Closest spot to city to park free, then bike

veryangryman

Doing some work in city centre next week and want to see if i can leave car somewhere then hop on the bike rest of the way. Any recommendations. Coming from Dublin side.

RINO87

Glanmire somewhere might work. Not the nicest cycle into the city from a roads perspective tho, recent works to the lower glanmire road have really made it pretty dangerous to cycle on. If you are confident (I guess you are if you are bringing a bike?) and have your wits about you tho you should be ok, it's worse leaving the city, be really careful as you pass the last maxol/circle k.

Train in from little island/glounthaune might be another option.

timmyjimmy

There's a few parking spaces here https://goo.gl/maps/GDREFnsJdPN31xA47
I don't think you need a permit and I see other people park their car here with bike racks on the back.

mordeith

timmyjimmy wrote: »

There's a few parking spaces here https://goo.gl/maps/GDREFnsJdPN31xA47
I don't think you need a permit and I see other people park their car here with bike racks on the back.

I always that was for residents in the apartments across the railway line. Only guessing mind you.

namloc1980

I think there's sign up there that it's for resident permits only.

hans aus dtschl

RINO87 wrote: »

Glanmire somewhere might work. Not the nicest cycle into the city from a roads perspective tho, recent works to the lower glanmire road have really made it pretty dangerous to cycle on. If you are confident (I guess you are if you are bringing a bike?) and have your wits about you tho you should be ok, it's worse leaving the city, be really careful as you pass the last maxol/circle k.

Train in from little island/glounthaune might be another option.

I echo all of the above.

The council have made cycling into the city from the East MUCH more dangerous over the past year or so. It feels like they're actively working to prevent people from cycling.
I'd probably prefer to park up in Ballyvolane or Mayfield rather than try and get through the newly finished cyclists death trap that is Tivoli. Or alternatively, as the man from the NTA says: give up on the bike and either walk on the footpath get the train.

What a country.

alanucc

Slightly less direct but how about parking in Mahon Point SC and cycling in along the old railway line? It's a lovely cycle.

hans aus dtschl

alanucc wrote: »

Slightly less direct but how about parking in Mahon Point SC and cycling in along the old railway line? It's a lovely cycle.

You're right that it has free parking and is a lovely cycle, but coming from the Dublin side it wouldn't allow them to skip any traffic. They'd be stuck in traffic for quite a while at rush hour.

Parking in Glanmire or Sarsfield's court, they could avoid the majority of traffic and cycle through Upper Glanmire or Rathcooney, but those rat runs are very busy and very narrow. I'd prefer parking in Glounthaune over that.

From the Dublin side, you can get to Glounthaune without encountering traffic by exiting the M8 at Watergrasshill. In Glounthaune you can park for free and cycle to town almost entirely on the flat. The problem is that the council have made Tivoli much more difficult/dangerous for cyclists in the past few months. If you're brave enough in traffic (and many Dublin cyclists are) then this is the best route by far.

two wheels good

hans aus dtschl wrote: »

....
From the Dublin side, you can get to Glounthaune without encountering traffic by exiting the M8 at Watergrasshill. In Glounthaune you can park for free and cycle to town almost entirely on the flat. The problem is that the council have made Tivoli much more difficult/dangerous for cyclists in the past few months. If you're brave enough in traffic (and many Dublin cyclists are) then this is the best route by far.

Yes, It puzzled me that city-centre to Little Island is not developed as a cycle route. It's an obvious option. And the Dunkettle improvements are not going to have any cycle provisions. At least not in the last version of the plans I saw.

OP you could get closer to town by parking in any residental area. Douglas, Blackrock, Ballintemple. The R'town railway line and the Marina is a very pleasant route into town.
Then again avoiding the tunnel at rush-hour would be good too i.e Glounthaune. Depends how much pedalling you're prepared to do.

hans aus dtschl

two wheels good wrote: »

Yes, It puzzled me that city-centre to Little Island is not developed as a cycle route. It's an obvious option. And the Dunkettle improvements are not going to have any cycle provisions. At least not in the last version of the plans I saw.

The Dunkettle scheme sees a shared "greenway" detour north of the interchange for cyclists and pedestrians.
Then a traverse of four roundabouts, crossing the road five times (two of which are motorway slip ramps).

Details here:
https://www.corkcoco.ie/en/traffic-transport/statutory-processes
Drawings are there also, but the overall drawing is this:
https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2018-01/32107200-CYC-P8-002 Rev1 A1.pdf

In my opinion it's a poor design and I can think of a few better routes which wouldn't cost a lot.

TheChizler

That's chronic. If the causeway around where they built the tunnel sections was a little wider they could just slap a bit of tarmac on it, build a cheap bridge to access the Tivoli docks, and away you go. Would be a lovely place to walk or cycle. Would be even more ideal once/if the developments there happen.

hans aus dtschl

I won't go into it in too much detail but there are other good, cheap alternatives.

The causeway route is a tricky one because it's a conservation area. Plus the cost of the bridge. Plus the wait for Tivoli to become available.
But it will be the (very) long term route.