Massive public transport deficiency in rural Limerick according to new study
A NEW STUDY has revealed that 20% of Limerick towns and villages are without any form of public transport.
The study which was conducted by Technological University Dublin postgraduate student Thomas Bibby also shows another 20% of towns and villages have a low level of public transport.
“The report has two halves. The first half is about the transport deprivation in county Limerick and also looking at the percentage of households without access to a car while the second half looked at designing a network in county Limerick that would serve everywhere,” Mr Bibby said.
The report looked at census settlements, which are described as having over twenty consecutive houses in their area. This means villages like Knockainey and Athlacca which are not served by public transport are not included.
According to the report the census settlements of Ballingarry, Athea, Fedamore, Broadford, Mountcollins, Ballygran, Kilteely, Ballyhahill and Tournafulla were completely without any public transport.
Ballingarry has a population of over 500 people with 13.8% of households without a car whereas Athea has a population of over 300 people with 24% of households without a car.
“In Limerick city it’s between 20 to 25% of households without a car. This perception in rural Ireland that you have to have a car and that public transport is only for people in cities is false when there’s a huge amount of people in towns and villages across Limerick who rely on public transport,” Mr Bibby said.
The areas of Ballylanders and Doon were among the other nine areas identified as having a low level of public transport with both areas having more than 20% of households without a car.
Mr Bibby designed a proposed transport service to accommodate all villages and based it off a similar model in Switzerland where every town and village has some form of public transport.
“I’ve called it Every Village, Every Hour and my findings were that you can provide a network every hour between 6am and 10pm for about 10 times the size of the current system,” Mr Bibby added.
Mr Bibby will be presenting his full report at the Annual Transport Research Conference hosted by Trinity College Dublin tomorrow, Friday.