Bollards and planters protecting the cycle lanes have been installed at and approaching Dolphin’s Barn Bridge in Dublin 8.
Josilaine Ribeiro, a 36-year-old Brazilian carer who was living in Dublin, was killed in a collision involving her bicycle and a truck at the bridge last year on November 6th. It is understood that the truck driver, who was driving the six-axle articulated tipper truck, was stopped a short distance from the bridge.
Dolphin’s Barn Bridge, is a road bridge over the Grand Canal, linking the Crumlin Road to Dolphin’s Barn and Cork Street.
A reader sent IrishCycle.com the photos of the bollards and planters that have been mainly placed at Parnell Road and Dolphin Road, which run east-west parallel to the canal.
Councillors and residents in the area have been seeking road safety improvements for the Crumlin Road for some time now, including raising the issue at local area council meetings. After the death of Josilaine, they extended their call to include the bridge.
Planters are good but I can’t see those bollards lasting long as left turning large vehicles will most likely knock them down
This is obviously welcome. But, it is insane that the Grand Canal Pedestrian and Cycle scheme has not been progressed further since the original contractor collapsed (and no sense of urgency from councillors or DCC exec on this).
The fact that over a decade since cycle schemes started in Dublin that this stretch of the canal doesn’t have a protected cycle route is really galling (and says something about DCC’s priorities imo). The route doesn’t have many of the constraints present in order parts of the city (like uncontrolled junctions, car parking and entrances on one side of the road) and yet no progress has been made in making it safer west of Portobello.
This is on my route to work and I think of this poor woman every time I cycle past Dolphin’s Barn bridge. The truth is that the canal bike lanes are too unsafe for regular commuting – which is a shame as my journey from Inchicore to Charlemont which takes 25 minutes by bike can easily take 90 minutes on Dublin Bus due to infrequent service.
It seems like every time I cycle this route there’s a near miss due to the lack of segregation between bikes and vehicles who make unexpected left turns, shoot out of a side street into the bike lane, or just invade the bike lane without looking in their mirrors.
We urgently need proper cycling infrastructure.
Don’t forget cars and vans parked on the cycle lanes at all times of day. I also travel regularly from Inchicore to Ranelagh and I have do a mish-mash of using the shared lanes (Black Horse to Suir Road) then navigating exactly what Eoghan is talking about. It’s compounded by the unfinished junction works at Rialto and Clogher Road bridges. Also the Dolphin’s Barn junction should have four-way green lights for pedestrians with a decent amount of time to enable crossing. People are left stranded behind cattle grids for ages.