Dublin canals premium cycle route preview

Dublin’s Canal Way cycle route, which links the Grand Canal to the Royal Canal, is due open in March, so here’s a video preview of the route so-far (notes are not shown in YouTube on mobiles, but pauses are for some reason)…

Is these too much shared space? What do you think of the tiles? Are the cobblestones a nice feature?

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5 comments

  1. Nice video and choice of music.

    I cycled it today from Ranelagh to the South Keys to visit a sick friend en route to Suir Road and a cycle to Adamstown and back to Ranelagh.

    The cobbelstones are hillarious (bad) and I avoid them on the Brompton. I’ll use them in Temple Bar when there’s no choice, but I’ll cycle slowly on a fairly empty footpath if available (remembering to keep it slow and that pedestrians have right of way).

    I don’t mind the shared use or the tiles but that won’t suit the speed merchants on their fixies.

    Reply
  2. Great vid. I agree the shared space will probably prove problematic, mainly to cyclists. Seems to be a high waiting time at traffic lights especially at certain junctions such as Leeson St. Will this change when the bike lights are all installed and turned on do you know?

    Reply
  3. Re the traffic lights and waiting times — how well they set these up will be one of the key things to watch out for. Lower waiting times could make the route far better for cyclists and people on foot.

    On shared use — I don’t mind wide open spaces too much and the pinchpoints are not great, but the amount of shared use junctions is crazy for a “premium” newly build cycle route costing millions. And this isn’t just a fast cyclist issue — these are not designs which are acceptable on high qualty routes in the Netherlands or Denmark.

    Reply
  4. I used this route as my daily grind most of last year so I had a lot of time to think about it.
    My bike is not a crock but it’s also not expensive- it could not cope at all with those cobblestones- it was shaking the nuts loose! I had to give that stretch a miss and go down Macken St. So I would say it’s mainly for mountain bikes.
    It’s hard to judge yet since it’s not officilly open but the way the lights are set up seems weird to me, for instance by Baggot St, it appears that the bikes are supposed to stop like 10 feet from the crossroads, with the pedestrian traffic the way it is there, I fail to see how bikes could make it accross in time. And that Leeson Street entrance is mad- the worst bit is if a bike is entering on to that section from the bridge, it seems very likely that they could collide with a pedestrian coming the other way because it’s such a very blind corner!

    I could rant on and on but that will do for now!

    Reply
  5. Used this for the first time today.
    The section at the lock above Leeson st bridge is bananas, its a 1m wide 2way shared use bike and cycle path, with a drop off kerb

    Reply

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