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.
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council have constructed a contra-flow cycle track which looks like the best designed one in Dublin.