The Dublin Cycling Campaign posted a video on its Facebook page of the Merrion Road junction with Nutely Lane and how cyclists traveling straight on stay in the left turning lane. But is this really an education problem?
This image below from Google Street View shows the T-junction the videos shows, the cyclist traveling straight in the left turning lane, rather than ‘correctly’ cycling in the lane when the bus is:
The Dublin Cycling Campaign seem to see this as an education problem, but our view is that it’s a design problem. UK-style cycle training is just a survival guide until our roads are fixed.
We could go the full hog and say the road should have cycle lanes or tracks (and such would fit on the road without taking away much or anything from other users, at least a few 100m past the junction).
But forgetting going the full hog for a second: Like in many places in Dublin, there’s simply no reason for the shared bus (and cycle / taxi) lane to end before the T-junction, expect maybe to allow a few motorists to skip ahead. Before the junction on both sides there’s only a single lane for general traffic and a singe bus lane — there’s no reason the bus lane needs to end before the junction.
Mapped below the highlighted blue sections show the current bus lanes, while the orange is the gap where the bus lane is missing:
Filling in the gap in the bus lane would be a quick fix.
There are more radical changes which could be done. But realistically if we’re even half serious about cycling most of the section — at least from just north of the Nutley Lane junction as far as the hospital junction with the Merrion Road — should have 1.75m wide cycle lanes as a minimum and slightly wider again if the cycle lane is on the outside a left turning lane.
Are we even half serious?
Of course the reason why most Cyclists do not go to the right most of the time coming to this junction is because they cannot because of the Traffic flying by them. If you are lucky enough to be able to judge it in time or the Traffic is slight then you can move over to the straight ahead lane.
It is worse if you are a stranger to the area and dont know the layout of the junction and cannot cross over in time on your Bicycle. Of course like you say continuing the Bus Lane through the Junction would help solve this.No thought given to the safety of Cyclists like at most junctions such as Westmoreland St or Dame St junction with Sth Georges St or other areas,just three or even four lane junctions that you have to try and cross to the right with speeding Traffic.
This junction is ridiculous, it makes me think that the designers aren’t even half serious about public transport corridors and that cycling safety wasn’t even mentioned at whatever meetings they had about this.
In any high car volume route like this the cycle route should be independent of the road like what has been done in the last few pictures in this blog post
http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/riding-in-the-hague/
It is definitely a design problem and it is a legacy of a design approach which sought to maintain free-flowing conditions/maximise junction capacity for motor vehicles.
There is really no need for the left turning lane at all. Removing it would only have a minor impact on the capacity of the junction (if that was your primary concern).