Cycle infrastructure planned for south Dublin

Article in IT this morning wondering what if the DART had been Mannixed back in the day.

Few posters on here need to realise it’s not just a few cycling fanatics pushing an agenda. The general public wants this infrastructure, is delighted with the developments like Dun Laoghaire to Blackrock, and understands why its important for health and environmental reasons.

Objectors here are really on the wrong side of history. Like objecting to smokey coal bans cause you like a natural fire.

No, I don't drive a truck but looking around my house I see a lot of things that were delivered by one, including the furniture. fittings and most of the house itself.

I suspect yours has too - quite possibly including your bicycle.

That explains why you don’t know what a HGV is then. Thanks for clearing it up

Nothing in my house was delivered to by truck. I got a lend of a van to pick up sofas etc. One bike was delivered by a courier in a van, other bikes were picked up from the shops they were bought in by using public transport to get there. So all these trucks you are so concerned about are delivering items for private individuals to your favourite destination of the East Link bridge. How odd!

How is a cycle lane endangering the population of Sandymount?

It isn't the cycle lanes. Its the trucks and cars that Keegan wants force through the village and side roads to accommodate the cycle lanes.

You mean the trucks removed from the area?

They will only be removed from Strand Rd. Nobody knows for certain where they will go instead (Keegan said he doesn't care) but those trying to reach the East Link and the Port will have to find a way.

Aren't all these HGVs supposed to be banned anyway? The lack of enforcement is a great advert for a camera enforced cordon (which could also be repurposed for congestion charging down the line when the city grows up).

No comments allowed in the article so they decided they didn't want any debate on this, which also sums up DCC's attitude in this. Its not always my cycleway or the highway, there was genuine problems with this route which is an artery for the port. You can't just magic away that kind of traffic and not cause problems elsewhere. The changing of the buses on to Park Avenue has already made that road way more treacherous. There could be some inventive solutions such as boardwalks and use of the big wide stretch of grass way along the strand similar to Clontarf. They need to go back to the drawing board, but easier just to say its close minded nimbyism

He doesn't know what a HGV is, so there is no point in arguing it with him. The goalposts are constantly moved when he is picked up on his lack of understanding.

Also in ‘IT’ today -

Sir, – The commentary concerning the High Court judgment last week on Dublin City Councils’s proposals for the cycleway on Strand Road, Sandymount, is overblown, bordering on the ridiculous. The phrase used by the council’s chief executive Owen Keegan, “devastating consequences”, on the development of cycling infrastructure is one example (News, July 31st). Another is his reference to the “enormous hurdle” of having to follow the planning process.

What the judgment requires of the council is very simple. It must go through the planning process because it requires both environmental and appropriate assessments.

The objective of a planning process is to provide proper planning and development. 

It obliges developers to seek approval for their projects through a public procedure in accordance with criteria that have been developed since the 1960s, which results in either the granting or refusal of permission for developments.

Surely the council, as the developer in this case, should be leading by example in honouring this process to the full rather than castigating it as an “enormous hurdle”? – Yours, etc,

PAULA CLANCY,

Sandymount, Dublin 4