Turning right at redesigned Dublin junction takes twice as long if using cycle tracks

Cycling campaigners have recorded a video showing how a major junction redesign in Dublin 15 disadvantages people using cycle tracks over those who cycle on the road.

The junction is part of the Snugborough Interchange Upgrade, a major road widening project over the N3 dual carriageway just southeast of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. It was designed in 2017. At the time, this website reported that the project included adding capacity for cars and buses with low priority for cycling and walking.

Now that the project has been built, Fingal Cycling, a branch of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, timed how fast it takes to turn right while cycling first on the road and then on the cycle tracks and shared crossings. It said that in both cases, it used the “worst-case scenario ” of the light just having turned red.

When cycling on the road, the turn right from Snugborough Road into Main Street in Blanchardstown takes 1 minute and 50 seconds, but when cycling using the cycle route, it takes three minutes and nearly 54 seconds.

The video also uses a still of a headline from an IrishCycle.com article, which outlines how there is no legal obligation in Ireland to use cycle paths.

Oliver Davies, a member of Fingal Cycling, said: “I’m sure extra car-flow and extra bus-flow is now great, but it seems pedestrians and cyclists are just as neglected as they were with the old design. That prompted me to make this video to show how much longer using the intended cycle design vs. just cycling on the road took. I’m sure most confident cyclists will just cycle on the road to get through the junction two minutes quicker, much to the annoyance of some motorists.”

He said: “There is no easy way provided to cycle across from Blanchardstown Shopping Centre to Blanchardstown Village nor from Snugborough Road into Blanchardstown Village. Both of these directions require waiting at four separate red lights. Meanwhile cars have to wait at a single red light that turns green in around two minutes. So, it goes green twice during the time pedestrians and cyclists are left waiting.”

Davies said he uses this junction as part of a commute from Ongar to Dublin City Centre, occasionally for some local journeys, and previously for both going to school when he was younger and while working as a bicycle courier in Blanchardstown. He said: “So it’s safe to say I’ve gone through it a fair bit.”

“It was previously not only a disaster for cars, but dangerous for bicycles and inconvenient to pedestrians. So with the new design I hoped to see an improvement to safety and priority given to walking/cycling, but it only got the former,” he said.

Davies said: “I already knew the design was poor from plans published beforehand showing the car-centric design, but seeing it in person made me realise it was possibly designed by someone who’s never cycled in their life.”

He also said that long bicycle ‘merge’ lanes have been provided for cyclists but think that this space could be better used to provide wider bicycle lanes. He said: “Bicycle paths are not cars that require merge lanes, yet the design treats bicycles like mini-cars.”

He added: “The design really makes you feel like a third-class citizen if you choose to cycle.”