If you’re going to build for cycling, maintenance is required… including salting in cold weather

BITE-SIZED COMMENT & ANALYSIS: Readers keep telling me that maintenance is required if councils are to continue to build cycle paths. And it’s hard to disagree that more focus is needed in this area — poor maintenance, including road sweeping and salting

This morning, South Dublin Cycling, a branch of the Dublin Cycling Campain, had to call on South Dublin County Council to salt the area around the Tallaght M50 underpass (see the image in the tweet below, although it seems that the underpass seems to be maintained by the M50 Concessions contractor).

More consideration is needed not just towards maintenance, but also how design affects maintenance — that should mean, for example, wider cycle paths (which are needed for other reasons anyway) rather than lighter segregation. It also means special attention is needed around the design of underpasses, greenways and other off-road routes and if a road sweeper of some size can access the areas.