Clontarf to City Centre Cycle & Bus Priority Project discussion (renamed)

They were repainting the bridge during the past week.

BTW They appear to be starting to tarmac the cycle lane from the Malahide Road junction going outbound.

The closure last week at Malahide Road appeared mostly to put up new traffic lights. When I say new traffic lights, I don't mean your run of the mill lights, but large, high gantry style traffic lights that are above the lanes spanning two lanes at a height higher then a double decker bus.

They also moved around the pedestrian crossings at that junction.

Thinking about it, the reason I dislike these narrow one way cycle ways, is because I get to live the reality of them on almost a daily basis. And they are terrible.

I get to cycle the shite Griffith Avenue cycle way almost daily and boy is it bad. Too narrow, can’t overtake, full of leaves, dirt and debris, gratings that narrow the path even more and parked cars next to the path opening doors into the cycle path!

You mention people using the road rather then crossing to a two way path, but that happens constantly on Griffith Avenue, people are forced into the road to overtake slower bikes because of how narrow is.

Can you just picture the number of cyclists who will choose to use the bus lane on lower Drumcondra Road rather than being stuck behind a cargo bike on a 1.5m cycle lane!

I also really don’t get your whole crossing the road argument. You are going to have to cross the road regardless. Like when we cycle to school on Griffith Avenue, sure towards the school we are on the right side, but we still have to cross half a dozen junctions anyway and on the way back I have to cross the road twice anyway on the way back.

Sure a two way path on the other side of the street, would be an extra two crossings, but that is hardly a big deal when you have a dozen other crossings anyway, what is two more?

I’d happy to cross two more times to get to a wide, high quality two way path. A path where I could ride beside my child and not worry that we are getting in the way of a faster cyclist and forcing them into the road to overtake. A path wide enough where we wouldn’t have to worry about car doors being opened into us.

The likes of the Clontarf cycle paths and the two way ones build by Dun Laoghaire Council are SO MUCH nicer, it isn’t even funny.

What I’m saying is that the one way cycle paths we are building are shite, dangerous and not fit for purpose.

Again vulnerable users would much rather use a wide two way path then a shite narrow path with cars door being opened into you. It isn’t even close, I see it every day with young kids cycling to school on Griffith Avenue.

And your 200 meter thing is made up nonsense, why in gods name would you have to do that!

A two way path could have broken curbing like the Griffith Avenue one way one does so that you can enter/exit it at any point and at junctions you would still have the usual toucan crosssings.

As for netherlands, they have massive amounts of two way cycle paths and not just in the countryside, in cities too. I’ve read their cycling guidelines and they recommend two way paths when sufficient space for wide one way paths isn’t available.

Again my experience of both one way and two way paths in Dublin is that the one way paths are completely shite and the two way paths are brilliant by comparison. Vulnerable users love the two way paths and feel much safer on them.

Interestingly in the latest edition of the CROW Dutch Cycling manual they have now set the minimum width of a one way cycle path at 2.3m, up from 2m.

The Irish cycling manual sets the minimum at 2m, with 2.5m preferred.

The Swords road being just 1.5m, basically zero width for overtaking is complete madness.

The rule of thumb should be very simple. Minimum width 2m of one way cycle path, otherwise make it two way.

Sorry, unless I'm misunderstanding you, I'd say it is the opposite.

Commuter routes, like pretty much all the BusConnects routes are ideal for two way lanes. You enter the cycle path at your home and you then exit it in the city center. Add to that the tidal nature of these routes, with most people cycling towards town in the morning and out in the evening, two way routes are ideal for that.

I get what you are saying about one way lanes for more local type routes, where you just want to pop out to the shops two minutes down the road and back again. I don't think two way lanes are particularly bad for them, but I do get your thinking on them in that regard.

However the Busconnects routes will mostly be used by folks commuting to work, potentially long distances (for cycling) and thus ideal for two way routes.

Like a person living in Swords but working in the City center is not going to care that they have to cross the road two extra times to get onto a high quality 4 meter wide two way cycle lane to cycle into work!

Interestingly you should look at what London did with their so called cycling Superhighway. The initial first gen lanes built in 2010, were one way narrow lanes, like you suggest and we are building with BusConnects. But now they have realised there mistake and are now replacing them all with new second generation lanes, 4 meter wide two way cycle lanes and they are much nicer, see here:

https://ecf.com/news-and-events/news/evolution-cycle-superhighways-london