and Wexford 75 per cent.

Irish people are paying the price for a problem with infrastructure and in some cases, it is costing them their lives.

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