Cycle infrastructure planned for south Dublin

Rechuchote

"He didn't see me, probably not paying attention, could happen to anyone"

+RIP+

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718553#Comment_117718553

I will be told the council spent thousands on cycle lanes so use them.

Never a Garda to be seen around Blackrock but yet in lockdown they were able to drive through the park to chase people out of it.

Mav11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719018#Comment_117719018

Thankfully no. I was paying attention! But we all drift off or can get distracted on occasions!

Weepsie

And you tell them you don't have to use them.

You said it's a 200metre stretch. Either you're lying about all the drivers or your using one maybe ,2 experiences which id well believe to claim that it happens every time you use it.

For the people who are transitions through the avenue though , coming from another place to another the lane makes perfect sense

Fighting Tao

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719020#Comment_117719020

You have an excuse for everything, and possibly creating many of the issues yourself. I’m sure you’ll find at least one Garda in Blackrock Garda station. Try looking for alternatives if visiting the Garda station fails….e.g. traffic watch.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718989#Comment_117718989

You can cycle up from the by pass without anyone blaring their horns or shouting at you.

You get to the four way junction at Convent Road, Brookfield place and how you are supposed to get across to the cycle lane here when traffic has the green light to go straight is beyond me. I presume you get off your bike, cross at the pedestrian lights and then cross a second set of pedestrian lights at Convent Road. Otherwise presumeably you wait until there is a red light and then cross but what happens then if traffic is coming from your left and right and turning from convent road up carysfort avenue

Drivers only lose the rag where the cycle lane starts, one poor man tried to get out of a motorists way as a car was driven at him, he couldnt get up on the footpath because of the kerb, again he may not have been familiar with the road as he innocently came off a side road and turned left. This was in the pitch dark at 10 pm.

Again this is all as a result of the cycling lobby demanding this cycle lane be built and no notice being taken of difficulties this would cause for local cyclists.

Weepsie

No, this is as a result of a public consultation that showed 60 percent of locals supported tht option.

You have an anecdote or new situation dreamed up for every rebuttal. Its always an older man or pal, who by the sounds of things are all either in poor health or lack any sort of confidence to be walking outside let alone cycling.

Stop making stuff up, or stop posting because it's tireesome at this stage.

Mav11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718946#Comment_117718946

It is a general observation not an insinuation, as I couldn't care less about your road manners. But courtesy begets courtesy and if there was a little more civilised road behaviour and good manners about, there would probably be less aggression and as you put it, horn blaring on those same roads.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719062#Comment_117719062

Do not accuse me of making anything up.

This is real life experience of a wide cycle lane going in on a road thats too narrow to take it.

The result of course is there is no room left opposite it to cycle on the road.

What I am relating should be taken into consideration before anymore of these two way cycle lanes are installed.

Dont try and bully me off this forum, everything I have posted is true, you get on your bike and cycle on the East side of Carysfort Avenue opposite the cycle lane and come back then and call me a liar.

You dont want to read any opinion that doesnt agree with yours, typical of the all male cycling lobbyist.

PS, how do you know 60% of locals supported this, as I posted already a local councillor told me anyone could make up an email address and the cycling lobbyists were organising for thousands all over the countryto make submissions. This was in relation to the Avoca Avenue insanity though when the entire local area was united in preventing this going ahead.

There will be huge local opposition to the plans for Stillorgan park too as this will cause tailbacks everywhere.

Many of these cycling plans seem to be more about making life difficult for drivers than about actually improving cycling infrastructure, there is no need for example to cause mayhem on heavy trafficked Stillorgan Park, you could achieve better cycling provision by improving the cycle lanes already there, not one cent spent on them for years.

People are under huge stress from covid, many at the end of their tether and making life even more difficult for them will result in more road rage which will be taken out on cyclists, hence driving cyclists off the road and blaring horns at them as I witness daily, oh hang on, I dont, Im making everything up.

Weepsie

I'm not a cycling lobbyist. Far from it.

I've read and taken on board pelnt of opinions that differ. I just find it astounding that you seem to have a scenario imagined up for everything.

Erggency services, heart attacks, aggressive drivers everywhere it seems.

If you're going 200metres it's a non issue really. Just stay on the road, and hold your lane and be confident. Sure they've no room to pass according to you, so what's the worry.

oh God again, its difficult to stay on the road as you are taking your life in your hands and if you are knocked off the bike you will be told you should have been in the cycling lane. It actually doesnt matter if its 200 hundreds metres or 600, it depends on what left turn you take to come onto the avenue.

The point is you cant proceed on the side of the road you are on, you will be driven at with horns blaring. Im used to it now but as I posted my pal isnt so she wobbled and could have fallen in front of the car, oh, wait a minute she is an imaginary friend, She doesnt exist, I must tell her that.

How can you hold a lane, you obviously havent a clue about Carysfort Avenue, there is no room now between the kerb and cars and no way cars can move out to give you space.

As I said try it and come back to us.

Weepsie

I cycle in Dublin city most days. I cycle using far worse roads than carysfort avenue and with all the hostilities that Dublin drivers can throw at you.

If a car can't pass you safely using the opposite lane, that's there problem not yours. If you're hugging the kerb then that's an issue. Take the middle of the lane.

More families started cycling to school with kids because of those lanes.

The kerbs are not permanently in situ either, so you could request that some are removed and replaced with shorter ones to allow you to exit if so you wish, but then you'll throw up something about speeding cyclists or some shite not allowing you to exit

Weepsie

A road that has parking 2 sides , and 2 lanes for traffic is not too narrow for a cycle lane.

There are still 2 lanes of adequate width for traffic and the lane, and one side still has parking spaces .

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719367#Comment_117719367

There is no room for cyclists to cycle on the East side of Carysfort Avenue, that is the reality.

Children always cycled to the local school through the park, no need for them to go on the road at all.They cant actually cycle to school anyway because Convent Road is too narrow and dangerous for children.

Why should I have to request that kerbs be removed, wasnt this cycle lane designed by those who know what they are doing, the kerbs arent even painted though which would seem an obvious thing to do.

I dont want to exit this cycle lane coming from the village, I dont want to enter it at all, it has made cycling more dangerous for me and I want it reduced to one lane so I can cycle with the traffic the way I safely did for thirty years.

And it is my problem if a car cant pass safely if this results in drivers blaring their horn and shouting get into the **** cycle lane.

Sarn

In fairness to taxiperson, as a local near Carysfort Avenue, I have witnessed drivers getting irate at cyclists using the road instead of the new 900 m stretch of two way cycle track. The once very wide road that allowed for safe overtaking of buses and cyclists is now much narrower, making it difficult to do so. Motorists, I imagine, are getting frustrated getting stuck behind cyclists cycling slowly uphill when this was never the case before.

Speaking as a local, I was unaware of the proposal to put that track in place. The same can be said of many of my neighbours, family and friends in the area. Unfortunately, the knock on effects of the changes have made driving from Stillorgan Park across the junction with Carysfort avenue a pain in the back side. With filter lanes lost, you now get tailbacks of traffic of over half a km back up to the N11 of an evening, and this is with people working from home.

We now avoid driving that way and instead drive through the local housing estates as it knocks about ten minutes off the drive time.

As a result of the impact on local traffic, the proposed changes to Stillorgan Park are on a lot more people’s radar. While there is merit in installing and significantly upgrading the existing cycle infrastructure, it needs to be recognised that this is a main route from Stillorgan to Deansgrange, Monkstown and Dun Laoghaire.

While I think that proper cycle infrastructure is needed, the main issue to many is that some of the proposed changes across South Dublin don’t appear to have considered the significant negative effects on existing traffic.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719449#Comment_117719449

The aim is for existing traffic to no longer exist though, and be greatly reduced. That's the point of much of the infrastructure. There's an automatic assumption that every car will still be on the road and need to go somewhere.

Equally there's an assumption that all cars will disappear and itll be a vehicle free utopia.

Neither is true though, and it should be somewhere in between

Like any other road, if it's simply not safe to overtake don't do it. If a driver is getting angry, they've no business being on the road.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719449#Comment_117719449

Its not that the negative impact of the changes werent considered, its that many of these changes are more about making driving difficult than they are about improving cycling infrastructure.

If there was serious intent to improve cycling infrastructure then something would be done immediately about the cycling lane opposite Stillorgan library, this is in terrible condition and is shared with pedestrians. The section from Stillorgan to Carysfort Avenue is desperate too and this is downhill so cyclists are travelling at speed over uneven paths and tree roots, it looks like nothing will be done about this while plans are being made for a super duper cycling highway that will cause chaos in both directions.

There was no great demand from locals for the cycling lane on Carysfort Avenue, most people cycling to Stillorgan go through Carysfort park and going to Dunlaoghaire they would cycle through Rockfield park. I did notice the low wall at the exit to Stillorgan Park from the Cloisters has been removed, about time.!!!!!!

Closing Avoca Avenue and turning it into a cul de sac would have meant forcing traffic to turn at Avoca Place and onto Green Road to get to Merrion Avenue, this is the route children take to the huge local secondary schools, they dont and wont cycle up Avoca Avenue to get to Cross Avenue and Booterstown Avenue, it was like talking to a brick wall to officialdom about this.

Weepsie

Make sure you're aware of public consultations then that directly affect your area and contribute to them.

Make sure you tell your friends all over the country and beyond to make submissions that you agree with.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718548#Comment_117718548

I've often done it, though I've used the cycle lane - it is a great facility. I've absolutely had the experience of the occasional beep, or the waving and finger pointing from drivers when I stay on the road beside other cycle lanes. However, you do seem to be over-egging the terror of such an experience just a tad. Either way, your problem there is nasty drivers, not the cycle lane.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719580#Comment_117719580

You have not cycled outside the cycle lane as you do not live in the houses opposite or in any of the housing estates opposite it either.

You are passing through the area so do not understand or have any interest in the negative effects this wide lane has had on local cyclists who simply want to get from A to B in the way they have done for decades.

Whats even more annoying is how little this lane is used for all the inconvenience it has caused me and the dangerous conditions I now have to cycle in to get to my house.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719613#Comment_117719613

There is no danger. You're making a song and dance about it. You don't own the road, the road is there for everybody, as is the cycle lane.

Mav11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719449#Comment_117719449

The tailbacks to the N11, of which there are many, are primarily the result of a change in the traffic light sequence to favour pedestrians. Not the loss of filter lanes. This was introduced by DLRCC and other councils at the beginning of the lockdown.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719449#Comment_117719449

Ten minute delays, getting out of Stillorgan Park onto the N11? You're joking, right? I'm seriously thinking of investing in a dashcam just to prove these claims wrong.

Mav11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117719685#Comment_117719685

I think that the delays are in the opposite direction i.e. crossing carysfort from Stillorgan pk. I have sat in these myself and saw that the cause was the very short green light sequence at the junction, only allowing two or three cars through at a time. Wholly inadequate to clear the traffic.

This is the reason locals went ballistic at the proposal to close Avoca Avenue to through way traffic.

Many locals avoid this junction completely by coming off the N11 and driving through Woodlands, down Avoca Avenue and onto Carysfort.

Closing Avoca Avnue to traffic would have meant cars would continue on down Merrion Avenue and turn up Sydney Avenue and make their way to Carysfort Avenue via Convent Road.

Traffic doesnt disappear, it finds alternative routes.

Weepsie

So it's okay for some locals to use avoca avenue as a rat run, but it's not okay to close the rat run because people don't want to have to put up with people using their area as a rat run.

Got ya.

Traffic has to move and I doubt if Avoca avenue residents wanted to live in a cul de sac.

Avoca Avenue is a very wide busy road and closing if off to through traffic would have pushed the traffic onto neighbouring narrow roads thus making them even more rat running than they already are.

It was an insane proposal and not one local councillor supported it, they got the feedback loud and clear.

magicbastarder

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/david-mcwilliams-a-new-dublin-port-city-is-an-obvious-solution-for-the-housing-crisis-1.4640477

somewhat relevant.

Weepsie

A proposal to turn avoca avenue into a cul de sac came up nearly 15 years ago. There was support for it, and opposition, but it did come with caveats to what needed to be done to improve access for residents on grove avenue.

Thing change of course.