Dublin City Council is seeking public feedback on extending the S2S Dublin Bay cycle path onto East Wall Road as far as East Road.
As reported by IrishCycle.com in January, a number of local areas councillors were worried about the possible impact of traffic and some even claimed — without any evidence — that extending the Dublin Bay cycle path onto East Wall Road could be dangerous for cyclists.
The extension is proposed as a quick-build measure, so, it could be in place within months. It would replace an existing general traffic lane, while still leaving at least one traffic lane in both directions.
If built, the cycle path extension might offer a bit of relief for people who currently cycle into the city centre from the S2S via Fairview and North Strand Road, as there will be major distribution along that route as construction gets underway on the Clontarf to City Centre bus and cycle project.
The two-way cycle path is planned to be under 3 metres wide in sections and includes sections under 2.5 metres wide. This is just above the width for “basic” two-way cycle paths in the National Cycle Manual. Yet, Dublin City Council is continuing its trend of installing concrete kerbs on the cycling side of buffers, leaving painted buffer on the motoring side — ie where widening the cycle path width is possible without impacting on the width of the traffic lanes.
The project will also include a new “School Zone treatment” outside St Joseph’s Primary School. But current drawings for outside the school shows the cycle route ending before the school and a traffic lane which is 5.6 metres on the school side of the road, with two traffic lanes on the other side.
Wider traffic lanes are associated with higher speeds. The recommended traffic lane width in an urban area is between 3-3.25 metres, and wider lanes should only be used on single carriage roads frequently used by larger vehicles. The space outside the school is also not being designed for school drop-offs as school ‘keep clear’ markings, with zig-zag yellow lines, are shown.
On the council’s consultation hub, the council said: “If residents have particular concerns or suggestions regarding these proposals we would invite them to send them into us at traffic@dublincity.ie (with East Wall Road Cycle Lanes in the subject bar). “
Slideshow of drawings:
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People should be made aware that the S2S used to go all the way to the East Wall Rd. But then they build the business park and made the entrance to the business park actively dangerous for people on bikes. In addition they also completely eliminated the last few hundred meters of the cycle path that used to go all the way to the E Wall Rd.
@Wolf — I wasn’t aware of that but it makes sense the cycle path would have originally continued.
Yes its very dangerous the way it just stops on one side of the road entrance footpath and then- nothing. Not even a cycle lane ends sign. It just throws you into traffic coming up to a busy junction. Nuts.
East Wall road itself is always lethal to cycle – yet it is extremely wide- crazy there isn’t even a dotted line lane along it.