Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown’s surprising interconnected progress

COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: Just over a month ago I cycled around part of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council one night when I had some time to burn on a visit to Dublin. Not everything is perfect, but while cycling around, there’s a feeling that things are starting to connect together, between what’s been in place for a while, what’s recently built and what’s planned.

Between the examples below, there are still some big gaps in the DLRCC network or old cycle paths badly needing resurfacing and upgrading. But so far it’s one of the few places where you can nearly see interconnected progress slowly happening in Ireland. Some others are planning for it but recent on-the-ground progress isn’t as clear as this.

Here’s a quick map showing what’s featured in the article (in thicker lines) and, for context, the planned DLR Connector (yellow line), the existing/planned Coastal Mobility Route (darker blue line) and the planned Deansgrange cycle path (purple). These are shown for context, it’s not everything that’s planned or already built in this area.

Most people who cycle in Dublin have cycled on the Coastal Mobility Route or at least have heard of it, but what’s surprising is the extent of the other work already in progress and how quickly that should link with what’s planned.

This quick-build scheme outside Airfield is good and it seems to act as traffic calming too:

Two modal filters on Eden Park Road — followed by a third as part of the junction works in the next video — allow for safer and more attractive cycling on this residential street and also cut out rat running where motorists should be sticking to the main roads:

This video shows the nearly Dutch-like junction design under construction at the junction of Eden Park Road, Drummartin Link Road and Lower Kilmacud Road:

Part of the same project as the junction above, this is some of the cycle track/kerb detail:

And a few extra images from the same project:

Also, just in on the side street shown in the first photo above, is this cycling-friendly traffic calming beside Mount Anville Primary School:

From the Eden Park Road road junction, there are existing mostly segregated cycle paths on the Drummartin Link Road to Benidisus Ave, where DLRCC has built quick-build concrete kerb cycle paths into Sandyford Business Park:

If you go back to the Eden Park junction, going east along the Lower Kilmacud Road you get to Stillorgan Village:

And after some old cycle paths in need of an upgrade (and planned for such), you get to Carysfort Avenue:

And, after a slight detour, you get to this improved connection across the Blackrock bypass and into Blackrock Village scheme and the Coastal Mobility Route:

The following are a bit of a departure from the rest of the examples which are mostly along or close to the DLR Connector route…

On the Stillorgan Road (former N11), these kind of fixes around a bus stop are small but invaluable:

… the smaller fixes are part of the UCD Access scheme which was officially opened shortly after this video was taken:

Within UCD’s campus (ie not DLRCC-controlled roads) there’s the first use of the new standardised shared use signs — but the replies to this tweet, when it was posted last month, suggest the space isn’t working well as motorists still presume priority:

Finally, the Roebuck Road, which seems to have been a maintenance rather than a cycling project. But, regardless of the type of project, the cycle lanes seem to have been narrowed needless compared to what used to be here.

According to quick measurements around one area, the general traffic lanes are fine at 3 metres wide, the cycle lane is sub-standard at around a metre or less, but the footpath is fairly large at around 2.4 metres wide given this low-footfall location. The footpaths could have been reduced to provide a better balance:

That’s it. It’s a surprising amount of progress for somebody who hasn’t been around much of the area for a while, some of it is top-level stuff and other bits have a lot to be desired. But one of the key takeaways is how much work is already built quickly or in progress as a permanent built, and that’s without mentioning much of what’s planned.

…next up, soon, a roundup of some of the recent work from Dublin City Council…


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3 comments

  1. Work on the cycling route from UCD down to Beaver row seems to have been stopped in the last few weeks – it hasn’t been touched in a while and haven’t seen anyone working on it. Just wondering if anyone knows anything about this – its nearly finished.

    Reply
    • I also asked a councillor about this and they said the contractor went into bankruptcy and now the timeframe to completion is uncertain.

      Reply
      • @Helen – we had the same issue on the Grand Canal – two junctions left unfinished & another two with no cycle markings. SIAC in bankruptcy and yes, DCC not sure what to do.

        Reply

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