Relevant to Dublin only or mostly
Construction of the “missing link” of the Dublin Bay cycle path is to start in six weeks time, more than a decade since planning of the route began.
Dublin City Council plans to spend in the region of €5 million to fill in the missing 2km section of its flagship cycle route from the Wooden Bridge to Causeway Road in Clontarf.
Work is due to begin on April 1st and will take 18 months to complete, with construction taking place in phases to comply with bird habitat conservation regulations.
On Wed 14th January at 11:00 h, Dublin City Council will open a new contra-flow bus/cycle lane on Camden Street Upper – Richmond Street, which will run past the ‘Bleeding Horse’ pub (i.e. south towards Rathmines).
Dublin Cycling Campaign has been working hard behind the scenes for many years to persuade Dublin City Council to provide a southbound contra-flow cycling facility on this corridor. The new traffic management arrangement also comes into being in the context of the Luas Cross City works on Dawson Street and, Suffolk Street. Dublin Cycling Campaign sits on the City’s ‘Cycle Forum’, where projects like this get progressed.
The now-soon-to-be-reconfigured “Bleeding Horse gyratory” was voted (among members) as one of Dublin’s 10 worst junctions in Dublin Cycling Campaign’s survey in recent years. The new contra-flow bus/cycle lane enables cyclists, heading south towards Rathmines, to avoid taking the annoying and very cycling-unfriendly and unsafe detour around by the Odeon pub and back onto Harcourt Road; instead they can now travel outbound directly (and legally) past the ‘Bleeding Horse’ pub towards Rathmines bridge. This represents important progress in making Dublin more cycle-able.
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICE
The conversion of cyclist-unfriendly, multi-lane one-way streets and gyratories to streets with contra-flow cycling facilities and cycling friendly junctions is one policy objective of the National Cycle Policy Framework, the government’s overarching plan to increase the modal share for everyday cycling from its current national figure of approx 2% to 10% (which essentially means bringing the modal share of cycling in Dublin City from approx. 8% to 20-25% of trips). The provision of high quality contra-flow facilities for cyclists – and exemptions for cyclists on one-way streets with safer 30km/h speed limits – is also recognized internationally as a key intervention in making streets more attractive for urban cyclists.
However … while Dublin Cycling Campaign broadly welcomes the new traffic arrangements, we also think that the City Council did not go far enough in terms of providing for cyclists: the street network is still remarkably impermeable for cycling. For example, for cyclists traveling along the South Circular Road (Harrington Street section) towards Camden Street, they will still be required to turn left towards the city centre; the new traffic management arrangements:
Furthermore, Dublin Cycling Campaign has some concern about mixing so many buses with so many bikes on the corridor: it is essential that the drivers of the buses pay special attention to cyclists on this route – and, of course, essential that cyclists ride assertively and sensibly (by, for example, adopting the control road position while using the contra-flow lane). Overall though, we are optimistic that after everyone gets used to the new road layout, the new direct route out of town will improve life for those cycling in the city.
Finally, Dublin Cycling Campaign welcomes the provision of additional cycle parking along the newly configured route and a new special ‘right turn pocket’ to enable dublinbikes users to turn right onto Grantham Street to their docking station.
Cyclist.ie – The Irish Cycling Advocacy Network, in collaboration with An Taisce and Dublin Cycling Campaign has made a detailed submission on the NTA proposals to build a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line from Swords to the City Centre.
Dublin Cycling Campaign would like to support the expansion of the number of roads in Fingal with lower speed limits, as proposed in the revised bye-laws. In due course, it may be appropriate to raise the speed limit on a small number of other roads. Read full submission.
Bicycle theft in Ireland has doubled in Ireland since the introduction of the Bike to Work scheme in 2009. Almost 4,500 bicycle thefts[1] were reported in Dublin in 2013, but the actual number of bike thefts is likely to be in the region of 20,000 in 2013 according to Irish household surveys[2] and international experience[3,4]. The chances of a bike thief being caught is low, with a conviction rate of only 2%[5] or reported thefts. Approximately 230,000 bicycles are imported into Ireland each year[6]. “Bike theft is a low-risk, high-reward crime. If cars were being stolen at this rate there would be uproar.” Says Keith Byrne, Chairperson of the Dublin Cycling Campaign. Continue reading Call for co-ordinated plan to combat soaring bike theft
Deane Roundabout (junction of Western Distributor Road & Seamus Quirke Road) clogged with motorised traffic as children return to school on a dry sunny morning.
Child cycling 3 km to primary school cannot cross the road because the useless uncontrolled crossings are blocked by cars. A large sign names the agencies responsible for this recent project: Galway City Council; European Regional Development Fund; Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport; Border, Midland & Western Regional Authority; National Roads Authority; Hyder Tobin Consultants.
28th August 2014
Parking Day is turning car parking spaces into public parks, games or art installations for one day every year in September. Park(ing) Day is intended to promote creativity, civic engagement, critical thinking, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play.
Prof Jan Gehl said Ireland and other former British colonies “have allowed traffic planners to exert undue influence, with silly ideas like every time a pedestrian approaches a crossing, they have to ‘apply’ to cross the street when it should be a human right”. Read article
