There are bets starting to be made if a car parked on a cycling access point ramp in Cork City will outlast a previously infamous car parked in a cycle lane in the city.
A motorist left their car abandoned on the cycle lane on Washington Street in 2020 for “for over 4 days” according to an article on Cork Beo.
Today, a car left on a cycling access ramp at the junction of Leitrim Street and Pine Street is nearly close to breaking that record. The car is parked on a recently built cycling ramp as part of the MacCurtain Street Public Transport Improvement Scheme. The ramp provides access to cross the footpath and access a contra-flow cycle path.
Cork cyclists are now counting the number of days that a motorist has parked their car on a cycling access point. Unlike the case of Washington Street, there are some indications that the car at Pine Street is being moved at least on some of the days.
Conn Donovan, a campaigner with and former chair of the Cork Cycling Campaign, has been tweeting images of the car parked in the spot for the last four days — previously, the council had left a tree planter on the ramp and, once the planter was pushed back and placed on tactile paving, the car soon followed.
In his first tweet, Donovan quoted a description of the project: “The MacCurtain Street Public Transport Improvement Scheme is the latest traffic management initiative targeted at supporting increased economic activity and providing improved accessibility to the city centre by foot, bicycle and public transport.”
On day two he said: “A 2nd consecutive day of a car parked on a cycling ramp in front of a tree in a box placed on a cycle ramp to stop cars parking on the cycle ramp but moved subsequently off cycle ramp (onto tactile paving for visually impaired ppl) to facilitate bike painting on the cycle ramp.”
Today Donovan posted images of Day 3 and Day 4, and said: “Day 3 and 4, ‘Reckless and mindless – so dangerous for visually impaired, elderly, disabled, etc’ is how a @corkcitycouncil Director described the paving slabs incident in 2020. Why is the hazard below not addressed? 26% of ppl in Cork city cycle regularly.”
The paving slabs incident in 2020 is when there was a strange case of bricks or stones being removed from a number of footpaths across the city overnight.
Can someone please explain how this traffic plan increases economic activity. With the exception of the over paid contractors.