Dublin City Council has said that there’s been an over 24% jump in people using the partly-finished Clontarf to City Centre cycle route.
The increase in use is while the cycle track on the route is only partly finished inbound and has not yet been opened outbound.
The project, named the Clontarf to City Centre Cycle and Bus Priority Project, also includes more continuous bus lanes, longer bus stops to allow at least two buses to stop at once to speed up boarding, upgraded bus shelters, a large-scale water main replacement on both sides of the street, new greenery, enhanced public spaces and a full rebuilt of both footpaths and roadways.
The council shared the data for Annesley Bridge, the bridge over the Royal Canal on North Strand Road.
Dublin City Council said: “There were a total of 1,212 Active Travel users on the inbound cycle track through Annesley Bridge between 06.30 and 09.30 on Tuesday April 23rd 2024. That is a 24.3% increase on the count (975) on Tuesday April 25th 2023.”
Andy Cowan, who cycles the route, said on the Twitter-like Threads platform on Wednesday: “[I’m] not complaining, but already the southbound portion of the Clontarf to City Centre cycleway is nearly at capacity. Huge groups at each traffic light. I have never seen volumes of cyclists in Dublin like this before.”
He posted this short video clip showing a long line of people cycling on the route:
The council said that this graph compares the counts for each 15-minute period:
After all the time it took, it’s disappointingly narrow..