Engineers Ireland - Cycle Network Planning - Case Study: Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown

Capt'n Midnight

http://members.engineersireland.ie/events/event_details.asp?id=207096

When: 8th February 2012 From 6:30 PM

Where: Engineers Ireland
22 Clyde Road
Dublin 4

I think you have to book a place (It's free though)


Cycle Network Planning - Case Study: Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

This presentation describes the development of a cycle network for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The key objectives behind the development of a cycle network will be presented along with the individual steps of its development from identifying key attractors, assigning cycle desire lines, assessing the Quality of Service of the emerging routes and identifying a prioritised list of improvement measures for the network.

You can also watch online.

Doctor Bob

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I think you have to book a place (It's free though)

I heard over the weekend that no booking is required.

(Get there early, though, as iirc cycle parking is limited.)

OssianSmyth

Here is the video of this talk:
http://www.engineersireland.ie/services/web-tv/title-11002-en.html

(you have to download a player to watch it)

The main point is that dlr council has chosen those cycle routes with the highest latent demand and the worst cycling conditions and prioritised these for upgrade.

They also discussed
*upgrades to the N11 cycle track - apparently this is the fourth attempt at an N11 upgrade
*making fast roundabouts more cycle friendly by slowing down cars, removing lanes eg Monkstown roundabout
*promoting shortcuts through residential estates where better than using the main roads
*narrowing car lanes
*improvement of the metals
*new contraflow cycle lane in blackrock

I think DLR is probably ahead of other councils in cycle policy and probably has more potential for modal switch to cycling given its built up pattern.

galwaycyclist

OssianSmyth wrote: »

The main point is that dlr council has chosen those cycle routes with the highest latent demand and the worst cycling conditions and prioritised these for upgrade.

If this is true then this would represent a sea change in Irish cycle planning. Historically some authorities have had a policy of finding places where there are cyclists and putting in "cycle facilities". This is called the "finding what cyclists like and changing it" system. Or sometimes referred to as the "if it isn't broken then we must fix it" system.

tomasrojo

Some heartening ideas there

OssianSmyth wrote: »

*upgrades to the N11 cycle track - apparently this is the fourth attempt at an N11 upgrade

They're running out of lipstick at this stage, and yet the pig retains the external appearance of a pig.

I still think they should consider an extra-wide bus lane, merging the off-road cycle track and the current bus lane where possible. That way buses can overtake cyclists without changing lane and vice versa, and the junction problem diminishes. Maybe too expensive to remove all that kerbing.

OssianSmyth wrote: »

*promoting shortcuts through residential estates where better than using the main roads

I like this idea. I often have a look at the map to see what possibilities there are for cutting through estates where it's quieter.

On the other hand, I'm not sure about here but in the UK local authorities are well-known for running cycle routes through very bad neighbourhoods. Obviously this isn't a good idea.

nomdeboardie

tomasrojo wrote: »

Some heartening ideas there.

Yes, some aspects

They're running out of lipstick at this stage, and yet the pig retains the external appearance of a pig.

:pac::pac::pac:
O wait, someone may not have taken that well...

I still think they should consider an extra-wide bus lane, merging the off-road cycle track and the current bus lane where possible. That way buses can overtake cyclists without changing lane and vice versa, and the junction problem diminishes. Maybe too expensive to remove all that kerbing.

That would be my preference. In fact I keep meaning to make an impassioned request to DLRCOCO to put the bloody Leopardstown, N11 etc "cycle tracks" "back(?) onto the road" (and imagining how that would go down :P)

I certainly hope that the promised public consultations (half way through the project??), if they happen, are well publicised - I will give them an earful of my issues. (I did participate in the questionnaire for the "2030 Vision for Greater Dublin Transport" a few years ago, for what that was worth.)

Finally, off on a tangent (some punnage intended), I went through the "Killiney Towers" roundablot* today and saw that they seem to be putting some special cycle lane around the outside. They had thus far changed the main roundabout to a single lane format, which was good in my opinion, esp for cyclists, so it remains to be seen how the new addition works out. I should have taken some photos, but there was work in progress and I didn't want to look like some sork of spy! Hope to get some soon and find out whether cyclists and pedestrians will have priority across the junctions (better be the case!), but time will tell how it works in practise. Anyone know if we have any pre-existing examples of such "peripheral on-road" cycle lanes on Irish roundabouts?

*Edit: mis-spelled "roundabout" here, but on reflection I think I like this new word

tomasrojo

Roundablot is a good word.

From what I've read, peripheral cycle lanes on roundabouts have greatly elevated risk of collision. I think they work ok in the Netherlands, but they have far more cyclists, meaning that when motorists see a cycle lane on a roundabout, they expect there might well be a cyclist on it.

nomdeboardie

(See my thread from today for pics of the 'blot)