S2S redesign at Clontarf Baths is the type of thing that makes people cynical of Dublin City Council

COMMENT & ANALYSIS: The planned S2S redesign at Clontarf Baths is the type of thing that makes people cynical of Dublin City Council.

What I wrote in 2020 on this stands, but I’d go further now: How many more people cycling have to be injured on the S2S until councillors and officials accept the narrow path should be wider?

This path should be at least 4 metres wide to allow for families and friends to cycle together and to avoid conflict — narrow cycle paths are conflicting-inducing by not allow for enough space for overtaking or to avoid a collision with a pedestrian or another person cycling.

Adding twists and bends like this on an already busy cycleway will result in more conflict and the S2S will only get busier when the Clontarf to City Centre Route is opened.

The S2S is substandard in its width here already given its heavy use and the plan is to add twists and turns narrows the effective with of the path further.

The yield marking on the cycle path are very strange without any pedestrian crossing markings and are easily open to misinterpretations by motorists that cyclists should be yielding to them. Lined pedestrian crossing or zebra markings needed — zebras without beacons or signs are now legal to use and should be used where a council wants to show pedestrian priority.

If the council was only willing to make small changes, why has it taken so long to build this? It’s planned that it won’t be under construction until at least the middle of next year.

If Dublin City Council carries on like this with every project, you can expect progress on cycling to be as slow as it ever has been in the city. It’s cynicism-inducing to mess use what should be a very simple project of making it clear that cars users should yield and the cycle path should be narrowed in advance of other sections while work is on-going here.

Images

Here’s the council’s original drawings, the IrishCycle alternative suggestions and council’s updated drawings — some improvements from original drawings, but the most of main issues are still there:

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