So the balls-up has started since last night which makes Fairview from clontarf to Edges corner a single lane with bollards down the centre.
This will be a permanent feature and works will take 21 months.
Cycled into the city through Fairview this morning to see how bad it was with "school" traffic.
What an absolute disgrace!
Vehicles breaking the lights in every direction at the end of the Howth Road.
Vehicles blocking the yellow box at the end of the Howth Road.
Vehicles breaking the lights in every direction at the end of the Malahide Road.
Vehicles blocking the yellow box at the end of the Malahide Road.
Drivers on their phones (I waved at one driver to put her phone down and she dropped it instantly).
Not a Garda in sight.
A young lady in her 20s wearing a hi-viz standing at the junction at Edges Corner to possibly deter traffic from veering left. None of her male colleagues or any Garda bothered to do it.
Several cars travelling in through North Strand.
Yeah, with drivers behaving like that they are all welcome to their gridlock. No sympathy for them at all.
Gridlocked back to Killester Village. I got in for 9 on the bike, there's going to be a lot of late arrivals to school and office today, they're probably in Ballybough as we speak.
Too many drivers forget that driving is a privilege. And many need that privilege removed for a few weeks to remind them.
The Gardai have annoyed me most. Too busy up in Clontarf Station to go down and show some presence and enforcement. No bother showing up to St Annes Park during Covid lockdowns though.
Had reason to cycle through inchicore village this morning. Absolute chaos, bus lane was ignored and used as free parking and then used as a left turning lane closer to the village. Vehicles parked facing the wrong direction on a wide curved road with no visibility, everyone beeping at eachother. The left turn ban on sarsfield Road thoroughly ignored. Its definitely business as usual. Feel sorry for the kids who will grow up looking at these scenes thinking just about any behaviour is acceptable if mommy is in a hurry.
Is there a worse "village" than Killester village? It is everything that is wrong with the carcentric city of Dublin. An absolute free for all on footpaths and absolutely zero public realm. I've never even heard of anything being done to improve it but you know they'd go mental if any positive changes were proposed.
Also the Supervalu has the worst bike parking facilities I've ever seen.
It was temporarily improved when the Beachcomber had outdoor tables during the pandemic. Granted it wasn't like sitting on Clontarf seafront but being sat out with a pint and a burger was enjoyable. That space is a car park once again.
And the corner outside the washing machine repair place is a free for all for parking, and cars drive along the footpaths and park on them on both sides. It's amazing it has gone on for so long.
It's mental. As I turned (at a red light) into my street this morning (having done the big detour) , not one but two lunatics on bicycles broke the lights. I jammed on the brakes and they flew either side of me. By Christ if one of them hits me some day doing the same it better not affect my insurance.
Supervalu also has a shockingly designed car park.
The island at the junction with collins Ave could do with some planting. Similar to what they did beside busaras.
I counted 6 cars parked half on footpath on double yellows outside the oblates this morning, most of them facing into traffic as well. Another car parked just before those useless plastic bollards opposite Tesco, meaning our bus (heading staight towards Kilmainham/Con Colbet Road) had to wait for the long line of traffic turning right onto Emmet Road before being able to head straight as no room to pass the parked car partially blocking the lefthand lane. A Quashqai then parked in the bus stop outside the school before the left onto Sarsfield Road as well. That stop is incidentally used by elderly folks in the main as well in my experience. F*eck them I suppose, Little Sorcha must be dropped directly to the school gates at all costs on a bright and sunny morning!
Inchicore is a joke.
Parents driving their kids to school are just ridiculously selfish
Well as all the cyclists are giving opinions on car drivers . . . . . here is my opinion (of them). I drove in through Fairview at 10.30 this morning on my motorbike. Only one of several cyclists stopped at red lights, most continued on and around pedestrians crossing the road. I watched one chap break five red lights (he was actually quicker than me on my bike as I stopped at red lights) and he finally stopped at IFSC / Quays lights due to traffic. Nuts, absolute nuts. Someone will get injured (pedestrian or cyclist) and we will read about it in the media. I did not witness one car drive through red lights.
Oh by the way, I went in through Nth Strand and as expected there was no enforcement.
Self righteous cyclists now proclaiming that they saw several cars drive through red lights may post below. 🚲️
The Gardai are so useless at enforcing anything on the roads (and most things in general). It's a complete joke how just generally absent they are.
There is a "difference of opinion" between DCC & Garda management presently so enforcement is light touch.
We know there's cyclists breaking red lights, nobody is saying that they aren't. I went through one this morning because the build up of traffic in a yellow box was so ridiculous I didn't feel safe so passed it while it was safe to do so.
While I'm at it I'll comment on the motorcyclist in Killester who felt he could use the cycle lane to undercut the traffic, and put me at risk overtaking me on my bike in a bloody cycle lane.
I actually didn't see any vehicles breaking red lights this morning through Fairview, because they weren't driving. Most vehicles were stationary and may aswell have been parked. Good luck to them if they want to sit in traffic all morning.
I regularly see cars run through red lights, perhaps cyclists do it more often, not sure. As for the claim that cyclists doing so is dangerous, well yes but last I checked car drivers achieved a whopping 136 kills on the road last year and cyclists got 0 so I'd say we're a long way off Dutch cities we're fast cyclists are the No. 1 Road safety concern. Let's deal with the real threat first and the imaginary one later.
When you say that you didn't witness a single car break the lights, you lose all credibility for the rest of your story.
hard to break a red when you’re stationary I guess!
People have been anticipating mass tragedies involving cyclists and pedestrians since bikes were invented. Still hasn't happened yet.
As you're on a moto you'll likely see a few cars do the same at most junctions too as you'll be getting to the front of the queue at every light, no idea how you claim not to have seen even 1. When I'm on a bus, Luas, driving, cycling, running, walking, I can't help but see it occur.
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Why ? Seriously I did not see a car come to red lights and drive through like a cyclist had done.
Cars break red lights, pedestrians break red lights and bikes break red lights. We all know which will come off worse in those situations.
Now can we please move on.
Dublin city council just tweeted about the new location of bus stops along the C2CC route. I did not realize that the stops on North Strand are being permanently removed (Strandville and Bayview). You will now need to walk to the Fire Station or the other side of the canal beside the flats.
Were people here aware of this? The North Strand is already super unfriendly to pedestrian with a distinct lack of pedestrian crossings. Now they are also removing the bus stops. I think it's a huge disgrace..
https://www.dublincity.ie/residential/transportation/active-travel/clontarf-city-centre-project/faqs#a24150-25689
Had another review of the plans today. It struck me that the separation between the cycle track and road is to be 50mm with no bollards planned.
I'm just wondering how that will work out in practice, at the moment the kerb is 100mm high and the footpaths from the 5 lamps all the way to the woodenbridge are littered with cars despite ample on street parking and side streets with mostly free on street parking that is under subscribed at all times.
To protect the investment they'll have to put plastic bollards up along the whole route when it opens.
I was in Stoneybatter yesterday, they've completely resurfaced the main part of the street there so temporary road markings and the bollards that recently protected the Northbound cycle lane are gone, sure enough, cycle lane was completely full of parked cars. Legal parking a few metres north was empty.
In that Stoneybatter situation I cycle in the middle of the lane. Drivers just gonna have to wait
North Strand is one location where there probably are too many bus stops.
Northbound there are four stops within 650m from the Five Lamps to Annesley Bridge, and southbound three within 550m.
The ideal spacing is 400m between stops, so they could certainly remove some of them.
The detailed plans are on this page (general layout towards the bottom):
https://www.dublincity.ie/residential/transportation/active-travel/clontarf-city-centre-project/drawings-and-visualisations
Yeah, looks like it'll be 500m between fire station to just past Newomen bridge now. Fair distance for people who might be older, or find it harder to walk.
There are 850m between Five Lamps and Annesley Bridge and only 3 stops. Stop 518 northbound under the rail bridge is only used for bus 53 which turns left before Annesley to head east towards the port. Maybe this has changed recently but no other bus ever stopped there.
In either case they are removing 2 stops northbound (518 and 4384) and there are now 600m between stops. I don't think this is good for North Strand. I've lived there for 7 years FYI
If you consider someone living deep in the side streets of North Strand / Ballybough, they will now have up to 6/700m to walk to get to a bus stop
FYI on my distances - stop 516 to stop 518 is 650m per Google Maps, which is what I was measuring (I used “Five Lamps” and “Annesley Bridge as descriptors for the stops). That will reduce to 550m with stop 516 moving 100m north. But that distance is excessive.
Stop 518 is also served by all the H Spine routes and the 6 in addition to the 53, which is overkill in my view as stop 2255 is sufficient for these. Stop 518 is the stop I felt could certainly be removed. The 53 gets a replacement stop on Annesley Place.
The stop pairing halfway along North Strand (4384 outbound and 617 inbound) should have been retained for precisely the reason you outlined.
Having gone back over the distances, I would share your misgivings also about the stops on Annesley Bridge Road being removed, as that’s creating 600m gaps in both directions, despite a new pedestrian crossing point being added.
On Amiens Street between Talbot Street and the Five Lamps they would get away with one stop in each direction if they left stop 515 outbound where it is now, and merged stops 619 and 675 inbound and located the stop just north of Preston Street.
Moving stops outbound stop 515 and inbound stop 675 closer to the Five Lamps creates very large gaps from the previous outbound stops (at Busaras/Gandon House depending on the route) and the next inbound stops (at Connolly or on Talbot Street depending on the route).
Sadly it will be very difficult if not impossible to change this at this late stage unfortunately as the design work has been done and it’s being built. Why didn’t any councillors notice this? They voted on it!
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