South Dublin Quietway meeting cancelled as claim cycling lobby planned “hijacking”

A planned meeting today which was open to “all residents of Dublin 6” to discuss the proposed South Dublin Quietway is cancelled according to its organiser because it was feared that cyclists were going to hijack the event.

According to a message passed onto this website, the organiser said that their “information meeting” was cancelled on “public liability grounds” and that this “has arisen because of concerns and hijacking by social media, Facebook and The Cyclist lobby group.”

As we reported on Monday, a leaflet for the meeting which was distributed around Cowper Road area said: “This proposal may have serious consequences for you with traffic rerouting and road closures using BOLLARDS.”

Bollards have been used in a large number residential streets in Dublin to stop rat running, although the measure is come up against strong opposition in Dublin 6, as well as in Drumcondra, where a trial is coming to its end.

The use of bollards is seen by experts as the most effect form of traffic calming and is even more common in the Netherlands (pictured above) and parts of London.

A previous meeting on the Quietway heard objections including claims that the quietway would devalue property and infringe on one of the objector’s constitutional right to enjoy his property. Advocates say that the evidence indicates that similar measures actually increase property values.

IMAGE: Bollards used to stop rat running in Rathmines.


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9 comments

  1. Understandably you don’t want people coming to a meeting where their only purpose is to cause disruption, but I doubt there’s any evidence whatsoever that this was going to be the case here. It sounds like the organizers only wanted people who agreed with them to attend. If that’s the case then they should organise a private meeting, invitation only.

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  2. I don’t understand residents objecting to this. I live in an area of Phibsborough that would be a rat run between the Phibsborough road and Dorset Street if it weren’t for the bollards a three minute walk from my house. It’s great! Nothing but the vehicles of residents, visitors and deliveries. Kids, dogs, cats, etc. much safer. Visitors are amazed at how quiet our street is, considering we can walk to the spire in fifteen minutes or so. How anyone can think this would LOWER the value of my house I don’t know.

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  3. @Séan Billings
    Very often the people who are most vocal about such matters are using these roads as rat runs themselves and are not actually living on the streets in question. It is therefore in their (selfish) interest to put forward spurious arguments to support their case to try to frighten the actual residents into supporting their cause.

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  4. I guess that sometimes it is easier to just go along with the shouty arseholes or to get wrapped up in their bogus outrage and half-baked arguments than to think it through for yourself. And sometimes people really do put unrestrained access for their cars above the safety and livability of their neighbourhood, and then seek to justify their actions by supporting whatever nonsense is being peddled to allow them to do just that.

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  5. Any time now I’m expecting to see “we tried to have a public meeting to explain how devastating this would be for our local community but unfortunately we were prevented by cyclist extremists”.

    It’s quite brilliant really. This was nobody even needs to worry about keeping a straight face when they state that reducing traffic endangers children or risk being asked why they care about house prices on a road they just drive through each day.

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  6. Good video, but could you imagine our lot trying to dodge the electronic bollards. The Drumcondra bollards have made the area a lot quieter for the residents, used to be one of my favorite rat runs a long time ago. Progress is being made here but it will take a further generation to see real changes.

    Reply

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