Limerick improvement projects

But I thought that section is already 1 way so what has changed and what section of road are these bollards blocking ?

The original plan was to have segregated cycle lane from New Street to Mill Lane, with a single lane of traffic outbound and inbound from the New Street Junction. When the plan went to vote by the council specific councillors suggested alterations which essentially kept the section between Summerville and Laurel Hill Avenues as it currently stands, but labelled as a "shared space". The original plan would have allowed these houses to access their driveways as the road space and direction would have remained the same as at present. Essentially the original plan was to remove the on street parking and replace with cycle lanes. It would allow residents of SCR to access the city via SCR rather than having to join all the other traffic on O'Connell Ave or Dock Road.

The new plan, essentially keeps the on street parking (which was the problem raised with the original plan) and provides vehicle access only for residents along that section, all other residents of SCR will need to find alternative options to get into the city centre, adding to traffic on O'Connell Ave and Dock Road.

The original plan was far superior to what we're getting with this new plan.

I always get worried when I hear the term "shared space." From the look of the video the road between the Ballinacurra road junction and Fennesseys will be something similar.

If shared spaces worked we wouldn't need cycle lanes

FG have historically not been in favour of cycle lanes so the cynic in me says they complicated the design in an attempt to make it unworkable and therefore to stop it

Honestly, I would say you're probably right on that. Either that or some resident along that section bent their ear to make the changes. I just cannot think of who along there would have the pull to do something like that.

Makes more sense now. So essentially anyone heading to the city centre needs to turn at Fennessey's or Summerville.

The older plan was certainly way better. It's gonna be hilarious watching all the entitled parents who "simply must drop their little angel right at the front door" deal with this. They used block up that little road all the way to Fennessey's which of course was much easier to get around than a few bikes for the emergency services.

I haven't seen an example of shared spaces working well in this country yet, although again I am open to correction if anybody has examples. Councilors are representatives of the general public, if you want expert opinions I would argue you shouldn't ask the general public. Councilors also have to balance what the people need where their future votes might come from when making these decisions as well.

I'm guessing FG put some boots on the ground in the area and asked the residents there what they wanted, which is their job as politicians to be fair

https://www.limerickpost.ie/2023/02/21/limerick-city-councillors-approve-controversial-active-travel-project/

The vote at the council you refer to was approved 13-8 back in 2023, at the time there were 1 SD, 2 SF, 2 IND, 5 FF, 6FG, 3 LAB and 2 Greens. I remember very high profile FF and Labour politicians, Wilie O'Dea and Joe Leddin opposing it at the time so I can only assume the 8 votes against the cycle lane came from FF and Labour?

Only places I have seen shared spaces work is in Belgium where you have narrow side streets (like Brookville Ave.) that have very low max speeds and no room to overtake.

What we are getting is what the English designate as "quiet ways" so cyclists know there is a less hectic route often through estates with anti rat run measures.

I think if shared spaces have been proven to work they are certainly worth considering. Even if they haven't been proven to work why not give them a go and see does it work. Not sure I'd have a problem with it if the council are willing to reverse their decision should it not work

As far as I can tell you will be able to turn off from the Dooradoyle direction, the green car here is clearly using the shared space which opens on to the Ballinacurra road. Yes there is a no-left-turn sign as shown below but people will largely ignore it and wave traffic out before turning up

The video seems to show the cycle lane ending at the Garda Station on Henry street so to get to TUS you'd have to navigate most of Henry Street, turn left on to Sarsfield Street, Sarsfield Bridge, the Ennis Road, Shelbourne Road with vehicles on the same space. UL you could hop on at the back of the old EMO station but again you're navigating some very dangerous roads to get to there

There is future plans for a cycle lane to the Shannon bridge but I don't think it's in this plan…

To get from O'Callaghan Strand to Sexton Street you would need to cross back over the river at Sarsfield bridge and go up William Street would you not?

Are you mistaken Sexton Street with another street?

What were the COVID measures on O'Callaghan strand exactly? Remind me

You can't turn on to Sexton Street North from O'Callaghan Strand either, you'd have to go via Clancy Strand and High Road

The video I posted calls that out as a "possible future connection" ie it isn't part of the plan. I get why you made the assumption because realistically they should have these cycle lanes joined up to a much greater extent

I mean, they call it a future bit, in theory it's only a few meters that they'd need to add on to get a nicely joined up cycle path. So it wouldn't be very difficult to do. Also it is a terrible idea to finish it abruptly on Henry Street as they have planned so maybe sense will prevail

I was wondering what brookfield you were talking about as well I won't lie

I don't know exactly who voted for/against it but the vote was on the amended proposal with the bollards, not the original one in the part 8. Pretty sure Joe Leddin took a lot of flack for supporting the original proposal, not sure how he voted on the amended one. GP also supported the original, could have voted against the amended as they thought it was daft, was a cop out and wouldn't work. Those that voted against could have been a collection of those who are anti-cycling no matter what and those who favoured the original proposal and thought FG's proposal was unworkable.

Places like that one in Kerry were done to steal active travel money for use on general roads.

I think Joe Leddin has been against this since the beginning, he was on 95fm after the vote lambasting the FG councilors who were due to vote against it but voted for it with the amendments. He lives in the area so not a major surprise he'd be against it

I believe he was reminded by party HQ what party policy was in regards to supporting the growth of cycle transport so had to go to bat for it. It mightn't have done him many favours but he at least followed party policy which is what councillors should do.