Commuting by bicycle Swords to City Centre

Fancy username

I’d like to try commuting on my bike from Swords and am wondering if anyone has a map of a good route. Is it a realistic daily commute? I have a Pashley bike, which was grand for me previously with a 5k each way cycle, but mightn’t be suitable for this distance?

07Lapierre

Swords, Santry, Whitehall, Dorset Street is the most direct route and mostly downhill all the way into the city centre. The home journey is a bit of a drag. Having said that it's a very doable commute.

The only "tricky" bit is at The main roundabout at Dublin Airport. Moving from the hard shoulder into the centre lane takes confidence and could be intimidating if your not used to it.

Fancy username

07Lapierre wrote: »

Swords, Santry, Whitehall, Dorset Street is the most direct route and mostly downhill all the way into the city centre. The home journey is a bit of a drag. Having said that it's a very doable commute.

The only "tricky" bit is at The main roundabout at Dublin Airport. Moving from the hard shoulder into the centre lane takes confidence and could be intimidating if your not used to it.

Eek! That sounds very scary! I’ve never done roundabouts, I suppose there’s only one way though, just bite the bullet. Thanks for the info.

07Lapierre

Do a dry run on a Saturday or Sunday morning and see how you get on.

Felexicon

Fancy username wrote: »

I’d like to try commuting on my bike from Swords and am wondering if anyone has a map of a good route. Is it a realistic daily commute? I have a Pashley bike, which was grand for me previously with a 5k each way cycle, but mightn’t be suitable for this distance?

What part of Swords are you coming from?

Fancy username

Felexicon wrote: »

What part of Swords are you coming from?

Near Applewood.

crosstownk

It's a very doable commute. I commute regularly from Terenure to Swords. I do it on a road bike.

As mentioned above, a dry run on a day when you've no time constraints is a good idea.

As for the roundabout that 07Lapierre mentions (and I assume he's talking about coming from the Coachmans heading for the Airport), the best way to handle it is to look behind regularly to asses traffic and not move right until you can enter the bus lane (hopefully that makes sense!). After a few tries you'll be grand.

If you'd prefer not to tackle that section, you can cross the R132 at the pedestrian crossing at the Coachmans, use the cycle lane to get to the Airport Roundabout then at Kealy's pub you can cross back to southbound cycle lane. I see plenty of cyclists do this.

Fancy username

crosstownk wrote: »

It's a very doable commute. I commute regularly from Terenure to Swords. I do it on a road bike.

As mentioned above, a dry run on a day when you've no time constraints is a good idea.

As for the roundabout that 07Lapierre mentions (and I assume he's talking about coming from the Coachmans heading for the Airport), the best way to handle it is to look behind regularly to asses traffic and not move right until you can enter the bus lane (hopefully that makes sense!). After a few tries you'll be grand.

If you'd prefer not to tackle that section, you can cross the R132 at the pedestrian crossing at the Coachmans, use the cycle lane to get to the Airport Roundabout then at Kealy's pub you can cross back to southbound cycle lane. I see plenty of cyclists do this.

Thanks so much for all this advice! Would the traffic on the route be fairly used to cyclists then, the way they are in town( mostly!) ?

Carawaystick

There's actually never that much traffic going that way in the mornings, you have loads of time to move across the slip lane into the Bus Lane, and you can even stop at the junction, until it's clear to cross if you need to.

It's a little more hectic coming back, as there's no traffic lights to get onto the Airport Roundabout. There is a pedestrian/pelican crossing a short way in the airport road



Theres a bike lane or Bus lane the whole way to Santry, and down Swords road to the Tolka.

Where in the city are you working?

crosstownk

Carawaystick wrote: »

It's a little more hectic coming back, as there's no traffic lights to get onto the Airport Roundabout.

I never really find that roundabout a problem coming from Santry. The roundabout is traffic light controlled (but not from that approach) and as the light sequence moves, there's usually a gap in the traffic coming from the right. Although once you get the gap to progress you are almost 100% guaranteed to be stopped at the next lights before you leave the roundabout - watch out for amber gamblers coming from the airport direction!

Fancy username

Not far from the Green. I’m feeling a lot better about it now. I had visions of very fast moving traffic, which I’m not used to. I’m much happier now that once I get a few dry runs under my belt, I’ll be grand.

Wishbone Ash

Is your Pashley 3 speed or single speed? It should be fine either way although outbound via Drumcondra may seem like a bit of a drag on a single speed if you're not accustomed to it. Otherwise the route is relatively flat.

In my experience, when traffic is heavy, it can be safer. If you're doing a dry run on a weekend morning, traffic may be moving much faster.

As has been said, take care when moving across from the left lane to the bus lane after The Coachman's pub, especially on dark wet mornings.

Also, at the junction after Morton Stadium, be alert for drivers making a left turn across the cycle track (just after the tyre/exhaust centre).

If coming from Applewood, you also have the option of going via Knocksedan and the back of the airport (not a route I like myself).

Weepsie

Also look out for some massive potholes between airport and Santry.

ted1

If you wanted to avoid that roundabout you could go through the airport. Take a right at the earlier roundabout. Head out parallel to the airport, take the first left. Come in along the hangers and cross over at the lights beside MacDonalds or head back along the cycle path towards the roundabout and use the crossing there

rushfan

Wishbone Ash wrote:

If coming from Applewood, you also have the option of going via Knocksedan and the back of the airport (not a route I like myself).

Knocksedan is definitely to be avoided I would say. Traffic moves fast along that road. Also, now that the road towards the Boot Inn is permanently closed, the road parallel to where the new runway will be built is equally fast. And everyone is in a hurry these days too!!

arybvtcw0eolkf

crosstownk wrote: »

If you'd prefer not to tackle that section, you can cross the R132 at the pedestrian crossing at the Coachmans, use the cycle lane to get to the Airport Roundabout then at Kealy's pub you can cross back to southbound cycle lane. I see plenty of cyclists do this.

That was going to be my suggestion.

Although I don't cycle into the city from that direction during the longer summer days I cycle from the Phoenix park home to Portmarnock via Swords/Malahide to stick on a few more kms and this is where I cross.

Felexicon

I commute from Swords to Santry most weekday mornings and to be honest the Airport Roundabout is not that dangerous heading towards the city. I certainly wouldn't be going out of my way to avoid it. The only tricky part can be getting over the left to get on the bike lane but I usually just stick to the bus lane until the next set of lights and then pop up on path.

Fancy username

Thanks again for all your advice, it’s been really helpful!
Hopefully sometime in the future there will be good continuous bike lanes from all the suburbs to the City Centre and we won’t even have to think about routes and what the safest is!