[Laura Keegan]

Hi everyone,

My pain point example is a two parter! The image below shows how the dedicated cycle lane on one of the primary routes leaving Dublin city centre simply ends at a pedestrian crossing. No cycle lane is painted beyond this point. The indicator as to where cyclists should go is on the blue sign behind the traffic light on the left. It’s common in Dublin for Bus Lanes to also be allocated as shared cycle lanes (terrible I know), and this sign is telling cyclists to use the bus lane as a cycle lane (the time periods indicate that outside of those hours all traffic can use the bus lane which is another issue in and of itself!). This is particularly dangerous when there is a bus stop just over a 100m past this point, with cyclists having to pull out into traffic to get around the buses.

 

 

This pain point becomes even more evident about 200m down the road at this terribly designed junction which I’ve posted a satellite shot of from Google Maps. (The lanes I’m talking about in this picture are the two at the bottom)

 

 

This junction is bad for cyclists in two ways. First the bus lane and therefore cycle lane switches from the left hand lane to the right hand lane as it approaches the lights. This puts cyclists in a dangerous position as they have to cross a lane of traffic to follow the bus lane. Secondly the layout of the junction is awful. Cyclists following the bus lane can only go straight ahead. If you want to turn left you can follow the kerb in the left hand lane, but there is no official space allocated to cyclists wishing to make the turn. The junction has a huge amount of space and could be a safe junction for cyclists but is poorly designed and leaves cyclists exposed as a result.

Given the importance of this route and the volumes of traffic it sees from cyclists, buses, taxis, cars and delivery drivers, the junction itself is a disaster, but the issue is only made worse for cyclists due to the unceremonious end of the dedicated cycle lane 200m earlier.

You can check out the area yourself here

[Laura Keegan]

Replying to post #26094 from Alistair.

Hi Alistair,

This road looks all to familiar in layout to a lot of roads we have in Dublin!

a) What incremental improvement would you recommend for this particular example

You already identified the issue, which is that by ending the segregation of the bike lane from car traffic and creating a left filter lane on the other side of the bike lane, cyclists are left exposed to cars crossing from one lane to the other.

The fix is relatively straight forward. Fill in the left filter lane so it becomes part of the pedestrian path, extend the protection of the cycle lane right up to the lights. The traffic lane to the right of the cycle lane becomes a left turn lane. Create concrete islands at the junction to protect both cyclists and pedestrians, and to ensure drivers have to take a wider curve around the corner. It would be preferable if a cycle traffic light could be installed, giving cyclists a 10 second head start on green so that they could clear the junction before left turning cars got their green.

b) What kind of political and bureaucratic opposition this improvement would likely encounter

I think it’s likely to be opposed because it takes road space away from cars and reduces two lanes of traffic travelling straight ahead (with one funnelling left turning traffic to the left filter lane) to one lane travelling straight and one turning left. It may be deemed to slow the flow of traffic and is also likely to meet opposition at the possible cost of installing concrete islands, a cycle traffic light and reconfiguring traffic sequencing.

[Laura Keegan]

Hey everyone,

This is the cycle track by the Grand Canal in Dublin. It’s the only fully segregated track in my neighbourhood and one of the best examples of cycling infrastructure in the entire city.

It extends along the canal for 2km, but crosses a number of junctions where there is no proper separation and has a particularly bad pinchpoint where pedestrians and cyclists share a very narrow path. You can check out the area yourself here.

The pinchpoint section of the track disappears in Google Streetview because there are no recent pictures taken since the track has been built and it’s also a tight spot for Google’s camera’s to access. If the track disappears on you and you can’t find it again, you can restart here and continue on until the end!

[Laura Keegan]

Hey everyone,

My name is Laura. I’m from Dublin and work as an account manager for a social media monitoring company. I have no formal background in transport or architecture, but have always been a bit obsessed by transport, cities and creating places. Dublin is a bit of a scary place to cycle (as anyone who might have attended last years Velocity will know), so I actually don’t cycle much in the city but spend a lot of time thinking about how it could be better served by cycling and advocating on social media alongside local advocacy groups for improved infrastructure.

I don’t really have any specific expertise that I identify with. Because of my lack of formal learning, I have picked up a variety of insights from a lot of different sources online. So a lot of what I know comes not just from cycling urbanism, but understanding how streets should work in terms of public space, transport both active and public, and the scale and purpose of the buildings surrounding them. I tend to walk around cities I visit, looking at their infrastructure and design, noticing things that are done well or could be improved and thinking how we could do something similar in Dublin. I also spend a lot of time pointing these things out to my very patient girlfriend!

I’m not sure what perspective I’ll be able to provide but I’m always curious and eager to delve into things that are new or that I don’t know much about. Hopefully I can share some knowledge I’ve picked up along the way, but I have a feeling I’ll learning a lot more from all of you! On twitter I’m @takeithandy

[Author]

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