No green or red lights for cycle path on Dublin’s quays this Christmas

Most work on a new cycle path on Dublin’s south quays has been “completed well ahead of our schedule”, but anybody expecting a Christmas present of a new cycle path into the core city centre will be left disappointed.

For people who do not want to cycle in heavy traffic, the cycle path will connect via the Docklands to a small but growing network of segregated and low-traffic cycling routes, which now reaches as far as Sutton Cross on the northside and Portobello Harbour on the southside.

Dublin City Council has confirmed that the new cycle path will remain closed for December and at least into the start of January because of the strict restrictions on road works in Dublin City Centre at Christmas.

The works, which started in late February, are part of the interim Liffey Cycle Route and effectively extend the two-way cycle path in the Docklands from City Quay into Georges Quay and up to O’Connell Bridge, with a short one-way section extending west of the bridge to allow for crossing over to the building side.

The project also includes pedestrian improvements, including the closure of the left turn slip from Burgh Quay to D’Olier Street and making the footpath along the quays accessible for the first time. It also included resurfacing of George’s Quay, Burgh Quay, parts of Aston Quay and parts of Tara Street.

IMAGE: The two-way cycle path currently has barriers blocking every junction.

In the expectation that people cycling on the quays would mainly use the new cycle path, the traffic lanes have been narrowed, and people cycling from the Docklands area to and beyond O’Connell Bridge are doing so mixed with buses and taxis more so than before.

When asked about the safety aspect of not commissioning the cycle track vs the limited impact such works should have on Christmas traffic, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said that there would also be a safety risk in finishing the works given the extra traffic and pedestrians in the area up to Christmas.

However, despite complaints from members of the public, Dublin City Councill has refused to accommodate cycling movements at the junction of City Quay and Georges Quay. Work on the redesigned crossings for pedestrians and cycling at this junction started in August and has been largely finished for some time, except for the traffic lights. The cycle crossing has remained closed with barriers.

Temporary pedestrian crossings are in place, but it is unclear why temporary cycling crossings are not being used. On a recent visit to the junction, the old bicycle traffic light sequence was still running as part of the wider traffic light sequence.

On a number of visits to the junction, IrishCycle.com observed confusion among road users with people on bicycles and scooters and pedestrians using the junction in a number of different ways, including pedestrians crossing using the cycle crossings closed off with barriers, pedestrians crossing when their light is red while the cycling green light is activated, and people cycling are also using the junction in a mix of ways.

The various ways people cycling are using the junction include an increased number of people crossing the three lanes on the bridge using the busy carriageway, people cycling from city quay using the pedestrian crossings (both mounted and dismounted), and even one man lifting their bicycle around the barriers on the cycle path.

According to an email sent to a member of the public from the council’s head of the Active Travel section, Andy Walsh, discussions between the contractor and the council concluded that the current arrangement was “the safest option”. The reply was prompted by an official complaint being made.

In the email, Walsh said: “Discussions between the contractor, traffic management contractor and [Dublin City Council] Active travel concluded that closing the cycle crossing point until the commissioning of the new traffic lights, was the safest option. We anticipate the opening of the complete cycle route and junction in January 2025.”

Dublin City Council told this website that the annual Operation Open City disallows road works at this time of the year.

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said: “Most of these civil works have now been completed well ahead of our schedule. As the cycle track is two-way, with cyclists travelling westbound on the right hand side of vehicular traffic, all traffic signals, including the new lights on Aston Quay and the lights on Memorial Bridge, Butt Bridge, Rosie Hackett Bridge, and O’Connell Bridge must be altered before any section of the cycle track can be opened.”

“During the time period of operation Open City, which is in place due to the increase in vehicular traffic and pedestrian footfall during the run-up to Christmas, undertaking significant traffic management at each of the traffic light locations, interferes with the December increase of traffic, and is an additional potential danger to the public,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added: “We expect to have the changes to the traffic lights complete in January which will allows us to immediately open the full scheme ahead of schedule.There can be no changes made to the junction at City Quay until the scheme is opened fully.”

The council said that a minor change was made at O’Connell Bridge to allow people cycling to travel southbound across the Liffey Cycle Route to D’Olier Street to use the cycle path as officials had observed a “bunching of cyclists with vehicles” on the reduced number of vehicle lanes.


IMAGE: The new cycle path on the quays is the shorter orange line in the above map.

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