Summary

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council are asking the public for their views on the plans for changes to Clonskeagh Road between UCD and the Dodder. As these designs to not enable and encourage people of all ages and abilities to cycle, we are asking the Council to go back to the drawing board and redesign this project from scratch. We need your help to show the council that the public do not support more low quality cycle lanes. Please make a submission and contact your local councillors to let them know that the following aspects are not acceptable:

• 36% of the metres of cycle lane will remain as painted cycle lanes (as pictured above). Most of the remaining will be small kerbs that drivers can drive/park on if they want to.
• Cycle lanes and footpaths get narrower at key points in order to make more space for cars.
• The designs do not make the Beech Hill Road junction much safer than it currently is. They must allow for a safe right turn for people cycling onto Beech Hill Road/Beaver Row and they must prevent left hooks from drivers turning onto Beech Hill Road.
• The designs do not address one of the most dangerous junctions on this route: Whitebeam Road. Due to the location of this junction, the best solution is to close it to motor traffic, with drivers to use Whitethorn Road as an alternative.
• The designs do not take into account the Dodder Greenway project and will need to be changed when the plans for that project are decided. These designs assume that the designers of the Dodder Greenway will adopt the most expensive, least safe possible option.
• The designs do not make it safer for pedestrians to cross side roads.
• The designs still allow and encourage illegal parking on footpaths including the annexation of public footpath space by Clonskeagh Motors.

Deadline for submissions: midday on Thursday 6th August

Our full submission is here.

Please take 5 minutes to make a submission here and let the council know that you support improvements that make it safer to cycle, but that there are major flaws to the current plans. If the council do not hear your voice on this, the currently proposed sub-standard cycle lanes could be in place for at least a generation.

Background

DLR County Council are currently redesigning Clonskeagh Road between UCD (Newstead entrance) and the Dodder. This is part of a wider project to improve the cycling infrastructure from Clonskeagh, through Ranelagh and into the city centre. We need your support to ensure that this scheme includes high quality, segregated cycling infrastructure. The designs are available here and the written report on the project is here. We urge you to take 5 minutes to make a submission here to share your feedback on the plans.

What are the improvements?

In some places, the cycle lane will be segregated from motor traffic with a kerb. These sections of cycle lane will use the same design as the road between UCD and Bird Avenue.

An island bus stop will be added to the inbound side of the road between Whitebeam Road and Whitethorn Road. This means that the cycle path will go behind the bus stop so you won’t have to worry about buses pulling in across you when you cycle.

What are our concerns?

Only short sections of the cycle paths will be segregated. For most of the route, only painted cycle lanes will be provided. We all know that paint is not protection.

The cycle path will still be extremely narrow in many places, while the amount of space for cars will be increased. This is the busiest cycle route in DLR, and the cycle paths should be a minimum of 2m wide all along the route.

The junctions will still be as hazardous as they are today. At Whitebeam Road, inbound cyclists will still be obscured by stationary traffic, making them invisible to right-turning cars.

Inbound cyclists will still be at risk of being knocked over by drivers turning onto and from Whitebeam Road. All drivers using Whitebeam Road could also use the parallel Whitethorn Road with little to no extra journey distance.

Our submission

Dublin Cycling Campaign’s submission is available below.