[Article] Canal cyclepath

carthoris

I was on the outskirts of the canal path this evening, going as far as Adamstown. As far as the outer ring road is ready for launch. The rest is almost complete - you can ride on it but there are segments of tarmac missing so it can be a bit rough.

It is nice to be able to cycle along it without having to deal with traffic - it should be a good way of getting out of the town for inexperienced cyclists. The gates on it are awkward but I think part of it is probably to stop people bringing unsuitable things onto it such as motorbikes.

Now all we need to do is get them to keep going to Shannon Harbour, Robertstown, Naas and so on.

Capt'n Midnight

carthoris wrote: »

I was on the outskirts of the canal path this evening, going as far as Adamstown. As far as the outer ring road is ready for launch. The rest is almost complete - you can ride on it but there are segments of tarmac missing so it can be a bit rough.

It goes as far as the Newcastle Road. After that the south side of the Canal is blocked by a farm, don't Waterways Ireland own the canal banks. The North side has an extremely bike unfriendly gate and the it's a grass track to Hazelhatch.

It is nice to be able to cycle along it without having to deal with traffic - it should be a good way of getting out of the town for inexperienced cyclists. The gates on it are awkward but I think part of it is probably to stop people bringing unsuitable things onto it such as motorbikes.

Now all we need to do is get them to keep going to Shannon Harbour, Robertstown, Naas and so on.

Gates won't stop motorbikes. But they do deter and irritate cyclists. Someone will do themselves an injury or fall into the canal trying to get over / around a gate.

It's a noticeably nicer cycle when the gates are open .

Last week the Kylemore section was fenced off. An alternative route around would be via Kylemore Way / Jamestown Road http://www.openstreetmap.org/?minlon=-6.34670305252075&minlat=53.3347282409668&maxlon=-6.3369026184082&maxlat=53.3357963562012

carthoris

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It goes as far as the Newcastle Road. After that the south side of the Canal is blocked by a farm, don't Waterways Ireland own the canal banks. The North side has an extremely bike unfriendly gate and the it's a grass track to Hazelhatch.

Thanks for that - I stopped at Adamstown as I could see there were a track either side of the canal but wasn't sure it would go very far out. I know that at Hazelhatch the track is on the south side so that would have been my guess - lucky I didn't try it

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Gates won't stop motorbikes. But they do deter and irritate cyclists. Someone will do themselves an injury or fall into the canal trying to get over / around a gate.

Probably not the ones they really want to stop anyway.

Capt'n Midnight

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Concern over mopeds using the cycle track should also not be forgotten- a very real consideration in the parts of Dublin that this route passes through.

Won't it have CCTV ?

I've already seen one SUV driver get all the way to the Clondalkin during rush hour and have to turn back.

The gates aren't pram , pushchair , wheelchair or bicycle friendly

bollards will stop cars

Paparazzo

I was on this today, they were putting down that fine beige gravel on a section. The gates really are a pain, to get across Kileen Road you have to go through 4 gates :eek:
2 you can drive around, but I noticed some other ones I used to be able to drive around have little fences to stop you. The gates really are a turn off, could they not have put bollards close together or one of those V shaped gaps?
Some people managed to get their horse and cart down there, so if people want to get down they'll just find a hole in the fence.

carthoris

Paparazzo wrote: »

The gates really are a pain, to get across Kileen Road you have to go through 4 gates :eek:
2 you can drive around, but I noticed some other ones I used to be able to drive around have little fences to stop you. The gates really are a turn off, could they not have put bollards close together or one of those V shaped gaps?

I was thinking some more about the gates, perhaps they are closed now as the work is not complete so the path might still be officially closed. I am hopeful that the gates will be opened and left open when the path is officially opened.

Paparazzo

carthoris wrote: »

I was thinking some more about the gates, perhaps they are closed now as the work is not complete so the path might still be officially closed. I am hopeful that the gates will be opened and left open when the path is officially opened.

Hopefully they do. Some gates aren't even at the road, they're right in the middle of the path. They look pretty permanant though

I noticed they have pedesterian lights on a few sections where you can't go under a bridge and have to cross a road, like at the kileen road, but they're not switched on yet. Handy though, those roads are busy at rush hour.

But to be honest, the gates make it more of a walking amenity than a cycling amenity. The road is far easier for bikes

Ant

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It goes as far as the Newcastle Road. After that the south side of the Canal is blocked by a farm, don't Waterways Ireland own the canal banks. The North side has an extremely bike unfriendly gate and the it's a grass track to Hazelhatch.

You can actually just cycle around that gate. There's a narrow gap between it and the canal. If you're not confident in your bike handling skills, you could easily dismount and shoulder the bike. Between there and Hazelhatch the tow-path can be muddy in a few patches after a few rainfalls but it should be fine at the moment and you'd get away with (wide) road tyres.

From what I'm hearing on this thread, it seems the re-construction project will make the urban Grand Canal tow-paths less bike-friendly than before. Hopefully, that's not the case.

Capt'n Midnight

Paparazzo wrote: »

But to be honest, the gates make it more of a walking amenity than a cycling amenity. The road is far easier for bikes

The canal path is the straightest shortest route with the fewest hills, fewest traffic lights, fewest potholes, fewest cars - apart from the gates and the necessary level crossings it's far better to cycle on than the road from safety, comfort, energy usage, delays and there is nice scenery that you can enjoy in peace.

the gates don't delay you as much as traffic / traffic lights would , but the gripe is that they are overkill

Capt'n Midnight

Ant wrote: »

You can actually just cycle around that gate. There's a narrow gap between it and the canal. If you're not confident in your bike handling skills, you could easily dismount and shoulder the bike.

I use panniers

makes it difficult to go around or over

Ant

I cycled out by the Grand Canal yesterday evening from Rialto as far as Ardclogh. It looks like there's still a bit of work to be done. At the moment, you have to take a detour when you hit Kylemore Road but it's not too bad. It just involves going around Bluebell Industrial Estate before rejoining the canal. Otherwise, it's quite a pleasant and fast cycle.

For those wanting to go further towards Hazelhatch, I noticed a new bollard has been installed between the canal and the second gate from the Adamstown bridge. This means cyclists now have no choice but to lift their bike completely over the gate instead of cycling around it.

monument

The route is due to open officially on Friday, as part of Bike Week.

We'll see then if the gates will be opened or not. It's crazy if the gates are not opened.

monument

monument wrote: »

The route is due to open officially on Friday, as part of Bike Week.

We'll see then if the gates will be opened or not. It's crazy if the gates are not opened.

Just back from the official opening -- Was told the gates are to remain closed, so cyclists will have to use the "kissing" gates designed for pedestrians.

Chips Lovell

Would the gates not deter joyriders?

monument

el tonto wrote: »

Would the gates not deter joyriders?

Just to make it clear, some kind of gate or barrier is needed, but the current ones are not very cyclists friendly.

monument

Most of them look like this:


And this is a close up on the "kissing" gate section:


(Lots of the passable gaps as shown above have been blocked since the photos were taken)

Dura Ace

This evening was the first and last time I'll be using the new path along the Grand Canal. I cycled from Lucan to the 12th Lock and joined the path there. Within about 300m, I passed a group of three lads and a girl and after I passed them, they started throwing stones at me and shouting something. It was behaviour that you might expect from a 12-year old, but not people in their 20's. :mad: That section of the path is like strade bianche, and I don't think it would have taken much to give it a sweep before the official opening.
The barriers as mentioned above are really bad, and I had to dismount to get around three within a stretch of about 2kms. They really slow you up. Finally, when I got to the 9th Lock at Clondalkin, there was a heap of broken glass. At this stage, I'd had enough and went back on the roads.

rubino

cycled this at weekend and one thing I noticed is how much the city turns it back to the canal, more or less the whole way out it was the rear of industrial units facing the canal in what should be high amenity/residential

As many others have said the gates at road junctions where quite cumbersome on a bike, having to dismount and reverse your bike thru' a gate every ~1km could become quite annoying if you where using the path twice a day for your commute. Don't know if they could have come up with better?, would imagine the designer of the current system was not a cyclist :-(

Capt'n Midnight

Dura Ace wrote: »

they started throwing stones at me and shouting something. It was behaviour that you might expect from a 12-year old, but not people in their 20's. :mad:
...
The barriers as mentioned above are really bad, and I had to dismount to get around three within a stretch of about 2kms. They really slow you up. Finally, when I got to the 9th Lock at Clondalkin, there was a heap of broken glass. At this stage, I'd had enough and went back on the roads.

That is a huge problem. Normally on a bike you can accelerate away from trouble, but the gates means you can't so it means people will stop using the path earlier in the evenings

GG21057

I agree with Dura Ace - I cycled the path, such as it is, from Inchicore to Adamstown. The path is unfinished at the Killeen Road, though that's not the worst of it. All junctions are guarded by the gates shown in pictures earleir in this thread - getting off almost every kilometre is really annoying and will deter most cyclists from using the path. The worst was yet to come for me though - ok, I picked the worst day to use a public pathway - sunshine and canal water just brings out the scum of the earth. I happened on a pair of these scumbags around Adamstown this evening when one wrestled me from my bike while the other laughed. When I told the aforementioned scumbag to **** off, he took extreme umbrage and his drug dilated pupils nearly popped out of his head. At this point I took advantage of hesitancy on their part and hightailed it back to the sanctuary of the road ... after negoitating the aforementioned bicycle unfriendly gates. I also rang An Garda Siochana who advised that they would "tell the lads to keep an eye out". It's such a pity - this could've been a great cycle facility except for bad planning....and scumbags. Rant ends.:mad:

p

Dura Ace wrote: »

Within about 300m, I passed a group of three lads and a girl and after I passed them, they started throwing stones at me and shouting something. It was behaviour that you might expect from a 12-year old, but not people in their 20's. :mad:

Yea, the canal has a rough aspect to it. Hopefully making it more accessible like this will increase through traffic and improve it as area.

rubino wrote: »

cycled this at weekend and one thing I noticed is how much the city turns it back to the canal, more or less the whole way out it was the rear of industrial units facing the canal in what should be high amenity/residential

Absolutely, would be great have house & apartments with a canal view. I'm glad to see this development, but really hope we continue to develop our canals more, they're such a great amenity, but not nearly developed or used as much as they could be. It would stop a lot of the anti-social problems mentioned above as well as giving people more areas for activities like walks/cycling & running.

D'Peoples Voice

This is really taking shape around Wilton Terrace, Herbert Place, Warrington Place, Clanwilliam Place, looking impressive!:p