We need to get our spoke in on cycle lanes if we are to change our transport policy
TWO WEEKS ago, I arranged to meet Robert Burns, director of infrastructure at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCC), opposite the Dart station in Dún Laoghaire. Unfortunately, it was the same day the howling wind and rain hammered in from the east. Robert is in charge of the new cycle route from Booterstown to Dún Laoghaire, which is similar to the controversial proposal for Sandymount. Just yesterday, the High Court halted work on the Sandymount two-lane cycle way plan and it’s going to a judicial review.
Anyone living physically and psychologically outside of Dublin 4 may not care about all this. But it matters because the way we live is unsustainable, and the same thing will have to be done in many other towns.
Sandymount today. Salthill tomorrow.
Since road works don’t need planning permission, DLRCC was able to seize the Covid collapse in traffic and reallocate half of the N31 – the coast road. They fenced it down the middle, made the road one-way for cars and gave the other half to cyclists.
I wanted to see how it worked before forming an opinion on the Sandymount row.
I’ve never attempted to cycle in Dublin before – it’s so dangerous.
The danger is why cycling tends to be dominated by men, made worse when cycling became the new golf, a networking club rather than a humble means of transport. The affluence and testosterone means cyclists aren’t exactly lovable.
But when cycling is safe, women and children venture out.
And so I ended up taking my first ever cycle in Dublin in a veritable hurricane.
It started badly. I was putting on my gloves when the wind whipped one onto the mesh over the Dart rail line. My precious Marks & Spencer’s leather glove – I was dismayed. I briefly considered climbing the fence to retrieve it but visualised the harsh judgment if I fell onto a train rescuing a glove.
Then Robert produced an electric bike but it was far too big. I apologised for not letting him know in advance I am very small. We trooped down to the deserted basement car park of the council offices to find another. As I waited in the cold, I thought of Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal and decided this rendezvous made me a proper journalist.
With a smurf bike selected, we headed off as the east wind threatened to whisk me away like my glove.
But in my cycle lane, if I was knocked off I wouldn’t end up under a bus or car. So we went up and down Dún Laoghaire, then Seapoint in one direction; Glasthule in the other. I was frozen with the cold but can confirm the lane, together with all the other work undertaken, is amazing. They created little islands with seating and tables, widened footpaths, provided extra bike parking and added big planters.
When the space opens up, people come. The number of cycling trips increased from 4,000 to 20,000 in just one week.
But what about the cars? Well, here’s the thing about cars.
Cars are too big, too dangerous and too poisonous to be entitled to their priority status in urban areas well served by public transport. I used to drive regularly into Dublin and was raging when the north quays were persistently redesigned to make life harder for cars.
Eventually I gave up and started parking at Heuston Station and getting the Luas into the city centre.
And that, friends, is the point. We will not abandon cars until we are forced to do so.
When you do, it’s utterly amazing how the streets are transformed. Everything is nicer.
The Dún Laoghaire route is temporary, and Robert says as it’s been implemented they are able to tweak it as they see how it impacts adversely on particular people.
This ability to trial an idea is brilliant.
At first, people are outraged when they realise they might have to drive out of their way in a new one-way system, but when it’s up and running they see how they can adapt. You realise you can leave the car at home sometimes and take the bike instead. You just had to be beaten into it.
There are always losers in these changes and some people find it hard. But it’s all about the greater good.
I have many friends in Sandymount. They are being bombarded by requests for money to fight the proposal. Those who favour the cycle lane are terrified to admit it, given the revolutionary atmosphere.
Some argue the lane should be on the seaside of the coast wall. Except that proposal was defeated 10 years ago by objections too, and costs tens of millions more than taking the road.
Another advantage of taking the road is that councillors are consulted but have no power to stop it. Local democracy has lost power because over the decades councillors have refused to do unpopular things that are clearly beneficial.
Concerned residents oppose everything from cycle lanes to new housing. The objectors are afraid it will increase traffic in Sandymount village. In fact, the impact will be less traffic overall. I walked around the area afterwards and noted the two-car households. Every narrow street is packed with parked cars.
The transition will be hard, but Dublin 4 residents, many of whom virtuously vote for the Greens, should give the trial a chance before rushing to the courts.
There’s no point voting Green, recycling your rubbish but refusing to cycle. It’s the ‘change’ in climate change. And we all have to change.
Cars are too big, too dangerous and too poisonous to be entitled priority status in urban areas well served by public transport, but we will not abandon cars until we are forced to do so