The Irish Times has been accused of “harmful misinformation” on the planned Living Streets project in Dún Laoghaire just days ahead of the local elections.
The Living Streets Dún Laoghaire was highly debated in the area but still gained the support of a majority of public consultation respondents, with just 35% outright opposed. It then gained the support of 30 councillors, with only 7 voting against the project at a council meeting that ran until nearly 2am.
The project is planned to include pedestrianising part of George’s Street in Dún Laoghaire and installing modal filters aimed at reducing rat running. The filters are designed to allow people to walk and cycle on safer and more attractive streets while still allowing car access.
The newspaper’s local elections page for the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown implies that Living Streets has caused complaints about car journeys “taking twice as long as before” when the project has not started construction.
The newspaper said: “In Dún Laoghaire, the Living Streets initiative, involving cycle lanes and route changes for motor vehicles, has proved controversial with complaints about car journeys taking twice as long as before.”
The cycle lanes in the scheme are short in nature and not a central part of the plan.
On Twitter, Living Streets, a community group that has campaigned for the measures, said: “To be clear, #LivingStreets HAS NOT started. @IrishTimes is parroting harmful MISINFORMATION. Please correct.”
The article has a publication date and time of 12:28 midday yesterday.