Limerick improvement projects

Tax takes versus outlays on this that and the other is irrelevant.

Im not in this discussion to argue with anybody re their choices to cycle or not. Even just 5m euro plus what has already been spent on cycle lanes that are relatively unused. They even want to cpo a portion of peoples front gardens on father russell rd. I have seen a fire truck struggle to get through childers rd in heavy traffic because of a cycle lane with protective bollards , and no cyclists on it.

I use Childers Road daily, cycling. I am very rarely, if ever, the only cyclist on it. Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Oh and there's only 1 week where I drove all winter, I'll let you guess which one, apart from that there really isn't a massive issue with the weather, just excuses.

The emergency services argument is a complete red herring, there are plenty of streets in this city which are narrower than Childers road and they manage just fine. Same in other countries with more extensive cycle networks, and narrower roads.

Throw out the usual fob offs barstool this barstool that.

You cannot accept the fact that precious public funds are being spent on your unused cycle lanes.

I have no issue with reducing cars , but improve our public transport not unused useless cycle lanes

Enjoy , you wont be worried about conjestion on them.

No the reason they arent congested is because very very few people use them.

Come out to raheen industrial estate and see the beautiful cycle lanes going in both directions. With this nice weather they are full of users every lunch time , people use them for walking because of no cyclists.

The council are making huge mistakes that have already been learned by other councils.

The big two are there should be none of these shtty on path cycle lanes and the other is when you are building two cycle lanes they should be next to each other like on Shannon bridge. In many places they are made wide enough to be used as emergency service lanes.

What would really help the fire engine though is less of those cars that were blocking his path.

Or what would really really help is if car drivers would stop illegally parking and cutting through cycle lanes thus ending the need for bollards.

People have it in their heads that cycling is done in Italy, Spain and France because the professional cycling they see on TV is from those places but they are a fair bit down the list especially sunny Spain and south Italy.

Helsinki with it's 182 days of rain and a very cold winter has more cycling commuters (and infrastructure) than the hostile roads of Madrid.

Ya the LSMATS plan I think is to get it up to 10% and with population projections for the city that won't lead to a reduction in cars just mean less of an increase.

See again the problem with barriers like Shannon bridge is the road would still be blocked for fire engines by the illegal parking. Its already causing headaches for buses in some estates often with cars parked outside empty driveways.

Oh sorry I meant in general rather than specifically on Childers Rd.

It's not an issue on the bridge or any area that has no adjacent buildings like the stretch on Childers. But in many other areas every little gap is exploited by the fat lazy "must part right outside" brigade.

My favourite recently was someone mounting the path and driving her SUV right up to the steps of Colbert station to save her precious little darlings legs.

The cycle lane on the South Circular had over 750 submissions, most of which were against the thing (75% against if you believe Willie ODea)

The tower blocks at Punches Cross, Hassetts cross, Greenfields, Rhebogue all had huge opposition from local populations

On a serious note, at which point did this fine country stop being a democracy?

The councillors voted last week on the cycle lane, which was passed, much to the annoyance of the residents on the South Circular. Not really relevant though unless those politicians got their seats on the basis of approving such schemes

The others are private developments so as far as I'm aware they don't get votes at any level. But they clearly go against the will of the people

New cycle infrastructure is not for the few that cycle today but for those that drive. This concept may be too difficult for many people to grasp but I will try to explain. The travel data collected in Ireland is not overly detailed but we know that nearly 80% of commuting trips are made by car. We need to greatly reduce the total annual distance we drive annually in order to reach our legally required reductions in CO2 emissions. This doesn't mean people have to swap their car for a bike/bus/train for 100% of their trips but we need to see a % shift from car mileage to more sustainable modes of transport. Cycling can be an alternative to car driving for a % of short local journeys. If a high quality local cycle or bus network was connected to a high quality inter-urban train/bus network then you could start to see significant reduction in car usage for both long and short journeys. That's why I think the BusConnects plan for Limerick is hopeless as Colbert Station and not O'Connell St should be the major public transport interchange in Limerick. 10 years from now, everyone living in Raheen/Dooradoyle going to Cork will still be driving rather than taking public transport because the latter will remain vastly more inconvenient.

Irishrail really not doing enough to promote how cheap they are as well.

It's not gonna change the numbers massively but people should have a look at how cheap it now is to get to the other cities or Ennis.

It's more than that though, when it rains we see next to nobody out on bikes and buses usually run with an imaginary timetable, this attitude of "needing to stay dry" or "being on time for work" needs to change.

I spent 3 years commuting to UL from caherdavin, the only way I could make 9am lectures was by taking a bus at 7:05am and arriving at about 7:40, the next bus was 7:30 and got me in for 9:30... Driving in my final year meant leaving home at 8am and arriving at 8:45... Cost me 4X as much but worth it