EuroVelo

Rob A. Bank

I was looking up European long distance cycle routes and to my surprise Galway features on the first two of them.

EuroVelo 1 - Atlantic Coast Route - North Cape in Norway to Sagres in Portugal. (8,186 km/5,087 mi)

EuroVelo 2 - Capitals Route - Galway to Moscow. (5,500 km/3,418 mi)



Bigger version of the map here :-
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Karte_Verlauf_EuroVelo.png

Requirements for a EuroVelo route are:
* have no gradient above 6%
* be wide enough for two cyclists
* have an average of no more than 1,000 motorised vehicles a day
* Be sealed for 80% of its length
* be open 365 days a year, have provision points every 30 km (19 mi), accommodation every 50 km (31 mi), and public transport every 150 km (93 mi).

I know that the Belfast to Ballyshannon route exists across N.I. and also the Mayo Greenway seems to be part of the route.

Considering that none of the cycle routes I know around Galway go anywhere farther than a few km… it strikes me that all this is just pie in the sky and totally aspirational.

Does anyone know present EuroVelo the state of play in Galway or in Ireland ?

galwaycyclist

Yep that part of Eurovelo is aspirational so far. In 2007, Bord Failte excluded Galway city as a potential cycle tourism hub because of the hostile nature of the city. I know of one cycling tour company that used to bus their customers through the city rather than try cycling through it.

There is scope for doing something very quickly around the city hinterland using minor back roads and country lanes. These proposals are being actively fought by the Galway Transportation Unit who take the apparent view that the purpose of all roads is to faciliate as many cars as possible. Nevertheless it is hoped that it might be possible to get enough councillors to stand up to Ciaran Hayes and put something like this into the current draft Walking and Cycling Strategy.

galwaycyclist

I should probably also point out that sections of traffic free tracks were built- at state expense - parallel to some sections of our celtic tiger motorways. These are for the benefit of private agricultural vehicles but they could also have been used to create traffic free greenways going quite long distances. If properly thought through, they would also have provided a means of linking in other routes again via smaller country roads. We could have put our section of Galway to Moscow in place as part of works that were already going on anyway.

But we chose not to.

Rob A. Bank

galwaycyclist wrote: »

There is scope for doing something very quickly around the city hinterland using minor back roads and country lanes. These proposals are being actively fought by the Galway Transportation Unit who take the apparent view that the purpose of all roads is to faciliate as many cars as possible. Nevertheless it is hoped that it might be possible to get enough councillors to stand up to Ciaran Hayes and put something like this into the current draft Walking and Cycling Strategy.

I find that so depressing and almost unbelievable !

Galway is seriously missing a trick here… considering the success of the Mayo Greenway. “The Greenway has paid for itself in less than a year. The Greenway only cost €5.6m to construct and brought €7.2m to the local economy in 2011 alone.”
http://www.advertiser.ie/mayo/article/49874/profit-of-2-million-for-western-greenway-after-just-one-year

2.8 billion cycle trips take place each year in Europe, generating 54 billion Euros in turnover, and Galway could easily get a slice of that cake.

The powers that be in Galway should get their act together and make decent cycle routes in and out of the city, seeing that Eurovelo have already made us a hub on this international cycle network.

It seems like we are missing an open goal.