Petition to increase road space for cyclists and pedestrians
WITH lockdown seeing less cars on the road and more space for pedestrians and cyclists, Wexford Bicycle Users Group (WexBug) has submitted a petition with over 500 signatures on it to Wexford County Council officials in a bid to see them re-allocate some road space as the country emerges from Covid-19.
The petition was the brainchild of Castlebridge resident Cormac MacGerailt who was able to take advantage of the lockdown to do some cycling on the roads with his wife Suzanne and children, Finn and Maya.
However, as traffic started to increase again, so did his anxiousness at taking his children out cycling.
‘I think everyone said how great it was when we had such decreased traffic on our roads,’ Cormac said. ‘I was able to bring Finn out cycling his own bike on the Castlebridge road for the first time. But slowly, things started to return to normal. I suppose it was seeing the advantages is where it came from. Wexford County Council has a draft cycling policy, but not much has happened apart from poorly executed cycle lanes. I think the most basic test of these is “would you let your children use them?” A lot of the time, the answer is no.’
Cormac points out that the Department of Transport recently wrote to all 31 local authorities in the country to ‘offer technical and financial support to review their current street arrangements in order to address the new circumstances arising from social distancing requirements and altered travel patterns.’
‘The money is there, but it’s just whether the council is bothered enough to do anything about it,’ Cormac said. ‘I’m a driver, a pedestrian and a cyclist, but I feel that very little is done for cyclists. The response to the petition has been great and I think there’s a real silent demand for this type of thing. But it is silent.’
Cormac and fellow WexBug members dropped the petition to County Hall last week, in particular urging the council to look at their draft cycling plan again. They’ve had no word back yet, but are hopeful of engaging with Wexford County Council further on the matter.