— Required 100 bicycle spaces “do not exist” a year after stadium’s reopening.
Cycling can help ease residents’ concerns about parking and traffic congestion for matches and concerts at the 45,000-capacity Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium, the Cork Cycling Campaign said.
The group said that the Cork County GAA Board is required to provide “a minimum of 100 high quality covered cycle parking facilities” as a condition of its planning permission for the revamped stadium, but that these facilities “simply do not exist” nearly a year after it’s reopening.
The Cork Cycling Campaign said that the GAA should not just provide 100 spaces, but provide 1,000 bicycle parking spaces.
Justin Fleming, a spokesman for the campaign said: “Cork GAA is doing very well out of Páirc Uí Chaoimh. They can well afford to put in proper bike parking, way beyond the legal minimum.”
The group said residents in the area should not have to pay for the nuisance of having ten thousand cars parking on their doorsteps.
1,000 bicycle parking spaces would be “relatively inexpensive and take up remarkably little space”, they said, and it wants the GAA to actively promote walking, cycling, park-and-ride and park-and-cycle facilities for matches.
The campaign also said that it supported the recently proposed two kilometre parking exclusion zone around Páirc Uí Chaoimh on match days.
The Cork Cycling Campaign added: “Páirc Uí Chaoimh is already well served by the Passage West-Mahon Greenway, and there are plans for cycle routes into the city through the Docklands. Indeed, the proposed Lee to Sea Greenway would unify existing greenways from Ballincollig to Crosshaven, providing an active and sustainable travel to the stadium from all around the city. That means the stadium should soon have extremely good walking and cycling access. Indeed, some people are already using the Blackrock Railway as a shortcut to the stadium.”