Galway Cycling Group Report on bad Road Design Guidance issued

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday May 09, 2002 15:05

by blisset

Press release

Report reveals that DoELG and DTO distributed dangerous design guidance to Irish Local Authorities.

Report reveals that DoELG and DTO distributed dangerous design guidance to Irish
Local Authorities.

An independent report has revealed that the Department of the Environment and
Local Government (DoELG) and Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) has been
distributing dangerous and inappropriate road design guidance to Irish Local
Authorities. The report, on Irish cycle facilities design guidance, was
compiled by the Galway Cycling Campaign and has revealed that the DoELG and DTO
had endorsed the use of cycle track designs associated with up to 12 fold (x12)
increases in the rate of collisions between cars and bicycles. It is now over
25 years since a previous An Foras Forbartha report found that the use of
roadside cycle tracks was inherently self defeating because of "the very real
risk of collisions in the merging phase" at intersections. At a European
conference in 1991 the use of roadside cycleways was described as being
equivalent to "Russian roulette".

The DTO/DoELG document was adapted from previous Dutch design guidance and is
based on the unique Dutch legal system in which cyclists must yield to motorists
unless there are special road markings. Under Dutch law motorists are also held
to be automatically liable in collisions with cyclists regardless of the
circumstances of the accident. The Netherlands has set a target of 20mph speed
limits on 75% of urban roads and there are estimated to be 1,500 speed camera
installations in the Netherlands. The Netherlands also has 6,500 residential
zones in which a speed limit of "walking speed" applies. However, the Irish
Ministers for the Environment and Local Government failed to introduce similar
legislation or measures in support of the Irish document.

Comparison of a draft of the document with the final version further showed that
some of the Dutch cycle track designs were changed by removing protective road
markings that were intended to reduce the safety risks to those cyclists who
choose to use them. In addition, several key designs have were changed so as to
remove priority from the cyclists using the cycle tracks and give it to
motorised traffic. Cycle track users who could have proceeded normally if they
had stayed on the road were expected to stop and yield to turning and crossing
motor traffic at every side road.

"Many cyclists have long suspected that most Irish "cycle facilities" were
neither intended to enhance safety nor to promote and encourage cycling.
Instead, it is suspected that they actually represent a crude attempt to manage
and control bicycle traffic for the benefit of motorists. This view is
reinforced by the nature of design guidance being issued by the DoELG and DTO."
said Shane Foran the Safety Officer for the Galway Cycle Campaign who wrote the
report.

The report was funded in part by a grant from the Environmental Partnership Fund
and copies have now been distributed to all Irish Local Authorities and
University Libraries.

Ends

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Comments (3 of 3)

Road design in Ireland

by Clare

Thu May 09, 2002 15:36

ballyhaunis at care2 dot com

Galway

Well done Shane on the report. Hope it gets widespread attention. If I can get my hands on a copy I'll pass the findings on to as many as possible! Is there a way to ensure this kind of thing is covered in Civil Eng courses? I suppose we just have to bring it to our lectures and ask them individually.

Clare

Good report

by Working Class Cyclist

Thu May 09, 2002 16:42

Galway Cycling Campaign really seem to have their act together researching all this stuff. Cycling in Dublin is definitely terrible as a result of all these new cars and the arsed-up new "cycling facilities". It's good to have some concrete, factual research to back up impressions.

Bike lanes are only useful in very limited situations: along the side of a motorway that you wouldn't want to be on for example. And in those cases you have to make sure that any intersections, etc. are engineered so that when the cyclist comes to them there is NO problem in crossing.

Bike lanes have little place in the cities. They give motorists an excuse to insist that the cyclist should feck off into a narrow little strip.

And where there are separate bike-paths, like the one along the seafront from Fairview out to Sutton Cross then its full of dogs and people wandering all over the thing, has dangerous little drop-off steps, has multiple concealed entrances etc.

Too true

by CycloPath2001

Thu May 09, 2002 21:35

This report is unfortunately too true and probably explains why no maps or photographs of the alleged 'cycle facilities' appear on the relevent departments' sites.

See my site for photographic evidence. Note it's not fully up to date. Dublin City Council have since closed the Fairview Park route and started to excavate the only alternative route. Needless to say, no diversions or warnings are posted for city-bound cyclists.

http://www.geocities.com/cyclopath2001/

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Galway Cycling Group Report on bad Road Design Guidance issued

Comments (3 of 3)