Video of close call prompts appeal for urgent redesign of entrance to Cork’s South Docks

Urgent action needs to be taken by Cork City Council to redesign a problematic entrance point to the South Docks in Cork to avoid injury or death, the Cork Cycling Campaign said today after a video of a close call was posted online.

Motorists crossing into private land at the docks go straight on from Albert Quay to Kennedy Quay, while the public street and cycle route continue to the right onto Victoria Road.

The road markings show that the main public street does not go straight at the entrance point, but campaigners and users say the entrance is too wide and needs to be narrowed.

“It happens very frequently, I have other videos of it happening, but that was very close this morning,” said Robert O Riordan, who captured the video of the close call this morning while cycling with his puppy in the front of a cargo bicycle.

O Riordan, who runs a nearby bicycle shop called Bicycle Solutions Ireland, said he commutes on the route. “My self and my wife cycle in and out to work and commute this way,” and he said he son cycles too. “Something really has to be done in these places.”

He said he should have been very visible in a large cargo bicycle. He used a horn on his bicycle when the motorists flew past him, so, the motorist would have been aware afterwards.

One twitter user, Esandi, said: “I am always afraid of the same when using this route.”

Another, Ríán O’Dwyer, said: “Just in case there is any doubt: paint is not infrastructure. Robbie is a highly experienced and confident cyclist; this same scenario has played out with novices. My family were nearly wiped out here a few weeks back on a cargo bike even bigger than what is being ridden here.”

A third twitter user, Chris Wolny, said it happened to him twice last week.

The Cork Cycling Campain said that the route is heavily used by children and families. Conn Donovan, chairperson of the Cork Cycling Campaign, said he’d encourage anybody who has experienced issues at the junction to contact both tha Gardai and the council.

Donovan said: “We’ll be looking for immediate solutions — it’s urgent. This isn’t an isolated incident, it has the potential to happen almost every day — when cars pass the previous junction on Albert Quay, they are building up speed and probably already at 50-70km/h when they take that corner. “

He said: “If they hit somebody on a bicycle there, you are probably looking at if not a serious collision and fatal collision.

“We’ll be in touch with the council’s roads infrastructure design team — it is an interim project but that does not mean that there isn’t a duty of care to keep people safe,” said Donovan.

He added: “It’s probably in the top 5 busiest cycle routes in the city, and it brings everybody from the southeast in and out of the city,”

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