Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council continues to ignore safety and sustainable transport promotion advice in the National Cycle Manual and the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets.
The latest projects which ignore the design manual include a redesign of N11 junction with Johnstown Road at Cabinteely (construction due to commence in May 2016), the scene of a pedestrian fatality last week, and Wyattville Road Pedestrian and Cycle Scheme (at public consultation until June 1, 2016).
While the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets may not cover the section of the N11 mentioned above as it has a 80km/h speed limit, it does cover the Wyattville Road scheme (60km/h) and the National Cycle Manual covers all speeds and areas within the Greater Dublin Area.
Cllr Ossian Smyth (Green Party) noted the N11 junction redesign on Twitter yesterday:
(article continues below embeded tweets)
Planned redesign of N11 junction with Johnstown Road at Cabinteely, scene of last week's pedestrian fatality. pic.twitter.com/hsBPXuTMYo
— Ossian Smyth TD (@smytho) May 10, 2016
— Cllr Ossian Smyth (@smytho) May 10, 2016
@DaraCarroll @dublincycling @neilclan The plan is not finalised but a description of the proposal is here: https://t.co/wQFYpeEei4
— Ossian Smyth TD (@smytho) May 10, 2016
— Cllr Ossian Smyth (@smytho) May 10, 2016
The Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets states: “Omit left turn slips, which generally provide little extra effective vehicular capacity but are highly disruptive for pedestrians and cyclists. Where demand warrants, they may be replaced with left tuning lanes with tighter corner radii” and “Omit staggered crossings in favour of direct/single phase crossings” — yet the projects includes both left turn slips and staggered crossings.
National Cycle Manual, produced by the National Transport Authority (NTA), says that slips turns “often gives drivers an unreasonable sense of priority,” allows “vehicles to take corners at higher speeds” and “restricts views of cyclists and pedestrians.”
The National Transport Authority previously described the slip turns by saying another project “should reconsider the need to provide left slip lanes as part of the scheme. Conflicts between large turning vehicles and cyclists/pedestrians on left slips present a significant risk”
The manual also states “Guardrails can create a hazard for cyclists, reduce footpath widths and give rise to feelings of constraint and restriction to pedestrians”, but these are also used in the draft N11 design.
Here’s the section of the Design Manual for Urban Roads showing the difference between left slip turns and left pocket turns:
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I followed the links above to the DLR website. There is very little information available, just a couple of maps. The Public Consultation Report only has 6 pages out of what appears to be 150 pages. I have emailed to try and get more info.