Dear Laois County Council,

Irish Doctors for the Environment (registered charity no 20205893) are a collective group of medical professionals in Ireland who are focussed on promoting, improving, and sustaining the health of humans by striving to improve the health of the environment. We have read the documents pertaining to the Living Streets: Dun Laoghaire project. We would like to offer it our wholehearted support.

It is clear the Triogue Way - Part VIII project has grasped the importance of our communities requiring access to sustainable, safe, active forms of transport which creates greener public spaces to enhance community and social networks for people. We are very grateful to see these long-term visionary, positive initiatives.

In order to support you in this we thought it helpful to highlight some of the literature around the harms of air pollution to health, and the benefits to health of active transport. Air pollution is one of the greatest threats to human health today, affecting almost every organ in everyone, everywhere. The World Health Organisation estimates that ambient air pollution is responsible for 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019 (1). In Ireland the EPA estimates that at least 1,300 deaths a year are attributable to air pollution (2). The American EPA have highlighted that people who live, work or attend school near major roads appear to have an increased incidence and severity of health problems associated with air pollution exposures related to roadway traffic including higher rates of asthma onset and aggravation, cardiovascular disease, impaired lung development in children, preterm and low-birthweight infants, childhood leukaemia, and premature death (3).

The good news is that rapid and significant reversals of this harm are achievable when policies, such as those envisioned in your plan, are implemented. The European Environment Agency has shown, through several pilot projects, that a combination of measures aimed at reducing vehicular traffic ‘reduce air pollution and often noise, and they improve residents' quality of life. Moreover, the same actions cut greenhouse gas emissions and, in many cases, save money’ (4). This is the key point to realise: engendering a modal shift away from private car use towards public, and especially active, transport, has numerous co-benefits:

The physical activity achieved by active transport has clear and quantified physical and mental health benefits, including significant reductions in the incidence of stroke, ischemic heart disease, type-2 diabetes, dementia, and depression (5)
From an urban planning and design viewpoint, active travel contributes to a sense of vitality and social cohesion in towns and cities—walkers and cyclists enliven the city (6)
Cities well served by public transport and active travel infrastructure prove highly desirable for both low-income groups and high-income groups, since there is an increasing demand for cost effective, sustainable modes of transport (7)
Due to its low cost and significant health benefits, cycling in particular provides significant cost savings to society. For example, in one study researchers found that every km travelled by car costs society €0.15, whereas every km cycled actually benefits society €0.16 (8)
Added to these are a plethora of other benefits including noise reduction, the benefit of increasing green spaces as an adaptation strategy to heatwaves, a reduction in road traffic deaths and shorter commuting times.

Whilst we have chosen to focus on the health benefits of implementing your proposed Triogue Way - Part VIII project through the lens of local air pollution reduction, and the health benefits of active transport, we would also like to stress its importance in the larger context of the overwhelming need to cut our CO2 emissions to help prevent further global heating, with all its catastrophic attendant effects on health, infrastructure and economies. The annual Lancet Countdown of health and climate change report provides the clearest picture of the grave threat that climate breakdown is posing to human health (9). This imperative to reduce our emissions is enshrined into Irish law, and since transport accounts for a significant proportion of Irish emissions, radically transformative plans such as what you have proposed are essential if we are to meet our legally binding targets and our moral duty to our citizens and future generations.

We would also like to highlight that research is showing the improvement in quality of life in towns and cities is an increasingly critical issue for urban planning. Research is revealing the main drivers of happiness in urban neighbourhoods includes open, natural green spaces and urban designs that foster social interaction and safety (10). The Triogue Way - Part VIII project will provide a hugely positive impact on the quality of life connecting towns through this mode of active transport.

In summary, we wholeheartedly offer our support to your proposed plans, and look forward to working with you and other civil society groups in helping to garner the necessary public support to rapidly implement them.

Le Meas,

Irish Doctors for the Environment

Registered charity number 20205893

References

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health
https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/assessment/irelands-environment/air/
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-11/documents/420f14044_0.pdf
https://www.eea.europa.eu/signals-archived/signals-2020/articles/improving-air-quality-improves-people2019s
Götschi T, Tainio M, Maizlish N, Schwanen T, Goodman A, Woodcock J. Contrasts in active transport behaviour across four countries: how do they translate into public health benefits? Prev Med. 2015 May;74:42-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.02.009. Epub 2015 Feb 24. PMID: 25724106; PMCID: PMC4456468.
Gatersleben B., Murtagh N., White E. Hoody, Goody or Buddy? How Travel Mode Affects Social Perceptions in Urban Neighbourhoods. Transp. Res. Part F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2013;21:219–230. doi: 10.1016/j.trf.2013.09.005.
Rode P., Floater G. Accessibility in Cities: Transport and Urban Form. LSE; London, UK: 2014. NCE Cities, Paper 03
Gossling et al. Transport transitions in Copenhagen: comparing the cost of cars and bicycles. Ecological Economics, volume 113, 2015, p106-113
The 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: the imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing irreversible harms. Romanello et al. Published November 13, 2023. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/SO140-6736(23)01859-7
Pfeiffer D., Cloutier S. Planning for Happy Neighborhoods. Journal of the American Planning Association. Published May 04 2016. DOI 10.1080/01944363.2016.1166347

Section 179 (PART VIII) - Triogue Way - Application for approval for the construction of a pedestrian/cycle link from Portlaoise Peoples Park to Green Mill. - Submissions

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