Dun Laoghaire Traffic & Commuting Chat

Looks like sense has prevailed in the case of the besieged businesses of Deansgrange village.

The website won't link but the full story is free to view on Irishcycle.com

I wonder what constitutes a 50:50 split in a public consultation

Its a disingenuous headline, by a deeply partisan website. Which is fine, its not a media outlet.

50% said do absolutely nothing. A further 27% said to 'do minimum', defined as retain the traffic layout and parking precisely as they are and upgrade the footpaths.

The remaining 23% were split across 3 options, all of which had in common the removal of the left slip from Clonkeen onto Kill Lane and removal of the parking in front of Super Valu, the Post Office, Libero's etc.

So its clear it wasn't really 50/50 regarding further disruption to the village again, it was closer to 80/20 against.

And speaking of disingenuous, the Council's 'do minimum' option was exactly that, because the footpaths are all in decent order and have been replaced extensively in recent times with previous works. And the NTA would never fund the Council to just replace footpaths, not without traffic changes in line with DMURS. So even if 100% of respondents had opted for this, the Council had no means to deliver it!!

It’s very rare you see a car turning left from clonkeen road onto kill avenue.

"beseiged", some of the hyperbole around these works are hysterical.

Not a chance. I brought my business elsewhere long ago. Not the first time the Twomey franchise were in opposition to active travel. Perhaps if they were genuine about tackling gridlock at Deansgrange crossroads, they would be prepared to prohibit right hand turns into their car park?

From Clonkeen Road I assume

There needs to be a complete rethink of this junction from a car perspective:

• Right turns from Kill Lane to Clonkeen Drive need to be removed immediately
• Right turns from Kill Lane cross-traffic into Supervalu and the Business Park have to go (the whole Supervalu car park is a completely unsustainable disaster for traffic, but what can you do)
• The pedestrian crossing beside the Parish Church needs to be properly synchronised with the 4-way junction lights

None of the proposed options really did much for anyone, and even as an occasional cyclist I can't really say I care much about those parking spaces in front of Supervalu (though they should definitely be converted to far more disabled spaces imo)

Beyond anything else, it was rather silly of DLRCC to think they could push this through right after finishing the Bakers Corner work, something that was extremely messy during implementation and led to so many moany motorists (and is perfectly fine now) who were more in the mood to complain about cycle paths than usual.

These are problems, but the existing prohibitions on exiting right from Lidl and onto Deangrange from the other side of Kill Lane already cause me to make significant detours or execute convoluted U-turns when driving. So much cramped misery in such a low-pop-density country 😥

ETA: Re Bakers - as a frequent-ish cyclist I disagree on it being fine - I've sent off a whine to DLRCOCO on the ridiculously short crossing time for cyclists cf motor traffic