FYI: Phoenix Park Racecourse apartments in use

daymobrew

Some of the Phoenix Park Racecourse apartments are now occupied. This means that the in/out lanes onto the Navan Road are in use.
The off-road cycle track breaks to cross these lanes, so extra care is now necessary, especially when heading towards Blanchardstown when cars will be coming from behind you. The speed hump that is the bike/ped crossing point does little to slow traffic down, as I noticed last night.

Civilian_Target

Yeah - almost got wiped out by some guy in a toyota there about 6 weeks ago - it really is a mad piece of sign-posting - cyclists move really fast on that lane, it's quite a busy lane too and I can see a series of accidents coming! Whether that will actually lead to anything is a completely different matter, but coming eastbound into that corner is absolutely, totally and completely blind;

I decided that when it did actually open I'd just cycle on the road instead - I guess that comes into effect now...

robfitz

Is this the junction? http://273k.net/cyclegallery/images/2006-06-10/2006-06-10_121316_1901.small.jpg

Drapper

great info! thanks for that! not on my route but is on my spin route at weekends!

daymobrew

robfitz wrote:

Is this the junction? http://273k.net/cyclegallery/images/2006-06-10/2006-06-10_121316_1901.small.jpg

I was talking about the westbound crossing a little further up, specifically the direction shown in that pic (with cars coming from behind you).
Going other direction (eastbound) is easier as you have good visibility of cars coming from the Navan Road and from the complex (though the latter may not be looking at you).

Aside: a pedestrian in the bike lane? :rolleyes:

Civilian_Target

Well this is the one I'm talking about here - http://273k.net/cyclegallery/images/2006-06-10/2006-06-10_121722_1911.small.jpg

You have no visibility of oncoming traffic - and no nice surface to stop on either.

daymobrew

Civilian_Target wrote:

Well this is the one I'm talking about here - http://273k.net/cyclegallery/images/2006-06-10/2006-06-10_121722_1911.small.jpg

You have no visibility of oncoming traffic - and no nice surface to stop on either.

I find that heading eastwards (like the view shown) is fine. I can clearly see any cars exiting from the Navan Road. It's a little stretch to see cars coming from the right but as I am crossing a roadway I would be going quite slow. I suppose we have different techniques.

David Healy

This looks dangerous to me.

Roads get built in one of a few ways:
a) major roads or alterations by local authorities following a public consent procedure under the roads act.
b) minor roadbuilding by local authorities without any particular consent
c) roadbuilding by developers acting under the terms of a planning permission.

This alteration to the Navan Road will have happened under heading c).

Usually the planning application contains a road design. There is usually a condition in the permission which requires that the details be agreed with the County Council. This means that detailed plans are supposed to be submitted to the Council and agreed before work starts. This often doesn't happen. The safety of cyclists is usually passed over in this process. The Councils are bad at designing for cyclists, but the private developers are really appalling. For more on this see here and here

Some road design proposals are supposed to go through a safety audit. It would be interesting to know if that has happened here.

If any local cyclist wants to take this up, I'll give any advice that I can. I know Dublin Cycling Campaign is interested in taking on these issues, but they're quite stretched themselves. I'm sure you would be welcome to work through the Campaign. If more than one person contacts me, I'll put you in touch with each other.

daymobrew

David Healy wrote:

The safety of cyclists is usually passed over in this process. The Councils are bad at designing for cyclists, but the private developers are really appalling.

For the sake of accuracy I will defend this particular intersection.

I saw the planning notice before this junction was built and I contacted Fingal County Council. I spoke with a guy in the Roads Forward Planning Department (possibly Sean McGrath). Coincidentally, he is a cyclist that uses this route. He has input on road design. He may have been involved in the rejection of the application to make it into a cross roads with lights, to allow those exiting the development to turn right to head towards town!!
From reading your site (btw, impressive actions on behalf of cyclists and pedestrians) I guess that your dealings with the Traffic and Planning departments aren't so favourable.

Some time later I spoke with another person in the same department about speed humps and a new roundabout in my area. Cyclist safety was considered and acted upon (the off road cycle track drops to the road a bit before the roundabout to establish the cyclist presence before entering the roundabout - hard to explain).

So, while the safety of cyclists is often overlooked, I don't think that it was the case with the Phoenix Park Racecourse junction, though I would like there to be a zebra crossing there and/or a harsh speed ramp before the crossing.

David Healy

daymobrew wrote:

For the sake of accuracy I will defend this particular intersection.

I saw the planning notice before this junction was built and I contacted Fingal County Council. I spoke with a guy in the Roads Forward Planning Department (possibly Sean McGrath). Coincidentally, he is a cyclist that uses this route. He has input on road design. He may have been involved in the rejection of the application to make it into a cross roads with lights, to allow those exiting the development to turn right to head towards town!!
From reading your site (btw, impressive actions on behalf of cyclists and pedestrians) I guess that your dealings with the Traffic and Planning departments aren't so favourable.

Some time later I spoke with another person in the same department about speed humps and a new roundabout in my area. Cyclist safety was considered and acted upon (the off road cycle track drops to the road a bit before the roundabout to establish the cyclist presence before entering the roundabout - hard to explain).

So, while the safety of cyclists is often overlooked, I don't think that it was the case with the Phoenix Park Racecourse junction, though I would like there to be a zebra crossing there and/or a harsh speed ramp before the crossing.

Thanks for that info. I'm interested by your comment on the crossroads. Would you not think that traffic lights would make for a safer junction for cyclists (and pedestrians)?

I know there's a lot going on in Dublin 15 that affects cyclists and as I'm a councillor for Howth rather than over there I really haven't much input. Recent issues have included ramps on Strawberry Beds and removing the hard shoulder from the Navan Road on the other side of the M50. I have also seen extensive footpath cycle-tracks leading to roundabouts, just like the ones I took pictures of in Swords.

Well done for input into that roundabout. I'm not familiar with the area and the drawing is a bit fuzzy, but the whole area looks like more of the impermeable layout with no-frontage walled-off distributor roads with cycletracks on the footpaths giving way at all junctions which seem to be the de facto standard.

This entire car-oriented design approach for residential areas disadvantages pedestrians and cyclists and is therefore in contravention of the Development Plan where the official policy is to promote cycling and walking and to encourage people to shift from cars.

The Dublin Cycling Campaign could definitely do with more input from D15. DCC is giving a presentation to Fingal's Transportation SPC at the beginning of October, so now would be a good time to get involved.