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.
Indeed, no design is perfect, and to get it to "perfect"in the design phase is best impossible. At a certain point in the process, you are better off building what you have designed, and then correcting any issues that have arisen with the actual finished product.
In this case, I don't think many people are complaining about the issue being there, but are instead complaining about how the council have reacted since it's been found.
Not always, no. It's a dynamic situation with many factors at play, it isn't always possible to perceive all issues at design stage. It's not uncommon for practical application to reveal issues which were not picked up in theoretical design.
Apologies, I was agreeing with you. My first sentence was directed at DCC and their weird decision making
Ah, I meant that this process for making small incremental changes to fix this was the path that they should have used once it was apparent that there was a problem. I've no idea what the final design should look like, but it's not that far off being a safe design right now, to be honest. Hopefully these changes are enough, but the next thing I'd try after this is a bollard right on the corner, it'd make cars slow down dramatically before they attempt that turn.
Realistically, it's only going to be fixed fully with the Merino scheme.
So what should've been the design in the first place? To completly skip out on this step before committing to the complete re-work would've been an interesting decision, glad they came to their senses
Seems like they've had their mind changed in this, they'll be removing the obstacles AMD changing the surface of the cycle path to red first before they make any decision on doing further works.
Seems sensible, you'd wonder why they didn't just go this path on the first place?
the visibility issue couldnt have been forseen?
Well then their theory was incorrect.
While I agree, part of the issue was that they didn't follow the standards set out in the National Cycle Design Manual, not just here, but in many elements of the design of this cycle path. It is likely this issue would have been avoided had they followed the design manual in the first place.
And it seems crazy that in the redesign they continue to ignore the design manual and instead going with their own overly complex and questionable design over what the cycling manual recommends.
It isn't an audit finding fault, use of the new layout has revealed the issue. The issue may not exist in theory but it does in practice, that is not unusual. I think we should be glad that they accept that the issue exists in practice, too often government agencies say "well the issue doesn't exist in the theoretical design so it doesn't exist at all" and wash their hands of such issues.
Yeah fully agree with you that a long term improvement is worth short term disruption.
The main issue here is that the proposed remedy seems to be against best practice for cycle lane design and other measures like improving sightlines bar erecting barriers in the parking space haven't been considered(as far as we know).
Removing the left at edges has definitely increased traffic up Fairview ave Lower also- find this turn by far the most hazardous on bike and driving.
The €70m project officially opened in November last year, after years of disruption for local residents and businesses.
The Indo deliberately misleading readers again?
How is it that the road safety audit can find fault with the plan after it is implemented, but that the issue wasnt raised at planning, design or construction phase.
In the short term there's not a whole lot they can do but if it's only for 10 weeks (which seems very generous) in order to improve the safety of that junction for 10+ years, it's worth doing.
I'd guess the cycle lane (and bus lane) will be closed from edges corner, up until the school of motoring.
I’m pre-empting the closure of the cycle lane while the new works are ongoing. Usually just a barrier plonked down with little thought on how cyclists can navigate around the closure safely. Expecting it to be less safe in the short term than its current imperfect iteration.
Where would cyclists be exiting the cycle lane? The cycle lane is continuous across the junction.
Nightmare that it's going to take 10 weeks of works to re-align. Likely will be much more dangerous for cyclists in this time as will be expected to exit bike lane haphazardly back into traffic lanes.
You can see the current layout and what's planned in this article from last week:
https://irishcycle.com/2025/04/22/councillor-calls-for-pause-and-review-of-a-plan-to-change-clontarf-to-city-centre-cycle-path-that-will-push-cycle-path-users-closer-to-traffic/
It's part of this article.
It is mad that the council can take these decisions without publishing the reports behind it.
Where did you see that?
The left turn at Edges is so much safer. The sight lines and the lights make it clear for everyone. It's actually a quiet enough junction coming out of town the vast majority of the day.
There are a number of reason that make the turn at Fairview terrace troublesome. The bikes being on the other side of the park cars and away from the road. The bus stop being so close (buses are often lined up beyond the stop)
Is the plan to just leave the parts of footpath they've dug up with tar mac? It's just so unbelievably ridiculous that they do this.
Getting rid of the left turn at Edges corner has made the junction Fairview terrace worse in terms of the volume of cars turning up that road. I use that turn on a very regular basis and even being super careful when driving it's a bloody nightmare. Bikes coming flying around that corner and if it at night or poor visibility due to rain it really is a lottery sometimes. That's before we even get to the electric bikes with Deliveroo bags on their back.
It's an awful designwith very poor visibility for both drivers and cyclists.
10 week closure to realign some sections in Fairview. I thought it was a joke when it was mentioned here recently.
I think the solution, or a part thereof, for Fairview Ave would be to move the street light 2m further towards Clontarf. Along with giving a better line of sight along their left flank, it would force drivers to slow right down as the turn would be very tight.
Seems to be a similar setup for the turn into Merville Avenue.
But no need for it at the Marino Mart turn obviously.
You can see the barriers are level with the bottom of a car windscreen here.
The same thing was probably said when the victorian water mains were put in over a hundred years ago.
I'm a professional driver. 😂
Waste, and bad management, are everywhere in Irish society. They don't just apply to cycle lanes.
