In this article, Cyclist.ie’s Finance Action Group sets out the current financial situation for the organisation in the context of recent rapid growth of Cyclist.ie.

This time last year, Cyclist.ie was faced with something of a crisis when one of its funders indicated they may not be able to continue with their funding support for our National Cycling Coordinator (NCC) post. 

On that occasion – and again earlier this year – Dublin Cycling Campaign responded with a very generous donation to support the post. Additionally, corporate funding was received from two tech companies, Dropbox and Red Hat. A further positive turning point came when Rethink Ireland awarded Cyclist.ie a major grant of €35,000 following our submission of a high quality funding application to them. All of this gave Cyclist.ie sufficient funding for 2022. But where does that leave us for 2023 and beyond?

A small group of volunteers, including the National Cycling Coordinator and members of our Board and Executive Committee, have now formed the backbone of a Finance Action Group and have begun to consider how to put Cyclist.ie on a sustainable financial footing.

A wide range of funding opportunity options are being considered – from seeking government funding to enlarging our private income from both individual and corporate members and from other donations. The short-term aim is to fund-raise to allow us to employ two full time members of staff – the National Cycling Coordinator and an assistant / administrator – at appropriate salaries, as well as to provide the office and meeting spaces we require. In essence, we aim to run the organisation in a much more professional way and be better able to harness the energies and skills of our growing network of volunteers. As of November 2022, Cyclist.ie has 34 member groups covering much of the island of Ireland, having grown from just seven member groups back in 2008. Between all of our groups, we have several hundred active volunteers who are engaging with pretty much every one of the 31 Local Authorities across the land – and making a real impact. You can see the spread of our member groups on this map. 

Finland has a similar population to Ireland. At a recent European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) webinar, we learned that the Finnish Cyclists’ Federation was formed in 2014 and, like Cyclist.ie, it received some support in the years 2014-2017 from the ECF’s “Leadership Programme” for growing national cycling advocacy organisations. Since then, they have expanded the organisation to over 3,000 members (compared to our approximate 1500 members), and they now have an annual turnover of approx €2 million which has enabled them to employ seven members of staff.

While Cyclist.ie has made many advances in recent years and has made a significant positive impact on government policy and practice on active travel, we still struggle to raise the funds to bring financial solidity to the organisation. This means that we are not fully leveraging the extensive volunteering energies in our organisation to best effect – and hence not stimulating the changes in society we are seeking as fast as they could happen. With our own new strategic plan in place, we are very much aware that with a growth in our complement of staff, we can make a far bigger impact on bringing about the safer road designs and cycle friendly environments we all know we should have. 

Over the coming months, our Finance Action Group will be focusing on securing sustainable funding for Cyclist.ie – and, most urgently, we need to bridge the gap between recurring income and current expenditure. If your company has a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, Cyclist.ie would be very grateful if you can point your CSR Manager in the direction of our Business / Organisation Membership Scheme. Another option is for employees to donate to Cyclist.ie through “Benevity” – details here.

And if you have any other questions or suggestions on this topic, please get in touch with Dr. Damien Ó Tuama, the National Cycling Coordinator. Thank you.

Cork Cycling Campaign (CCC) has been in existence for over 20 years, and was one of the founding member groups of Cyclist.ie back in 2008. CCC has been incredibly busy and vibrant over the recent years. With so much happening on the cycling and active travel fronts, its membership and levels of volunteering activity have grown steadily in terms of running events, making submissions and advocating effectively in the Cork region.

The fantastic work of this Cyclist.ie member group has been recognised by the publication of this article on the European Cyclists’ Federation website. This can only help to further boost its membership and give recognition to the achievements of CCC. Check it out, and if you live in the Cork area why not contact CCC at [email protected]?  

CCC is one of the 34 member groups of Cyclist.ie lobbying for increased funding and projects at central government as well as county level, and working to improve conditions for active travel countrywide. Why not become a member and support the work Cyclist.ie does? Check out the Individual Membership of Cyclist.ie and/or become a member of your own local group.

For more on Cork Cycling Campaign, visit their website here. 

Cyclist.ie is delighted to have Lime joining as our latest Business / Organisation member.

This membership type for Cyclist.ie is available for those businesses and organisations who support our aims to make the cities, towns, villages and roads of Ireland bicycle-friendly for their employees, customers and their community. 

Lime joins Dropbox and the Irish Heart Foundation (amongst others) who support the advocacy work of Cyclist.ie / Dublin Cycling Campaign as Business / Organisation members. Lime join as a “Gold” category member. 

Lime is the world’s largest shared electric vehicle company. Its mission is “to build a future where transportation is shared, affordable and carbon-free”. See here. 

More information on our Business / Organisation membership scheme at:

https://cyclist.ie/membership/join-cyclist-ie-business/
and
https://www.dublincycling.com/businessmembers

Cyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network
The Tailors’ Hall
Back Lane
Dublin, D08 X2A3
www.cyclist.ie
RCN 20102029
Date – 14 Oct 2022
 

1 – Introduction

Cyclist.ie, the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network (ICAN), is the federation of cycling advocacy groups, greenway groups and bike festivals on the island of Ireland. We are the Irish member of the European Cyclists’ Federation.  Our vision is for an Ireland with a cycle friendly culture, where everyone has a real choice to cycle and is encouraged to experience the joy, convenience, health and environmental benefits of cycling. 

Cyclist.ie welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public consultation on NR2040. However, we are very disappointed in the limited options for submission of comments in this form – and with the word limit here which limits the ability to respond to the consultation. 

We welcome the broad “NIFTI approach” where the intervention hierarchy is (in this order):

Maintain > Optimise > Improve > New
And
Active Travel > Public Transport > Private Vehicles.

2 – Main Points

What the draft does not set out clearly enough is how exactly, with figures underpinning the strategy, NR2040 and investment priorities ensuing from it will align with the overarching aim of the Government’s Climate Action Plan, which sets a 51% reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and sets Ireland on a path to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. The section on Decarbonisation (5.1), referencing the EPA Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections, 2021-2040 (June 2022), states the following:

“Emissions from the sector are estimated to reduce to 39% below 2018 levels by 2030 if additional measures in plans and policies are implemented, including significant EV share by 2030 and measures to support more sustainable transport.”

However, in the 2022 OECD report entitled Redesigning Ireland’s Transport for Net Zero: Towards Systems that Work for People and the Planet, (Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b798a4c1-en), two of its key findings are as follows (pages 8 to 9):

“The Irish transport system fosters growing car use and emissions by design, and is thus unfit to enable the country to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals while improving well-being. Growing car use in Ireland is largely determined by car-dependent transport and urban systems, organised around increased mobility and characterised by three unsustainable dynamics: induced car demand, urban sprawl, and the sustainable modes low-attractiveness trap.”

and 

“Aiming at decarbonising the system via private vehicle improvements is unlikely to lead to substantially different patterns of behaviour, rapid emissions reductions, and large well-being improvements. Car-dependent systems make rapid electrification slow and difficult, by locking-in large and growing vehicle fleets. Even with improved (and fully-electric) vehicles, they also fail to reduce lifecycle emissions, address accessibility gaps and other negative impacts (e.g. road fatalities).”

The same report recommends the following (page 9):

• Redefine the goal of the transport system as sustainable accessibility.
• Prioritise the up-scale of policies with high potential to transform the car-dependent system.
• Redefine the electrification strategy to support the transition towards a sustainable transport system.
• Embrace a systemic approach to policy decision-making across government departments.

It is our view that the current NR2040 strategy needs to engage with and respond to these recommendations.

In short, the final / adopted version of the NR2040 strategy needs to respond fully to the newly published OECD analysis.

It also needs to set out how the implementation of the strategy will contribute, in concrete terms, to the steady decarbonisation of the Irish transport sector over the years and decades. This needs to be set out in quantitative terms.

OUR SUB IS CONTINUED ON ANOTHER FORM – VERY FRUSTRATING FORM WITH ITS WORD LIMITS.

—————–

THIS IS PART 2 OF THE CYCLIST.IE SUBMISSION. VERY FRUSTRATING FORM WITH ITS WORD LIMITS.

3 – Conclusion

NR2040 needs to articulate much more clearly how the strategy objectives and investments will lead to a reduction in carbon emissions – and not simply rely to a very large extent on assumptions that the electrification of the car fleet will solve most of the problems in this domain.

Please acknowledge receipt of this submission. Thank you.
[email protected]