Clontarf to City Centre Cycle & Bus Priority Project discussion (renamed)

They say the same about the clontarf one but it's still fantastic

well as someone who refused to believe we'd ever have segregated cycle paths through fairview, i find it very difficult to complain about any aspect of it having cycled through there for 20 odd years, the nightmare that it was. widening it at least will be a tiny job compared to all this mullarkey that's happened over the last couple of years.

One of the inbound bus stop replacements was getting a stone bench put in today. No shelter it seems. Not the best thing to be sitting on in the current climate. 😂

I spotted that the other day, was coming home from Skerries and the Port Tunnel was closed. Waze had rerouted me nearby, so I took a detour to check some of it out. Turned on just before that stop and there was a H1 letting someone off!

I wish they cut the one down at the pedestrian bridge in Fairview, totally blocks the view and the fact that people are going the wrong way on it quite often could lead to nasty accidents.

Probably still enough room for 2 buses. AFAIK the new standard stops are 30m long, and the replaced stops in North Strand are about 15m, about the same as before the works. Buses are about 10m long, so should be enough room for 2 buses. (Correct my distances if wrong please)…

I'm also surprised to see all routes stopping there. I was always in support of the reduced service stop and I think that should be replicated right across the city. There has to be a balance here, as people living further out shouldn't have to stop every 300m the entire way into town.

When the new network is fully up and running, the local routes serving North Strand could be the 6, 8, 10, 20, 21 and 58. That's a decent choice for customers, while allowing the H and D spine to operate more like an express service.

RTE reports about the opening today……

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2024/1128/1483562-cycle-path/

…..and goes quickly on to write:

The long-delayed and much anticipated project cost almost €70 million

but only mentions the infra structure works on the water mains and cables after.

Can already hear the outcry about the "70 million cycle track"……

Dublin City Council's planned 314km Active Travel Network aims to transform the city's lifestyle by expanding its walk-wheel-cycle infrastructure.

By the end of this year, the network will have grown to 30km from an initial 10km.

pfft - not much done, a lot more to do. Something for my grandkids to look forward to.

If you aren’t willing to do option 3, then option 2 is the best option with the limited space available.

I know it's been discussed at length but I think it's worth mentioning that there is a strong body of opinion that on busy urban streets with many junctions, option 1 is the best option.

Have all pedestrian crossings been opened too? For the past number of weeks the pedestrian lights at the Five Lamps have been turned off and barriers put up which caused people to congregate in the cycle lane. Very strange that they didn't have them operating at the same time the cycle junction opened.

Unsurprisingly you come out with an arrogant response which doesn't relate to what was said.

I don't necessarily think "one way cycle lanes look better then the new two way ones". Two way is certainly better when that side has few junctions and you can have a relatively uninterrupted route. I also think it is better on low traffic roads, particularly in rural areas. However on a busy urban street like Amiens Street/NSR with regular junctions and cyclists trying to join/leave the cycle lanes from various points along the way, there are advantages to one way on each side of the road. The issues of overcrowding, dealing with cyclists going different speeds, overtaking, etc. are mainly to do with width, not one v two-way. Ok, two-way allows the possibility to use the lane in the other direction, but that can impede those using that lane. Additional width on one-way lanes resolves those issues without creating others.

I never said I "think option 1 is better than option 3" (worth pointing out that you started talking about "same space taken" but added an option 3 which requires more space). Yes the wider the cycle lane the better but the choice isn't always 1.5m cycle lane or 2.5m cycle lane. In fact, the choice is rarely that simple given space limitations. Ideally you'd have wide two-way cycle lanes on both sides but that is rarely possible on Dublin streets. The Cycle Superhighways in London are either on wider streets or streets without bus lanes. In the case of the Clontarf to City Centre cycle route, the bus lanes are vital given how reliant we are on buses.

I'm not saying what has been done is perfect, but it is very good. The shortcomings are not exclusively linked to having one-way cycle lanes on each side of the road. Plenty of cycle-friendly cities have such arrangements and they work well. It would have been great if the route could have been made one-way for general traffic, thereby allowing more space for the cycle lanes, and by extension opening up more possible layouts but that wasn't a realistic option.

The Greens got this in their ears at every doorstep during the local elections. All the other parties were quite happy to let them take the blame. The story of the little red hen comes to mind.