The Cyclist.ie Rural Collective, representing cycling advocacy and promotion groups in the regions, welcomes this government funding announcement for walking and cycling infrastructure to nineteen local authorities outside of the cities – as can be read here.  

The allocation of more than €70 m is a good start to a process of providing infrastructure which will enable people living in towns, villages and rural areas to choose an active travel mode for their journey.

The schemes being funded vary from one local authority to another but include a large number of footpath improvement schemes, cycleways, pedestrian / cycle bridges, cycle-parking, pedestrian crossings, and public lighting improvements. We find it interesting that most county allocations reference funding for four specific programmes: 

• Safe Routes to School
• Low-Cost Permeability Measures
• Light Segregation Cycle Schemes and
• Low Cost Junction Tightening / Pedestrian Crossing Schemes.

It looks therefore as if these measures were suggested by the NTA, who will be overseeing and supporting the entire active travel programme, and we look forward to a consistent approach from county to county.

A high point of the funding announcement is that several counties where Cyclist.ie’s Rural Collective is active have received funding for transport studies / urban mobility plans. These include Carlow, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Louth and Wexford. Much to the delight of Jo Sachs-Eldridge, one of the key members of the Cyclist.ie Rural Collective, her native Leitrim has opted to do a County Cycle Network Plan Study! In Kerry, both Tralee and Kilarney are going to get interconnected cycleway networks which again is most welcome. 

It would be churlish not to wholeheartedly welcome this funding. After all, the €72.8m which has been allocated is greater than the entire 2019 funding for the national walking and cycling programme. However, we in Cyclist.ie do have some concerns. These revolve around the standards which will apply to the proposed new cycling infrastructure. In the press release announcing the funding Minister Ryan, Minister of State Naughton and CEO of the National Transport Authority, Anne Graham all used the words “high-quality” to describe the new infrastructure. However, at this point we are unsure whether the Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority share the Cyclist.ie definition of “high -quality”.

Current cycleway standards are to be found in the National Cycle Manual (NCM) and the Transport Infrastructure Rural Cycleway Design (RCD). The NCM is currently being updated and Cyclist.ie is awaiting news on what brief the consultants have been given. We very much hope that it will take account of Cyclist.ie’s A Vision for Cycling in Rural Ireland  and Irish Cycle.com’s CyclingForAll.ie. 

The first three demands in the Rural Vision are for an environment where cyclists are expected and respected, the creation and mapping of useful connected cycle routes, and implementation of best practice design to ensure routes are safe and comfortable for all ages and abilities. CyclingForAll.ie provides numerous examples from the Netherlands of what this design would look like in practice.   

A very positive aspect of this rural funding announcement is that all counties will be supported by the National Transport Authority. Up to recently the NTA only had responsibility for walking and cycling infrastructure for the local authorities in the five main cities and in counties Kildare, Wicklow and Meath. The authority now has a countrywide remit and will be supporting all local authorities in rolling out Active Travel and the Safe Routes to School Programme. We are happy with this outcome, but to ensure adherence to standards it will be necessary for the NTA to act as an oversight body and to withhold funding for any scheme which is not compatible with the new guidance.

Cyclist.ie are seeking a meeting with the NTA to discuss, among other items, our desire to ensure the highest quality of planned schemes being built with this welcome and much needed funding.   

Earlier today, 24th March 2021, we saw the formal launch of Ireland’s longest greenway, along the Royal Canal running all of 130km from Maynooth in Co Kildare to the Shannon at Cloondara in County Longford. 

The launch is a momentous occasion and a major step forward in Ireland’s development of greenways and cycle routes to link up towns and villages via active travel routes. Below is the link to the video of the launch featuring, amongst others, Minister Eamon Ryan and Minister of State Malcolm Noonan.

Cyclist.ie warmly welcomes this development. We have engaged with Waterways Ireland and with the local authorities along this route as it has been developed so as to help ensure that the standards for cycling and walking are met as much as possible. 

This 130km section of the Royal Canal greenway crosses four counties – Kildare, Meath, Westmeath and Longford – and also passes through significant towns such as Kilcock, Enfield and Mullingar. It also includes a completed link section into Longford Town, as can be seen from the pictorial map below.

Significantly, it will also link into the previously completed 40km long Old Rail Trail from Mullingar to Athlone, also part of the EuroVelo #2 cross-continental cycle route, in case you get the itch to travel that bit further when restrictions allow! This off-road greenway route will eventually link to both Dublin and Galway, and Cyclist.ie is working with the multiple agencies, Local Authorities and consultants to help to make the full route a reality.

As might be expected, this canal greenway is relatively flat and thus a gentle cycle or walk along its stretches. And there is some great scenery, wildlife and history to be explored and enjoyed along the route.

We cannot wait to explore it in full, once restrictions are lifted – and one of our active members, David Butterly, is hoping to get his bike hire business on the Royal Canal up and running once again. Check him out at Royal Canal Bike Hire in Maynooth if you get the chance to visit the greenway – and encourage your friends to enjoy this wonderful resource!

Cyclist.ie very much welcomes the Safe Routes to School Programme announced jointly today by Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for Education Norma Foley TD and Minister of State Hildegarde Naughton TD. See here for the Departmental Press Release on it. 

Safe Routes to School were one of Cyclist.ie’s active travel asks for General Election 2020 (see image below) and we were pleased to see it included in the Programme for Government. 

It is also priority number four of the eight priorities outlined in Cyclist.ie’s Rural Cycling Collective’s document Vision for Cycling in Rural Ireland: “Prioritise safe cycle routes to schools and car free zones at school gates”.

The statement by Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan that “Schoolchildren need more than hi- vis vests to get to schools safely. They need proper infrastructure to make walking cycling and scooting a practical choice for families” is most welcome. Also welcome is the recognition by Minister for Education Norma Foley that “Being active is a key component of wellbeing”. 

However, while expenditure of €15 million this year seems like a good start to a Safe Routes to School scheme, the aim of providing routes to over 100 schools in 2021 falls well short of what is required. There are almost 4,000 first and second level schools in Ireland, so allowing for a roll-out of 100 safe routes annually it will take 40 years to fulfil Minister of State Naughton’s hope that over time “every student in every village, town and city, can safely travel to and from school be it by foot/scooter or bike”.

In reality we know that many schools are situated adjacent to one other and that therefore the same route will often serve more than one school. However, that still leaves a considerable time-lag before all schools can be provided with safe routes. In order to accelerate the process, Cyclist.ie suggests that Healthy Ireland and Climate Action Funding should also be made available for the Safe Routes to School programme. Active Travel is certainly a transport issue but it is also a health and a climate issue.  

For the implementation of routes, consultation with parents and with children themselves will be important to ensure that their needs are met – for example in regard to suitable cycle / scooter parking provision at each school and disability requirements. 

Cyclist.ie strongly recommends the use of quiet streets as one aspect of the Safer Routes to School approach, and explaining to both residents and parents that this provision is for school-children to cycle safely to/from school, and not a race track for commuter cyclists.

Furthermore, attractive and clearly branded materials, such as the pencil barriers and coloured stickers on roads should be designed for national use, so that the messages are clear to all. The emphasis needs to be on a shift away from helmet wearing and hi-vis, and instead focus on safe and clearly marked cycling / walking infrastructure – and it needs to be done in conjunction with standard 30 km/hr speed limits around all schools. 

Cyclist.ie and local member group, Bike Friendly Bandon, made submissions last week (8th March 2021) on the Bandon Transportation Public Realm Enhancement Plan (TPREP) Implementation Project – Phase 1. 

Cyclist.ie broadly welcomes the proposed upgrade and enhancement of Bandon Town centre in the interests of making the town more people friendly, more social and community focused, and ultimately a safer and more pleasant place. 

We support the proposed improvements to the public realm and general mobility plans for the town but we recommended that:

• Scheme extents should be reviewed to encompass areas such as the Glasslyn Road Roundabout, Market Quay, all of Oliver Plunkett St, and the western entrance to the town centre via Market St. 
• A clear 30kph speed limit needs to be set throughout the town. 
• Urban single carriageway widths need to be reduced to 3 metres throughout rather than the displayed 3.5 metres. This will provide extra benefits to pedestrians and cyclists, as well as promoting increased commercial opportunities. 
• There needs to be signalisation and redesign of the Glasslyn Road/Finbarr’s Place junction to improve safety and improve pedestrian and cyclist movements.
• A ‘statement’ design be implemented on the western approach to the town centre, to clearly define a different area. 
• A contra flow cycling system be designed and introduced.

Bike Friendly Bandon began in 2020 with the aim of encouraging an increase of day to day cycling around the town, so that everyone of any age can feel safe to cycle around Bandon. Approximately 100 local people have been involved in their activities. We highly recommend you check out the lovely recently produced short video on their activities.  

Bike Friendly Bandon fully supports the TPREP’s move away from encouraging vehicles in the town centre, while prioritising pedestrians, vulnerable users and cyclists by reducing speed limits and changing the layout of the roads. This starts to address the historical bias towards private motorised transport whilst still needing to think radically about how Bandon, as a town, can meet the actions required for the Climate Emergency as declared by The Irish Government and Cork County Council. 

You can read Cyclist.ie’s submission here. 
You can read Bike Friendly Bandon’s submission here.   
You can read about the Cork Co Co proposals here.  

The Galway to Athlone Cycleway will complete the circa 270km car-free corridor between Galway and Dublin for people on bikes, walking and other motor-free modes. 

The project is being led by the local authorities of Galway City Council and Galway, Roscommon and Westmeath County Councils in partnership with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport (DTTAS). 

Cyclist.ie made a submission on the Route Corridor Options Public Consultation last week (the first week of March 2021). As cycling advocates, we warmly welcome the proposed advancement of the project – we are delighted to see it being revived after a long hiatus. 

We recognise that each of the five route corridors under consideration has enormous potential. We stressed in our submission that access to the greenway by local people is as important for this project as the development of the tourism experience. The more different cohorts of users the greenway appeals to, the more successful it will be as an amenity and as an active travel transport corridor. 

You can read our short submission here and we also recommend you check out the Galway to Athlone Greenway website to read more about each of the five route corridor options (as shown in the map below). 

Watch this space for news on how the project advances. 

Cyclist.ie’s Rural Cycling Collective is embarking on a year long ‘Rothar Rides’ promotion, aimed at getting individuals and groups out exploring rural Ireland to discover the best ways to get from A to B. 

Over the year the group hopes to gather suggestions to form a network of cycling routes, map them with GPS on a central database, and use them to provide suggestions to local authorities when developing cycle routes around these areas. In this early stage of the campaign, organisers are asking that bike lovers of all ages and abilities get out on their bikes on the first Sunday of each month to think about potential cycle routes in their areas.

One of the main goals of the campaign is to map the many local secondary, tertiary and boreen roads that can offer more enjoyable and safer options for cyclists to access places of interest (like beaches or historical sites), as well as mapping routes from residential areas into nearby villages and towns.  

Spokesperson Allison Roberts from the Rural Collective stated:
“We can all be a part of the development of cycle routes in Ireland. As cyclists and as cycle advocates, we have the knowledge that is needed to make sure that government efforts to increase access to cycling is a success, we can provide the information they want so that they, in turn, can provide the infrastructure we so desperately need.”

The Rothar Rides kick off this Sunday, 7th of March, so hop on your bike & explore! Find a new route from A to B or start thinking about your dream cycle route in your area. Post pics of your ride using #rotharrides and tag @cyclistie.  And do please remember to stay within your 5km limit until this is changed.

For more information on Cyclist.ie’s Rural Cycling Collective, check out  https://cyclist.ie/ruralvision/.

Stay tuned for more!