CONUNDRUM:
Co-creating Sustainable Mobility

Imagine living in a small town in Ireland, where you didn’t need to own a car, you could access education, health and employment on regular, safe public transport and you also had the ability to design the transport/bus network to meet your changing needs. How can we make this possible? What new planning approaches might we need? And who could be involved? That is what the CONUNDRUM project is working to resolve.

Transport is a key area of carbon emissions and from 1990-2021 the transport sector in Ireland represented about 18% of Ireland's carbon emissions, increasing by 113.7% in that time. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 has committed to reducing GHG emissions by 51% by 2030. If we miss our target, the government will receive fines of up to €26bn, of which up to €5bn could be attributed to the transport sector. Despite these serious consequences and significant policy development, there has been little evidence of behavioural change and indeed some resistance and conflict around proposed changes at local level.

Key to meeting national climate ambitions is bringing communities and other stakeholders, including businesses and service providers, along the journey. Empowering and enabling local authorities to link national climate ambition to appropriate local actions is key but this requires new relationships and capacity-building. In many domains,  from housing and infrastructure to renewable energy, transport, and active-travel schemes, local communities have been left with little scope for meaningful engagement other than through objection. Top-down decision-making that is perceived as being ‘spatially blind’ and provides limited opportunities for meaningful engagement erodes trust between communities, local authorities, and policymakers.

The CONUNDRUM project addresses this challenge by taking a community-first and asset-based approach to shaping sustainable mobility in Ireland’s small to medium-sized towns. Rather than applying ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions or focusing solely on mobility challenges, the research team worked closely with residents, community groups, businesses, service providers, government, and policymakers to understand everyday travel challenges and co-create practical suggestions to address them. By embedding collaboration at every stage, CONUNDRUM has developed a framework that can unlock change and generate buy-in, enabling solutions that are fair, democratic, sustainable, and responsive to local needs.

Driving impact through collaboration: communities at the heart of mobility change.

Building on its community-first ethos, the CONUNDRUM project has developed a step-by-step process of research and engagement that grounds suggested actions in the lived realities of local communities. Beginning in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, the project has tested and refined this collaborative approach in different small to medium sized towns, each with its own distinct transport and mobility challenges.

At the heart of the approach is an iterative co-creation process structured around mapping, listening, and testing, with each stage building on the previous one. Using this approach, the research team and local participants identified how physical, social, and systemic factors interconnect. This approach ensures that research findings translate into suggested actions that are grounded in local realities and impactful.

By combining thematic analysis of data gathered during workshops, interviews, focus groups and through our (opens in a new window)TownsMatter portal with ongoing community feedback, CONUNDRUM has shown how inclusive engagement can generate tangible outcomes, from identifying priority actions, to informing the design of more equitable transport and mobility solutions. The framework developed in Enniscorthy is now being tested in two more locations - Tramore and Youghal – to help us refine our approach and demonstrate its adaptability across contexts. The overarching goal is to develop an approach that can inform sustainable, community-led transport and mobility planning, not only improving access and inclusion locally but also informing more equitable and scalable approaches to transport policy both nationally and internationally.

Community Research in Motion: Advancing Community-Based Transport Solutions.

A key output of the CONUNDRUM project has been its role in supporting local partners to apply research insights in practical ways, that improve mobility planning and service delivery. In response to suggested actions emerging from the research, the CONUNDRUM team worked with TFI Local Link Wexford and the National Transport Authority to co-design a public transport survey, assessing mobility needs in Enniscorthy. More than 10% of the town residents responded and provided insights on their travel patterns and how limited transport options affect daily life. The evidence base generated from the survey analysis results are being used to support TFI Local Link Wexford’s application for a town-specific bus service.

Building on the analysis undertaken to produce the mobility strategy, TFI Local Link Wexford has enhanced the number 384 bus route to better align with residents’ needs, particularly for work, education, and social travel. The improvements include additional evening return services between Wexford, Enniscorthy and Wilton that includes extended operations over bank holiday weekends. 

Together, these collaborations demonstrate how community-informed research can directly shape transport provision, leading to services that are more inclusive, responsive, and grounded in local realities.

The CONUNDRUM project empowers communities to co-design sustainable mobility solutions, aiming for better quality of life and avoiding significant financial penalties. Our approach is crucial for decarbonising Ireland's transport sector but has potential to be expanded across sectors and geographical contexts. Through enabling local place-based dialogues we are ‘reimagining transport – reshaping life – achieving global climate ambitions.


Testimonials:

“The UCD CONUNDRUM project has been a real support in Enniscorthy, raising important issues like local travel issues and possible solutions whilst keeping community voices at the heart of these discussions. It’s also helped strengthen the work of Enniscorthy Community Inter Agency Team, helping us focus on practical, joined-up actions that matter to people locally.”

– Ann Marie Laffan, Sláintecare Healthy Communities Local Development Officer – Wexford County Council

“CONUNDRUM was a great asset to TFI Local Link Wexford to communicate with those living in Enniscorthy and with a wide range of stakeholders working in the town environs. They helped with a town survey, designed to provide information for a designated town service. They were a great team to work with – extremely helpful, engaging and professional. If they're coming to your town you are lucky.”

– Mary B. O’Leary, TFI Local Link Wexford

SDG’s aligned to this study




Research team, collaborators and funding

UCD: Niamh Moore-Cherry; Dean Phelan; Rachel McArdle, Kieran Harrahill and Zikang JI
TCD: Brian Caulfield, Abhilash Singh, Conor Dowling; with the Thinktank for Action on Social Change (TASC) as Societal Impact Champion.

The project is funded by the Research Ireland Sustainable Communities National Challenge. For more information, visit our website: (opens in a new window)https://citiesgovernancesustainability.eu/conundrum/