The Earth's Corr: Traffic gridlock here to stay unless funding and mindsets shift

There was fury across the airwaves and social media following a traffic fuelled gridlock storm across Belfast on Thursday evening. Yes, there were some traffic lights down while a crash, gigs and Christmas traffic no doubt added to the problem.

But this is a storm of our and our politicians' own making - and it's time we had a major rethink about how people travel around Northern Ireland.

According to official statistics, Northern Ireland spends much less on public transport than any other part of the UK and Ireland - so it's not surprising we've landed here after years of inaction and unspent active travel funding amid blatantly obvious and attainable solutions.

READ MORE: Belfast still has only 2 miles of segregated cycle lanes - Sustrans report

READ MORE: £2.1m active travel funding being used to NI fix roads

I cycled home from the office on Thursday, and while I could pass the traffic hell many motorists were jammed in - it still wasn't a pleasant experience on a bike.

Anger rang out in the form of blaring horns while cars and lorries blocked crossings, yellow boxes and more in a bid to edge a little bit closer to their final destination. The roundabouts were a nightmare - and they're hard on a bike even when the traffic was flowing freely but they were especially dangerous on a bike - despite transport chiefs urging us to rethink how we get around.

Meanwhile, the underpass at Knocknagoney that's supposed to provide a safe route for cyclists and pedestrians under a very busy roundabout was flooded so much it was impassable - cue me having to head out onto the road in the dark with cars going up to 60mph and maybe more in some cases.

In short, our traffic systems are a debacle and there's little to no joined up thinking on how to fix it. Every project gets it's own business case and even when major roads like the Sydenham bypass are upgraded - those works completely ignore the cycle lanes that are supposed to be delivered along that route by the end of next year because DfI is still putting a plan together on how to deliver those, they say.

It's not good enough. I'm sick to the back teeth of how long it takes the government to catch up with the people and deliver the changes we need to make everyone's lives better - including those who might need to use a car for whatever reason.

It all starts with the proper funding to deliver the changes needed to get people out of their cars and into active travel and onto public transport.

Translink needed £691m to deliver service as usual in 2023-2024 and got 14% less at £523m. In 2024/2025, DfI equality impact assessment on the resource budget also outlined how Translink faced a 19.4% reduction to funding against its forecast requirements posing "a real risk this will impact directly on the level of services provided".

They've been given a few additional million here and there, but it's clearly not fixing our transport issues, which need a major funding boost to deliver the sorts of changes we need to reduce traffic on the roads.

We need cheaper transport fares, more frequent and less sparse services to get more people to leave their car at home and take a bus or train. We also need the Belfast Cycle Network plans to be delivered at speed to keep cyclists safe on the road and encourage more people to take up the health, climate and congestion friendly mode of transport as well.

When transport systems don't work, the economy suffers - and it's time the Executive woke up to that reality? Where are we with the All-Island rail review plans? Not very far on as it happens.

Minister O'Dowd said in answer to an Assembly question from Justin McNulty, SDLP, at the end of November feasibility studies on the reopening of Antrim-Lisburn (with a link to Belfast International Airport); Armagh-Portadown; Electrification of Belfast to the Border and Portadown-Derry are due next spring/summer and that they have started developing hourly train services to Dublin while "procurement has also started on a new, faster, more sustainable Enterprise train fleet".

Those shifts are important, but they are not happening fast enough - we need changes on the ground across NI now and with the Northern Ireland Executive is set to get £18.2bn in 2025/2026 in Rachel Reeves' budget - I would suggest that Stormont should be looking at a massive funding boost for active travel and delivering public transport services that work for people.

We still have just 2 miles of safe cycle routes through Belfast and DfI has spent just £3.3m of the £16m promised up to 2025 for Belfast's cycle lane network in the past four years. We reported how £2.1m of active travel funding was being used to fix roads in March this year - that's a disgrace - but highlights perfectly where DfI's priorities lie.

It seems to me that they are happy to continue with business as usual, no matter the consequences for traffic, air quality, the climate crisis and people's health.

Does our minister care about these things? If he did, why isn't he making changes like Eamon Ryan did in Ireland that have delivered over 1 million public transport journeys a day?

ROI’s Transport Minister cut fares by 20%, gave rural areas new BusConnect routes which have had hugely positive impacts in the areas where they are being rolled out. Dublin’s Dart and Luas are getting more funding than ever, with routes being extended and journeys made more frequent. Kids now go free on public transport in the south while routes for public buses only have cut journey times between 25-32% through parts of Dublin.

These are the changes we need to see along a major cycle infrastructure roll out if we are to have any hope of reducing the gridlock that has now reached crisis levels in NI cities - it's time the government started investing in our futures.

I still think the Glider should have been light rail with its own tracks, that would not get stuck in traffic... but instead of investing for a better future DfI chose the cheap option and it has added to the problem.

Bus lanes should be for buses only and evening trains to places just outside Belfast should not be offering just an hourly service if we want people to use them - it’s a joke. We should also have late night services in all our public transport offerings - not just at Christmas.

That’s how we make the changes that will get more people onto public transport, it’s not rocket science, and surely even our politicians can see the benefits these changes would deliver?

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