Comment & Analysis: The inbound section of the Clontarf to City Centre (C2CC) active travel route is now open for most of its length. But there is a problem.
The full project is scheduled for completion in Q2 2024, but as of today, it’s in usable condition inbound and is attracting some traffic. This new route completely transforms the experience of cycling the North Strand and Amiens St for the better. The conflict points at Annesley Bridge, Newcomen Bridge and the Five Lamps are now much safer to navigate, with separate tracks for bikes and motor traffic.
So far so good. However, changes in the environment create changes in behaviour and we’re starting to see what behaviour this design encourages, as shown in the photo above.
The Rules of the Road explicitly rules this out, saying “No driver may park a vehicle in a mandatory cycle track. A driver may park in a non-mandatory cycle track for up to 30 minutes, but only if they are loading or unloading their vehicle and there is no alternative parking available.”
In the photo above, the driver should have stopped in the road and left the bike lane clear, but the design of the lane makes it more convenient for the driver to block the lane at the expense of the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, who are now put into conflict.
Newcomen Bridge is about 100 metres from where the above picture was taken.
During the C2CC works, the stone wall (shown below) was moved so, now, people on foot and bicycles are on one side and motor vehicles on the other.
I recently encountered an Amazon delivery van here, driving along the bike path to the left of the wall. I asked the driver not to do this. But was met with such an aggressive reaction that I’ll be keeping my opinions to myself in future.
The C2CC route is intended to allow people of all abilities to cycle safely at any time of day or night. At the moment, poor driver behaviour stops this from happening: Will driver behaviour improve over time as the route gets busier? Or will technical solutions be required to keep motor vehicles out of a space where they don’t belong? What do you think?
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Not wanting to cause trouble for anyone, but should the reg plate for the van in the first photo be blocked out? They’re committing an offence, and should probably be exposed for same? I could well be wrong, but I think showing the number is justified in this instance (this is not an innocent bystander we’re talking about here).
Unfortunatly until we have proper policing levels which means at least tripling the force these acts will continue wd need a dedicated traffic corps with enough members to at least cover half the road network at all times
What would work in Copenhagen would be each bike user or pedestrian impeded would whack the bonnet of the vehicle going by. Us Irish are far too polite about this kind of stuff.
Of course if the bike lane was heavily used, the ability and culture of parking in them would be diminished. Hard to drive into a bike lane that has bikes going by all the time.
Could also, in the case of the shops getting deliveries behind this wall advise them to have their deliveries done by handcart from a loading bay at either end. That’s assuming there’s a loading bay???