June 2019: Velo City
In June 2019, Dublin City Council hosted Velo-City, the global cycling summit. The theme for Velo City was Cycling for the Ages, and focused on encouraging cycling for all ages and abilities, young and old, male and female, as part of their daily transport and recreation. With over 1,300 participants and more than 300 speakers in over 80 sessions over four full days, Velo City 2019 brought great knowledge and enthusiasm to Dublin, with a view to creating a better road and civic environment for cyclists, for the ages.
On Monday, 24 June 2019, the Healthy Trinity Smarter Travel Working Group, with the support of Dublin City Council, organised
a series of events to correspond with Velo City:
Academic Showcase – A number of Trinity academics are researching different aspects of cycling. They created posters to display their research and discuss their findings with interested members of the public.
Student Showcase – Trinity's Mechanical Engineering students, under the supervision of Dr Gar Bennett, have been working on solutions to cycling problems as part of their Universal Design Innovation module. A number of groups were shortlisted for the National Transport Authority's Smarter Travel Awards and Trinity won two awards: Best Engineering Project and Best Engineering Lecturer. The 2020 projects are available here.
Pop-Up Dutch Cycle Lab – BYCS from Amsterdam led Dublin's first CycleLab.BYCS’s 
believes cycling is not transportation, it's transformation! Members of the public were invited to this collaborative workshop led by Maud de Vries to discuss the challenges and opportunities for cycling in Dublin. Highly collaborative, the lab focused on human-centred design, behavioural insights, evidence-gathering, crowdsourcing and narrative storytelling. The event was organised by Healthy Trinity, Dublin City Council and BYCS. Through a workshop with BYCS and follow-on discussion, the questions “How can we make Dublin a more liveable city for all?” was derived
Seminar: Cycling Towards a Low Carbon Future – The Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at Trinity College, in partnership with Dublin City Council, hosted a seminar featuring three of the most prominent international cycling academics and advocates who presented findings on how to promote and support cycling.
This included:
- Dick Brady, Assistant Chief Executive, Environment and Transportation Department, Dublin City Council started proceedings with introductory remarks on cycling and the Velo-city conference;
- Prof. Rachel Aldred, Reader, University of Westminster, “Outer London’s ‘mini-Holland’ schemes: impacts on active travel behaviour and attitudes”;
- Maud de Vries, Co-founder & Managing Director www.bycs.org, “Where can the bicycle take us?”
- Marie Kåstrup, Head of Bicycle Program, City of Copenhagen, Vice Chair Cycling Embassy of Denmark, “As easy as brushing your teeth – how cycling became mass transportation in Copenhagen”
Following the seminar, there was a networking reception with drinks and light refreshments, kindly organised by the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and sponsored by AECOM. It was agreed that the Healthy Trinity Smarter Travel Working Group would host an event at Trinity College in Autumn 2019 to identify possible pilot projects to advance in 2020
Advertising and Further Details: Are you “Bike Curious?”
If so, why not come to Trinity to explore how Dublin can embrace cycling for the ages?
To support our partners in Dublin City Council hosting the global cycling conference Velo-City, Trinity was delighted to invite the public to an evening of exploring the possibilities for cycling in Dublin.
Trinity has very high modal share for cycling and we would like to see segregated cycling between our campuses and residences. We believe both Trinity and Dublin would benefit.
There was an academic research showcase, a student innovation showcase on cycling, an innovative Dutch Cycle Lab hosted by BYCS Amsterdam and a seminar entitled "Cycling Towards a Low Carbon Future". See the full programme here.
We look forward to welcoming members of the public to one of the most beautiful areas of our campus for an evening of knowledge sharing, idea generation and debate.
Academic Showcase
James Carroll: What drives the gender-cycling-gap? Census analysis from Ireland
James is an energy economist at Trinity College Dublin. His research explores household energy-related investments and behaviours - the role of monetary, economic and behavioural drivers, and the effects of informational interventions, such as energy labels and smart meters. He is currently a researcher on the Horizon 2020 project CONSEED which identifiesthe barriers and enablers of low-carbon technology adoption across five European countries. Additional research explores household willingness-to-pay for carbon reductions on flights and the factors affect sustainable transport choices.
James will present his work (co-authored with Prof. EleanorDenny and Dr. William Brazil) on female cycling rates in Dublin: the factors which drive uptake and the impact of better cycling infrastructure.
Dr. Gerard Menezes: Choosing transport: A survey of actual and preferred transport modes of university students and staff.
Gerard is a lecturer in the School of Medicine and is a keen cycling advocate.
Working under the 'Living Lab' concept as outlined in Trinity's Sustainability Policy, in March 2019, Gerard supervised second year medical students in taking a survey of current and preferred travel modes by students and staff. His analysis assessed the gap between how students and staff travel to Trinity and how they would prefer to. His work will inform Trinity's ongoing efforts to encourage cycling between Trinity campuses. It is a response to the recommendations from the Healthy Trinity: Smarter Travel Committee's 2018 travel survey.
Dr. Orna Donoghue: Mobility, transport and the environment for successful ageing. 
Orna is the Project Manager for The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) which is a large-scale nationally representative cohort study of over 8,000 community-dwelling adults aged 50 years and over resident in Ireland. Orna is responsible for the overall planning, execution and management of the TILDA data collection process to facilitate TILDA research and policy objectives. Her current research interests focus on the factors influencing walking and mobility in older Irish adults, with a particular focus on how these can predict adverse outcomes such as falls, disability and cognitive decline.
Orna's poster will be about the importance of mobility, transport and the environment for successful ageing. It will focus on the factors that affect walking speed in older adults and how these can influence everyday tasks such as crossing the road at pedestrian crossings.
Kevin Gildea: Cycling collisions in Ireland
Kevin obtained his BAI and MAI in Bioengineering from Trinity College Dublin in 2017. Following which he was the recipient of the 2017 RSA-Helena Winters Scholarship for Doctoral Studies in Road Safety. He is currently in the 2nd year of his PhD project.
The overall aims of the project are to gain a better understanding of minor, serious and fatal cyclist collisions in Ireland, and find ways to effectively increase cyclist safety.In year 1, he designed and distributed a national collision survey to collect detailed information for less severe collisions, highlighting underreported collision types. He is currentlyanalysing detailed police forensic investigation files for cyclist fatalities and serious injuries. Thisresearch has the potential to significantly strengthen our understanding of the natureand scale of cycling collisions in Ireland, and may assist road safety stakeholders todevelop evidence based interventions to reduce their occurrence and severity.
His poster will contain summary details of his findings so far, and will point to the primary factors that contribute to the safety problem.
Dr. Brian Caulfield: Examining the usage and success of station-less bike share in Dublin
Brian is an Associate Professor of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering who has embarked on a intensive research programs addressing global issues such as the environmental impacts of transport and methods to reduce the carbon impacts of transport.As well as publishing over 100 papers in these areas in high impact international journals and international conferences, he has been awarded approx. €2 million in research funding and sits on a number of national and international transport research groups.
His poster will examine the usage and success of station-less bike share in Dublin.
Dr. William Brazil: The Role of Weather and Temporal Factors in Predicting Cyclist Numbers 
William is a postdoctoral research fellow at the ESRI and a adjunct research fellow in the department of economics. William has previously published work in the areas of public bicycle schemes and sustainable transport. His current research in transport focuses upon gender gaps in cycling, the role of weather conditions in the effectiveness of sustainable transport, and the factors that impact consumer choices in the transport and energy spaces.
William will present his work on the role of weather conditions on cycling rates.
Student Showcase 
Trinity's Mechanical Engineering students, under the supervision of Dr. Gar Bennett, have been working on solutions to cycling problems as part of their Universal Design Innovation module. A number of groups were shortlisted for the National Transport Authority's Smarter Travel Awards and some of the groups will attend this event to show their inventions. For example, one group has created a system that uses vibrations to warn a cyclists how close passing traffic is, another has added features to the bicycle helmet to protect the whole cyclist, not just the head.
When? Monday, 24th June 2019, from 5.30 onwards
Where? Outside the Graduate Memorial Building
How? Come along on the day
Trinity welcomes applications from members of the public, in particular students, who would like to showcase innovations they have created for cycling problems. An A0 poster is required. To apply to participate, please email Martina Mullin on mullinm1@tcd.ie
Pop-Up Dutch Cycle Lab
When? Monday, 24th June 2019, from 6.00-7.00pm
Where? In a pop up lab outside the Graduate Memorial Building
How? Come along on the day
BYCS from Amsterdam will lead Dublin's first Cycle Lab. They believe cycling is not transportation, it's transformation! Members of the public are invited to this collaborative workshop led by Maud de Vries to discuss: What are the challenges and opportunities for cycling in Dublin? This lab will be highly collaborative and where appropriate, will draw on human-centred design, behavioural insights, evidence-gathering, crowdsourcing and narrative storytelling. It is organised by the Healthy Trinity: Trinity Loves Cycling initiative, Dublin City Council and BYCS.
In the autumn, when everyone has had a chance to absorb the ideas from our event and Velo-City and if there is an appetite, we will use the BYCS model to run further workshops with the public, key stakeholders and academics to explore how we can affect change in priority areas. Come along, bring your ideas and we look forward to lots of robust debate.
Seminar: Cycling Towards a Low Carbon Future
When? Monday, 24th June 2019, from 7-9pm
Where? The Graduate Memorial Building
The Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering in partnership with Dublin City Council,are proud to host a seminarfeaturing three of the most prominent international cycling academics and advocates who will present findings on how to promote and support cycling.
Dick Brady, Assistant Chief Executive, Environment and Transportation Department, Dublin City Council will start proceedings with some introductory remarks on cycling and the Velo-city conference.
The speakers are:
Rachel Aldred,Reader, University of Westminster, “Outer London’s ‘mini-Holland’ schemes: impacts on active travel behaviour and attitudes”
Maud de Vries, Co-founder & Managing Directorwww.bycs.org, “Where can the bicycle take us?”
Marie Kåstrup, Head of Bicycle Program, City of Copenhagen, Vice Chair Cycling Embassy of Denmark,“As easy as brushing your teeth – how cycling became mass transportation in Copenhagen”
Following the seminar, there will be a reception with drinks and light refreshments, kindly organised by the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and sponsored by AECOM .
Full programme:
A programme for the evening is available below:
Time |
Description |
Location |
How to book |
5.30pm onwards |
Research showcase: Trinity academics will show posters of their work and will be available to speak to the public about their findings. |
Outside the Graduate Memorial Building (weather permitting) |
All welcome, come along on the day. |
5.30pm onwards |
Student showcase: Our Mechanical Engineering students under the supervision of Dr. Gar Bennett, have been working away all year, inventing solutions to cycling problems. Come along and see their inventions. |
Outside the Graduate Memorial Building (weather permitting) |
All welcome, come along on the day. |
6.00-7.00pm |
Dutch cycle lab launch: Trinity and Dublin City Council are working with BYCS from Amsterdam who will lead our first Cycle Lab. Members of the public are invited to this workshop led by BYCS to discuss: What are the challenges and opportunities for cycling in Dublin? |
Pop-up lab outside the GMB |
All welcome, come along on the day |
7.00-9.00pm |
Seminar: Cycling Towards a Low Carbon Future: The Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering have invited three of the most prominent international cycling academics and advocates in the world to present on how to promote and support cycling. |
GMB debating chamber |
|
9.00pm onwards |
The Pavilions Bar in Trinity. |