Group said it’s “not anti-cycling” after opposing anti-rat-running bollards and cycle route

A residents’ association representing households in the north west of Drumcondra are objecting a trial of bollards aimed at stopping rat-running, and are opposing  proposals for a cycle route via residential streets and a park.

IMAGE: Bantry Road is not suitable for “additional cycle traffic” residents claim.

The Griffith Avenue and District Residents Association said it was “not anti-cycling” but its AGM noted that it objects to a plan for a walking and cycling route between Dublin City University’s main and satellite campuses.

IrishCycle.com understands that the residents were consulted at an early stage in the process and there is no firm plan for the route between the main campus off the Ballymun Road and the satellite campuses in Drumcondra. However, this early consultation has not avoided any of the concerns and objections which are common for such projects in Ireland and the UK.

The minutes of group’s annual meeting said: “The Chair emphasised that GADRA was not anti-cycling, and that concerns or objections raised were not to be interpreted as such.”

The group said: “The Chair detailed DCU plans to create a connectivity route between the Glasnevin Campus and Drumcondra Campuses. He confirmed that GADRA had objected to the plans for a number of reasons”.

IMAGE: Church Avenue can hardly fit a man and his dog, claimed one resident.

The reasons included “concerns” over the cycle route traveling Albert College Park, which it said “was a peaceful, public facility, widely used by the community”. It added that the route proposal was including a section to the rear of some home which raised security concerns, that a potential Metro North station is “not accounted for”, and used roads” which were too narrow to accommodate cycle traffic”.

The minutes noted: “Concerns on the part of Bantry Road residents regarding the lack of suitability of the road to additional cycle traffic, noting that it was already difficult to exit driveways onto the road, without the additional cycle and potentially pedestrian traffic. GADRA’s Chair noted that this was the case for all of the Island roads. The audience member was noted that it seemed that the welfare of the students was being put ahead of the welfare of residents.”

It added: “Another [AGM] audience member noted that the DCU connectivity study routes seemed to be a case of simply drawing lines on maps, with one section of the recommended route being via Church Avenue, which was barely wide enough for him to walk with his dog!”

Bollards and rat-running

The Griffith Avenue and District Residents Association last week presented a petition against the anti-rat-running bollards installed between Millmount Ave and Ferguson Road / Walsh Road in Drumcondra. The group are supported by Fianna Fáil councillors Cllr Deirdre Heany and Cllr Paul McAuliffe, Cllr Gary Gannon (Social Democrats), and former councillor Mary Fitzpatrick.

Traffic surveys conditioned by consultants for Dublin City Council found high levels of rat-running motorised traffic.

The bollards — which address a long-term issue with rat running on the streets involved — are in place as part of a nine month trial due to last until end of February.

As this website has previously covered in detail, residents across Drumcondra are split on the issue of the bollards. The Griffith Avenue and District Residents Association represents a geographical area similar to where much of the rat-running traffic originated from, while local residents close to the bollards — who have contacted this website — claim that there is localised support for the trial to contuine.

Residents who both agree and disagree with the bollards seem to agree that there there is now a higher volume of traffic on larger roads in the area such as Home Farm Road and Griffith Ave — with disagreement centring on if this is a positive outcome or not.

The Griffith Avenue and District Residents Association AGM minutes includes a claim that there has been a “significant impact of the road closure on access to shared facilities such as the library”. However, there’s no clarity how Drumcondra Library or how access to it is affected — motorised access remains on Millmount Ave and, for those parking on the other side of the bollards. the library is only about a 50 metre walk.

The minutes also stated that the owner of Derwin’s Londis, a shop and off-licence on Millmount Ave, claimed that unless the road was reopened to through motorised traffic that his shop would go out of business.

Residents with a view on the issue can still give feedback to Dublin City Council by emailing drumcondratraffic@dublincity.ie, and details of the trial can be found at http://www.dublincity.ie/drumcondratraffic.

MORE: DCU Campus Connectivity Study (PDF)

ALSO READ: Tackling rat running is key for liveable, healthier and safer cities


...That's the end of the article. Keep scrolling if you want to the comments, but IrishCycle.com *NEEDS* readers like you to keep it that way. It only requires a small percentage of readers to give a bit each month or every year to keep IrishCycle.com's journalism open to all. Thank you.


9 comments

  1. ”The Griffith Avenue and District Residents Association said it was “not anti-cycling” but its AGM noted that it objects to a plan for a walking and cycling route”

    The “I’m not racist, but …” defence. DCC should just put in the bollards and the people who walk and cycle will use the roads that cars can’t.

    Reply
  2. When I read things like this I wonder whether I am living in the wrong country. All positive ideas seem to get blocked by people who always claim to be somehow victimised by any kind of progress.

    Reply
  3. The blatant hypocrisy of the position of GADRA is galling. This is naked self-interest in action. By setting themselves against the installation of bollards, they are clearly in support of rat-running and all the implications that brings in terms of much higher vehicle traffic, additional pollution, and a serious additional risk to the safety of pedestrians in their own residential areas! And their justification? So they don’t have to walk 50 meters to the library? WTF?

    But what is really breath-taking is that in the same submission they set themselves against a cycleway on the ridiculously flimsy basis that the roads are not wide enough for additional bicycle traffic. And yet they want to allow huge numbers of cars to use those roads? Christ almighty, can they not even keep a modicum of logical cohesion to their own submission?

    Very disappointed that Gannon has put his name to this disgraceful submission. I had hoped that the SocDems were above this kind of populist nonsense. It seems I was wrong.

    Reply
  4. Ah yes, the ol’ …….I’m not a racist and some of my best friends are foreign types. But I do think that the country would be better if we didn’t allow foreigners into the country in the first place………

    No reasoning with bigotry. I lived in Scotland for 5 years, in Glasgow. One person I knew was from Northern Ireland. For years, he was a lovely fella as far as I knew, until one night he got drunk and started ranting about ‘Irish’ people.

    Yes, he seemed to have a thing about Irish people, which was a bit of a surprise to me as I’m from Dublin, and he had never shown any hatred to me before this moment. He used the slurs ‘Fenians’ and ‘Tagdhs’ and such-like, which is never a good sign.

    I asked him if he also thought the same about me.

    No, he said, you’re alright. You’re not like the other scum from the south. You’re ok.

    But, what Sean and Colm, I asked. (Sean and Colm were two others from Dublin that he also hung around with).

    No, they’re fine too, he said.

    And Siobhan? I asked further (Also from the RoI).

    No, of course, she’s also fine, he said, I’m talking about all the others from down there.

    So, I said, every person you’ve ever met from the south is nice, and you actually like everyone you’ve met, and yet you still think all the others you haven’t met are scumbags? You’ve been very lucky in the fact that you’ve only met the handful of nice people from the south.

    Rarrh rahr blah blah raarrrh (or something) he said.

    Yes, so when I hear things such as residents fighting against something positive happening in their neighbourhood, and saying that they’re not against cycling/cyclists BUT…..

    yea, they’re bigots :(

    Reply
  5. This is how #motordom asserts itself.
    My own residential road in Dublin 4 has ramps on it but they have too shallow an attack-angle so you can easily fly over them at 50 km/h+ so useless at preventing rat-running.
    The road is used morning and evening by rat-runners. Access into my road in the morning off Nutley Lane has a prohibited L-turn until 10:00 h but it is TOTALLY IGNORED and UNENFORCED.
    AGS turns a blind-eye to such enforcement.
    Traffic Engineers love rat-runs simply because it all helps to act as a buffer to dissipate congestion. Both sets of public officials are conflicted in managing traffic for ALL citizens.
    Time for a change. Climate action requires that active travel be prioritised from now on.

    Reply
  6. Ramps don’t slow drivers down. Especially those large SUVs. The only thing that slows drivers down are actively managing the road width by using chicanes, or, ironically by there being lost of parked cars….

    I get lots of cars driving straight at me trying to overtake the parked cars on the road Mike refers to. Infuriating stuff, and most who do it simply don’t see me on the bike as worthy of giving space to. It’s frankly bizarre.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Citizen WolfCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.