Features

Changing gears for a better Dublin

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DSC00037After two decades spent striving to improve the city for cyclists, the Dublin Cycling Campaign is more ambitious than ever, they tell Cian Ginty of their quest to fill the streets with bikes

When you hear some politicians and radio broadcasters speak of Dublin’s cycling lobby it draws the image of hired guns running around city hall after councillors or over at Kildare Street in weekly meetings with TDs.

The way some talk about it, the all powerful lobby gets everything. The reality is quite different.

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The urban SUVs of bicycles

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Caitriona Walsh of Little Green Fingers

Cargo bikes may look a bit strange but these useful bikes are becoming more common, Cian Ginty reports.

A common sight in the Netherlands and Denmark, large cargo bikes are starting to turn heads in Dublin.

“It’s in its infancy and there’s only a couple of us who sell them. But the more that the bikes get seen, the more normal they become and then the more popular they become,” says Astrid Fitzpatrick, who runs Dutchbikeshop.ie with her husband Frank.

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Will Dublin become a city of women on wheels?

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A new group is aiming to do their bit to address the cycling gender imbalance, member Bebhinn Hare explains.

It takes a passionate woman to make a difference, and Dublin is full of them. So when one bike activist and social entrepreneur learned of the massive gender disparity of cyclists in this country, she put out the call.

All of us who hold a major crush on our bicycle can understand why there was such a great response to bicycle campaigner Anne Bedos’s plan to create Wow (Women on Wheels). This new, informal Dublin-based group is focused on getting more women choosing bike over car. With a nearly 80:20, male/female split, something had to be done.

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Cycling against traffic legally

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A recently built segregated contra-flow cycle track in Blackrock, Co Dublin

Contra-flow cycle lanes are far from new to Dublin, but is it time for the city to provide more of these cycling short-cuts? Cian Ginty reports.

Even when driving, one-way streets can be very frustrating, but most drivers don’t realise just how much Dublin’s network of one-way streets is designed for the car.

“One way streets are not something we’re into doing anymore. They tend to work from a car point of view because they generate capacity and longer links for stacking [traffic], but from a cyclist’s or
Dublin’s one-way system is extensive in the city centre area inside the canals – see the map left, showing just the multi-laned one-way streets. It’s nearly the flip opposite of the Dutch model.pedestrian’s point of view they are not great,” says Eoghan Madden, a senior engineer at Dublin City Council.

Our roads were made one-way for capacity to the benefit of motorists and at a cost to everybody else – cyclists who have to live with detours, bus users who have disconnected in and outbound bus stops, and the people living on and round what amount to very urban sections of dual carriageways.

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DublinBikes

Dublin Bikes: From city to suburbs

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Dublin Bikes have made it in town, but can these city bikes survive in the wild suburbs, Cian Ginty writes.

‘A successful bicycle scheme is where you get two to three trips per bike per day and on our best days we’re heading towards 13 trips per bike,” says Andrew Montague, outgoing lord mayor.

A spokesman for the council said that for the first phase including the Docklands and around Hueston Station they nticipate that construction will commence before the end of 2012.”

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Under review: Dublin’s cycling network

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Dublin has a 20-25% target level for cycling, however few people expect this to be reached without changes on and off road.

“For years local authorities have had aspirational networks on their development plans – we want to work with them to move from aspirational to reality and to make that reality a prioritised one,” says Michael Aherne at the National Transport Authority

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