Solving the congestion conundrum: How The Open gave us the solution…

Andrew McClean is the Northern Ireland Advocacy Lead at Cycling UK

All this week, both the media and social media have hailed the huge success of the Open Golf tournament, held in Northern Ireland for only the third time in its history. One major, yet underreported factor in its success, boils down to how they managed to move more than a quarter of a million supporters in and out of the town of Portrush. A town which normally hosts less than ten thousand people.

While I didn’t manage to get to the golf, I did enjoy a lovely family bike ride from Portstewart to Portrush the day before the tournament started. What I witnessed gave me hope, for the first time in a long time. It hit me that on some level we know both as a society and at the level of transport planning, how to reduce our dependency on cars to get from our doorstep to the door of our destinations.

We can all acknowledge no transport system is perfect, but there are big ways we can improve things for people. Some people had to queue for two hours at a Park & Ride and several trains were overcrowded, but by and large the increase in public transport capacity coupled with journey guidance for spectators and good promotion of active travel options, led to a relatively seamless arrival and departure experience for most who attended.

It was clear that the transport planning group for the tournament started with the point of view that, unless entirely necessary, people would be unable to arrive at the door of the tournament by personal car – and to achieve this they would need both carrot and stick.

Just imagine this was the starting point for how we treated people travelling to our town and city centres, the Nolan show phoneline would overheat! But the reality is, the most effective way to tackle congestion is to get as many people as possible out of their cars and onto other forms of transport. Building wider roads and bigger junctions simply leads to more congestion in the long run. While driving currently remains the most common way to get around, with some relying on it as vital transport option, it’s crucial we also support those who want to make healthier, more sustainable transport choices.

So, how did they get so many people to willingly ditch their cars at home or at the closest, two and a half miles from the Golf Course?

Let’s start with the stick; the ‘Getting there’ section of ‘The Open’ website opened with ‘there will be no public car parking available at Royal Portrush or in the immediate surrounding area’ and that spectators should ‘consider the use of public transport’ and that ‘those staying in the local area should consider active travel’.

Simply put, all Councils need to do is reduce central parking provision to only accommodate those who really need it, leaving DfI to tackle endemic antisocial parking.

A group of bicycles parked on a green field AI-generated content may be incorrect. — Photo by Stephen McCrory

And the carrot; after scrolling down to the ‘Getting there’ section, before you can find advice on how to drive to the open, you are encouraged to walk and cycle. They brandish ample cycle parking ‘available close to the main entrance to Royal Portrush Golf Club’ with signposts to existing cycle routes. An enhanced train service with additional morning and (more incredibly) additional evening services – something even our capital city can’t seem to attain. Local bus services, some of which operated ‘at a 5-minute frequency to facilitate passenger flows to/from The Open’ – 5 minutes! Even the flagship Glider doesn’t reach this level of regularity.

The day I enjoyed a morning ride down the coast it was already bustling with people walking, cycling and getting public transport to the town. I saw the early morning spectators lining up for their high frequency bus service and was hopeful for a future transport system that’s more accessible, healthier, safer and affordable for everyone.

But what amazed me most was that everyone I spoke to who was attending were excited they didn’t have to drive to the tournament. Those walking and cycling were buzzing when they got to west strand and started to hear the music through the speakers, people were making new friends and bumping into old ones on public transport, they were going to stay in the town for a drink after the golf or hop on their e-bike back to the campsite or even as far as Coleraine.

One other accompanying reason for this is simply the luck of history; the Portrush spur of the Derry-Belfast trainline survived the decimation of our rail network and the station remained in the town centre, less than a 20-minute walk from the course.

The Open is one of those moments where we can see the possibilities when we give people alternatives to driving, and it should give us the drive to consider these options for our town centres. They will become more pleasant, healthier and happier places for all of us to live, work and interact with.