Dublin City Council has indicated that some of its Covid-19 mobility cycling and walking measures are to be prettified this year, the projects were installed quickly using mainly using plastic bollards.
One of the first signs of this is the installation of mini-planters replacing stubby bollards on the contra-flow cycle track on Nassau Street (see images in tweet below).
Some of the cycle lanes are likely to be harder than others to prettify given space constraints at many locations and the question of if there’s space available would it be better as planter space or cycling space.
Cllr Michael Pidgeon (Green Party) said: “2019 and 2021 saw Dublin city road space taken for walking and cycling, mostly using bollards. Much, much more of that needs to be done. But this council answer I got recently suggests we might start in 2022 to make those projects a bit prettier, permanent, and hopefully better!”
The response from Dublin City Council officials said: “The plastic bollards are not a long-term intervention but provide safe space for cycling in the short-term while either a semi-permanent or permanent scheme is being designed.”
They added: “In 2022 we will be reviewing the interventions with a view to reducing the number of bollards and replacing them where possible with planters, extruded kerbs etc.”
Cllr Pidgeon added: “‘Taking the space’ was definitely the right priority at the start of the pandemic. We should ramp that up again – bollards are a cheap, easily changed way to do a trial. But the plastic wands get a bit worse for wear. Time to move it on to something a bit more crafted!”