EuroVelo 1 and Cycle Routes in Ireland

hardCopy

EuroVelo is a Europe-wide network of proposed cycle routes, a section of EuroVelo 1 runs from Belfast around the Atlantic Coast and across to Wexford, in theory, I'm not aware of any waymarks or signposting on this route. The EuroVelo routes should supposedly have:

• 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)
• public transport every 150 km (93 mi)

Does Eurovelo have any tie in with EC or EU institutions?

Is there consideration given to it in the National Cycle Policy?

Is there an Irish site along the lines of Cycle NI? I know we don't currently have a "network" of cycle routes but we do have some routes and I'm not aware of any central database or map of these routes. There are a number of sites online that list some routes but there doesn't seem to be any definitive list or a standard way of grading or describing the routes.

Discover Ireland have a section of their site dedicated to signed cycle routes, but they seem to only highlight a handful: Discover Ireland Top Cycling Trails

If you dig around on the site a bit you can find about 80 named routes: Cycle Route Search

However, these results aren't very consistent. The Dolmen Route in Clare has some directions but no map of the route and from my own experience the signs on the route are very confusing as there seemed to be a few overlapping routes in the area with a numbering system that seemed totally different to the naming convention on the website.

This route from Killybegs for example has very basic directions with no description of the terrain at all. The Western Greenway entry gives no details of the trail surface (fine gravel, best suited to wide tyres, ideally a hybrid or MTB)

I suspect that our confusion on the Dolmen Trail was due to a conflicting set of routes out of the Doolin Cycle Hub, the Shannon Development site does also give a map of the Dolmen Trail

Irish Trails have their own listing of routes based on the Cycle Hub idea but omit other known routes such as the Dolmen Route, the Ring of Kerry and The Western Greenway. This site doesn't contain maps of the routes but links back to other sites and doesn't give reliable descriptions of the trails or the type of bike required. E.g. The Kingfisher Trail, seemingly an on-road cycling track looks more like an MTB trail on it's own website

There a couple of other sites run by private individuals this one tries to assess and grade Ireland's 'declared' cycle tracks, but I can't tell when the reviews were written or which list of trails he's working from. Fair play to him for the effort he's put in mapping over 20 routes.

Someone else has graded a number of routes, which I'd guess are more geared towards training spins than touring. Route profiles, surface quality and traffic levels are all covered but no maps, again I can't tell what list of routes he's working off, and again fair play, a lot of work has gone into it.
http://www.paulkavanagh.info/routes.htm

It seems a lot of groups have put work into building and/or signposting routes all over the country, it's just an awful pity that there is no central resource for planning a weekend tour or a holiday so that one could pick a rough location, see a list of recommended routes, find out what level of fitness and type of equipment is required, download a map ahead of time, read other people's experiences of the route and have a fair idea of what to expect before they head down.

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is, it's partly a moan at the inadequacy of our current cycle touring resources, partly a thanks to the people who have tried to address that and hopefully a resource to save somebody else having to spend as much time on google as I did.

Doctor Bob

The EuroVelo routes were identified by the European Cycling Federation. The programme has no direct link to the EC/EU that I'm aware of, although I think the ECF itself gets some funding. While some routes are complete or substantially complete, the ECF acknowledges that many of the routes are just lines on a map at this stage. It is intended that national governments would develop the routes over time to form the European network.

I don't think it's included specifically in the NCPF, although there is reference to tourism and the national cycle network in the document. There was also an announcement recently from the DTTAS regarding funding for national cycle routes, but I couldn't tell if any of them supported or tallied with the route identified by EuroVelo.

I mentioned in another post recently that the NTA is currently developing a cycle journey planner, but I think it will be for urban areas only at first, i.e. geared more towards commuting than longer distance cycling. Perhaps in time it'll include the type of features you mention, although I think that a resource like that should be developed by, say, Failte Ireland, rather than a transport agency. Or perhaps we should just get Sustrans in to do it to the same standard as the UK? On the page you linked, I see they have even have a couple of grey lines in the non-UK parts of Ulster in preparation... In fact, the Donegal line looks like it might tally with EuroVelo 1 and, now that I think of it, one of the routes in the DTTAS announcement was in Donegal. Would it be too much to hope that EuroVelo, Sustrans and the DTTAS had all identified the same route?

hardCopy wrote: »

EuroVelo is a Europe-wide network of proposed cycle routes, a section of EuroVelo 1 runs from Belfast around the Atlantic Coast and across to Wexford, in theory, I'm not aware of any waymarks or signposting on this route. The EuroVelo routes should supposedly have:

• 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)
• public transport every 150 km (93 mi)

Does Eurovelo have any tie in with EC or EU institutions?

Is there consideration given to it in the National Cycle Policy?

Is there an Irish site along the lines of Cycle NI? I know we don't currently have a "network" of cycle routes but we do have some routes and I'm not aware of any central database or map of these routes. There are a number of sites online that list some routes but there doesn't seem to be any definitive list or a standard way of grading or describing the routes.

Carawaystick

http://cycling.waymarkedtrails.org/#?map=7!53.4815!-6.6357 shows some of the marked trails, with some Eurovelo segments marked on it.