At the beginning of December an official press release for the funding of three cross-border greenway projects in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland was announced that will open up new sustainable cross border travel routes for both cyclists and pedestrians. The EU’s INTERREG VA Programme has offered approximately €23.27 million.This will fund the development of greenways in three different areas including one joining Carlingford to Newry, a route from Monaghan into Armagh along the Ulster Canal and three different routes in the North West, one from Strabane to Lifford and two from Derry/ Londonderry into Donegal. One of these routes is good news for the further development of EuroVelo 1 in Ireland. Read article
Two-wheel takeover: bikes outnumber cars for the first time in Copenhagen
Denmark’s capital has reached a milestone in its journey to become a cycling city – there are now more bikes than cars on the streets. Can other cities follow? Read article
Better days for Boston cyclists
Once ranked among America’s worst bicycling cities, Boston has cleaned up its act in recent years, becoming a safer place to bike to work, according to a Harvard Chan School study of injuries to bicycle commuters between 2009 and 2012. Read more
GoCycle – compact foldable electric bike
Transport silence maintained in Minister Naughten’s climate statement
Cyclist.ie was disappointed with the near absence of actions to decarbonise transport in Minister Denis Naughten’s first Annual Transition Statement on climate action. Read press release
Royal Canal cycling greenway ‘mediocre’ – claim
The Royal Canal Greenway, currently being constructed along the the Royal Canal across the northern boundary of the county has been described as “mediocre” by local lobbying group Maynooth Cycling Campaign.
“This was a lost opportunity to provide a good quality greenway as opposed to a mediocre one – one which will compares unfavourably with the Deise Greenway,” Maynooth Cycling Campaign said in a blog post on their website on November 18.
Meath Co Co Rejects Maynooth Cycling Campaign’s Submission
Maynooth Cycling Campaign’s submission here
Meath County Council has rejected all the points raised in Maynooth Cycling Campaign’s submission on the Moygaddy Road, part of the proposed ring road around Maynooth.
The main point concerned the separation of an off road cycle track from the road. The council proposed a separation of 1.5m whereas Table 4.3 of TD300 Provision of Cycle Facilities in Rural Areas requires a minimum separation distance of 2m for speeds of 80km/h or less. The council’s response was “The separation distance at 1.5m is deemed to be appropriate”.
The second point of the submission was differentiation of cycle track from the footpath in level and material. Meath County Council responded that there would be suffice demarcation with different materials.
The third point was for the provision of filtered permeability on the existing road. Meath County Council undertook to implement some traffic calming but did not state whether or not filtered permeability would be included .
A common aspects of all three responses is that they fail to address the points raised in the submission and recommend no changes regardless of standards, best international practice or any other arguments or precedents. This continues the practice in most local authorities of looking for public submissions but rejecting submissions from cycling groups if it does accord with their proposals
Cyclist.ie’s Work Highlighted at Cycling Ireland Awards Night
On Saturday 26th November, Cycling Ireland hosted its 2016 Awards Night in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Dublin. The night was a celebration of the cycling events and developments of 2016, across the many strands of the activity and sport of cycling. Cyclist.ie was represented by its new Chairperson, Colm Ryder, and by National Cycling Coordinator, Dr. Damien Ó Tuama.
Cyclist.ie’s work – and the new collaboration with Cycling Ireland – was highlighted. A new video explaining what the collaboration is about was shown to the 200 or so guests at the event. This was followed by an on-stage interview with Damien and the Secretary General of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), Dr. Bernhard Ensink – as pictured here with Declan Quigley, MC for the event. Damien and Bernhard stressed the importance of making everyday cycling safe and normal, and for proper investment to be made in high quality cycling interventions. The ECF and World Cycling Alliance proposal that there needs to be a designated UN World Bicycle Day received a great reaction from the attendees.
Bernhard had been in Dublin with a team from ECF as a result of Dublin City being short-listed, along with Helsinki, to host the prestigious 2019 Velo-city International Cycling Conference. The ECF team spent three days exploring the city and meeting key figures including Minister Shane Ross, the CEO of the National Transport Authority Ms. Anne Graham, the CE of Dublin City Council, Owen Keegan, and other decision-makers. It is expected that a decision will be made on which city will host Velo-city within the next month or so. Watch this space.
Dublin Bikes scheme to be expanded to ‘urban villages’
Plans for a radical redesign of the Dublin Bikes rental scheme to bring it to “urban villages” such as Ballymun, Finglas,Terenure and Ballyfermot are to be drawn up by Dublin City Council.
ECF Newsletter
Dublin Cycling Campaign is a member of Cyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network (ICAN), which in turn is the Irish member of the ECF (European Cyclists’ Federation). This is the latest ECF newsletter, with great articles on innovations and developments in cycling around the globe, from bike parking in Holland to public bike systems in Africa!