Cyclists in the bus lane on the Chapelizod Bypass

brianomc · 12-10-2015 07:04PM

alcaline wrote: »

Whats wrong with it?
Looks clean and free of pot holes.

It's not the worst but there are a crazy amount of manholes on it and they are strewn about randomly so you are swerving a lot to avoid them. When it starts to rain more in winter manholes are the enemy.

Also where it puts you back onto the road there are 2 manholes just before a fairly narrow ramp that to avoid the manholes you have to take at an angle that aims you into the cars. Watch Dan Martins fall at the Giro last year, even professional cyclists hate manholes.

It was a great idea, and I use it coming from Lucan to Chapelizod via the bridge into Palmerstown, but I dont think any cyclists or cycling groups were involved in the planning process.

If I was heading into the city I would still use the bypass personally. It has a good road surface and just the one set of lights before you reach Kilmainham. Whereas going through Chapelizod you have 4 before the junction at Kilmainham/Island Bridge. You also have a lot of cars taking up the road slowing you down as you approach the left turn over the bridge all the way to the lights at the school, which if we go by the (former) title of this thread, well I guess cars should be banned from Chapelizod (joking of course)

hmmm · 12-10-2015 08:41PM

LeinsterDub wrote: »

It's too narrow and it's shared with pedestrians which means a lot of going around people and at a slower pace

I see very few pedestrians on this bit. What you do have is the occasional Sean Kelly wannabe flying along at speed, with lots of other cyclists passing each other at a moderate speed with no problems.

Qualitymark · 12-10-2015 09:51PM

brianomc wrote: »

It's not the worst but there are a crazy amount of manholes on it and they are strewn about randomly so you are swerving a lot to avoid them. When it starts to rain more in winter manholes are the enemy.

Also where it puts you back onto the road there are 2 manholes just before a fairly narrow ramp that to avoid the manholes you have to take at an angle that aims you into the cars. Watch Dan Martins fall at the Giro last year, even professional cyclists hate manholes.

(Shiver)

I'm terrified of manhole covers. Greatest danger on the road, followed by seams, potholes and glass. Back in the day it used to be storm drain covers that ran parallel to the pavement, but they're rare now.

mackeminexile · 13-10-2015 11:29AM

whoever was involved in the planning of the whole N4 cycle route needs to have a serious look at themselves. Obviously they have never cycled. going in to town isn't terrible but outgoing is so bad that I ignore it completely.

seamus · 13-10-2015 11:45AM

Was thinking about this thread the other night. Drove the Chapelizod bypass inbound and they've resurfaced the road and widened the bus lane by about 50cm. Could easily have taken another 50cm, but this might help with the whinging about cyclists.

brianomc · 13-10-2015 04:36PM

Out of curiosity I filmed the Palmerstown-Chapelizod cycle lane on my way home today to watch it back and count up, there were 60 individual metal utility covers in 800metres. About 5 were small, maybe 3inchesx3inches, the rest were about a foot and a half by 3-4 foot. If there were 2 covers side by side I'm counting them as 2.

For a brand new piece of construction that's just crazy.

I was wrong about the exit ramp, it's a rumble strip, followed by a metal cover, followed by a rumble strip. Photo attached, needless to say the kid stopped dead at the bottom of the ramp.

Qualitymark · 13-10-2015 07:02PM

brianomc wrote: »

Out of curiosity I filmed the Palmerstown-Chapelizod cycle lane on my way home today to watch it back and count up, there were 60 individual metal utility covers in 800metres. About 5 were small, maybe 3inchesx3inches, the rest were about a foot and a half by 3-4 foot. If there were 2 covers side by side I'm counting them as 2.

For a brand new piece of construction that's just crazy.

This is why I think it would be more sensible to have Dutch-style cycle lanes in behind a strip of pavement - then the manholes could be in that pavement.

alcaline · 14-10-2015 01:32PM

LeinsterDub wrote: »

It's too narrow and it's shared with pedestrians which means a lot of going around people and at a slower pace

So in other other words it is like the roads vehicles use,very car on the road can go 100kph but because of road conditions must go slower, every time when you are on a bike you don't have to have a crack at bradly wiggins hour record.
Slow down to match the bike lane conditions.

Carawaystick · 14-10-2015 02:29PM

alcaline wrote: »

So in other other words it is like the roads vehicles use
Slow down to match the bike lane conditions.

Or just use the bike and bus lane on the well engineered Chapelizod bypass.

monument · 14-10-2015 05:08PM

brianomc wrote: »

Out of curiosity I filmed the Palmerstown-Chapelizod cycle lane on my way home today to watch it back and count up, there were 60 individual metal utility covers in 800metres. About 5 were small, maybe 3inchesx3inches, the rest were about a foot and a half by 3-4 foot. If there were 2 covers side by side I'm counting them as 2.

For a brand new piece of construction that's just crazy.

I was wrong about the exit ramp, it's a rumble strip, followed by a metal cover, followed by a rumble strip. Photo attached, needless to say the kid stopped dead at the bottom of the ramp.

Can you put the video of that on YouTube or something? Would be nice to see how it turned out compared to what was planned.

brianomc · 14-10-2015 05:15PM

I will try throw it up there later tonight or tomorrow so

brianomc · 14-10-2015 07:07PM

monument wrote: »

Can you put the video of that on YouTube or something? Would be nice to see how it turned out compared to what was planned.

Here you go. It's a pity about the new bigger on-road ramps as soon as you take the turnoff down into Chapelizod, the old ones were grand I thought and you could pretty much ignore them on a bike by travelling over the edge of them.

galwaycyclist · 15-10-2015 05:06PM

brianomc wrote: »

Out of curiosity I filmed the Palmerstown-Chapelizod cycle lane on my way home today to watch it back and count up, there were 60 individual metal utility covers in 800metres. About 5 were small, maybe 3inchesx3inches, the rest were about a foot and a half by 3-4 foot. If there were 2 covers side by side I'm counting them as 2.

For a brand new piece of construction that's just crazy.

I was wrong about the exit ramp, it's a rumble strip, followed by a metal cover, followed by a rumble strip. Photo attached, needless to say the kid stopped dead at the bottom of the ramp.

The issue here is that this is probably not intended as "cycling infrastructure" as we would understand the idea. This is duct work for pipes and services that is disguised as cycling infrastructure.

It is done this way so the council and others can dig up the pipes whenever they want without interfering with the important people in cars.

The same thing happens in Galway.

brianomc · 15-10-2015 05:39PM

As a way to get people cycling it is certainly a big improvement. Previously, to go from chapelizod to palmerstown without cycling on the footpath you had to go up the kylemore road and either cut across faster moving cars while you are going uphill, onto the N4 with traffic doing 60kmph which would be daunting to some, or go through ballyfermot adding a kilometre or 2 to your journey.

Now its just a straight run up a path you can legally cycle on. It connects nicely then to Liffey valley shopping centre and you hardly meet any cars on the old road in Palmerstown.

It wasn't designed for going high speed on or for clubs to go training on. I think of it more like a greenway, a safe, shared amenity for pedestrians and cyclists. If I was out for a good paced spin I would stick to the road.

I just wish there weren't so many manholes. They could have put them in a line along the wall and that would have been better.

Muahahaha · 15-10-2015 09:44PM

Thanks for sharing the vid. Have you any ideas is it 'finished' per se or are there plans to paint dividing lines for peds and cyclists?

brianomc · 15-10-2015 10:52PM

I would imagine it's as done as it's going to get. There are no signs up for cyclists to stick to one side and pedestrians to another so hopefully they wont dig it up to put them down. A bit of respect/common sense from both sides and it's grand.

I walked it today and it's quite pleasant. The surface should last. There is a serious drop though between the path and the road at times. Way more than the normal path-to-road drop.

They havent blocked off the entrance to the petrol station either so it's still possible to use the forecourt as a shortcut on the bike, dumping you back onto the road into the buslane and flying down the hill as I used to do. Although on the video I did pass out the cars by using the new route.

Spanish Eyes · 16-10-2015 05:13PM

Just wondered if any of the cyclists using the new cycle lane in the vid would go over to St. Laurence's Road (instead of crossing Chapelizod Bridge) and join the path by the Liffey through the Memorial Gardens and on to Islandbridge?

I'm not a cyclist (god ye are brave!), but if that path could be connected someway with the new one, I think it would make sense!

brianomc · 17-10-2015 12:42PM

I've never used the river route by bike. I commute from Chapelizod into the city daily and either go along by the Phoenix Park or I use St Laurences road, up the hill towards Inchicore and onto the South Circular from there, 95% of the time along by the park.

As a commuter there would be 2 reasons I guess.
1. The road along by the park is great, good condition, plenty wide enough for traffic to overtake. 99.9% of drivers give you loads of space. And on the way out of the city there is a bus lane to use most of the way.
If you aren't comfortable being on the road there are cycle paths on both sides.

2. There's at least 2 sets of kissing gates where you have to get off the bike to progress and another barrier further down which I think you can avoid by swinging into a rugby (?) clubs grounds. It would add time to my commute without giving me back anything.

For me it would be like using an old country road (with gates to keep closed so the animals dont escape) to drive on when a motorway is running along it and brings you to exactly the same place.

Again it's perfect though for people out for a leisurely scenic cycle or for families with their kids.

The path from Palmerstown could be extended down to at least where the doctors surgery is, the path is plenty wide enough for cyclists and pedestrians, and if you keep it at the same level as the path where it crosses entrances to estates it would be a very smooth trip for bikes/buggies/scooters. This would take priority away from cars at each entrance but there are so few cars going in/out it wouldn't be much of an annoyance to them.

After that the path is fairly narrow on both sides so I don't think they could do segregation until the entrance to the walkway along by the river.

bricks · 17-10-2015 10:46PM

The actual capital cost of building the roads comes from the capital budgets.
Bicycles don't do damage to the roads that needs maintenance.
Its the cars/trucks/buses etc... there's where the damage is done.
As for blocking the bus, they block me every day on the way to work.
Stoping at bus stops for long periods while jokers who don't use the leap card search for change to pay the bus drivers.

Cyclists in the bus lane on the Chapelizod Bypass

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