Kilkenny and WIT to appoint PhD student to work on ‘cycling culture’

A new partnership has been announced between Kilkenny County Council and Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) to co-fund a PhD scholarship aimed at informing, creating and developing a strong cycling culture in Kilkenny.

A PhD student will be selected to help facilitate a change in the culture to encourage people to use the bike as an alternative to the car, assessing infrastructure, consulting the public and key stakeholders, and working with a council steering committee.

The news was announced at a meeting of the Kilkenny City Municipal District on Friday. City engineer Simon Walton told members that the scholarship will be a four-year term to support a ‘modal shift’ to cycling. It will assess and inform the health, retail, environmental and tourism benefits from this.

“Conditions for the promotion of cycling in the city are seen to be favourable as the terrain is largely flat, the city is compact, and many of the destinations are relatively easily accessible by bicycle,” said Mr Walton.

“Nothwithstanding this, there are policy interventions, economic assessments, infrastructure deficits and cultural changes required to enable a successful cycling culture in Kilkenny City, and the scholarship will seek to address and inform these issues,” he added.

The scholarship is currently being advertised by WIT, with a closing date of Friday, July 5. It will then commence in September.