Dublin City Council top official says "we don't have to apologise" for radical new projects to facilitate cyclists in the city centre. Plans to give cyclists more space on the quays at the expense of cars come after the introduction of other new infrastructure, such as the Dublin bike scheme and the Luas, aimed at moving away from a car culture.
Dublin City Council wants journeys by bicycle to double from their current levels and is planning a radical new lay-out for the busy quays on the River Liffey that would see cyclist having much more space than vehicles.
The plans were outlined by the council in an interview with The Irish Times today, Tuesday.
At present, journeys by bicycle account for just 4 per cent of all trips taken in Dublin.
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However, Dublin City Council, which is the main local authority in the capital, wants that to increase to 10 per cent of all journeys by 2020; an increase of 150 per cent.
The chief executive of the council, Eoin Keegan said policies and infrastructure needed to be put in place in order that cycling could be opened up to a much wider group of people.
A keen cyclist himself, he said the further increase of cycling in Dublin was “inevitable”.
As part of the new plans to encourage more cyclists onto some of the busiest roads in the city - and which would be perceived as very dangerous by many - the council is working on plans to create a two-way cycle lane on the north quays of the river Liffey in the city centre.
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The quays were once regarded as a death trap for cyclists, with large trucks disembarking ferries or collect containers at nearby Dublin Port clogging the roads as they attempted to move through the city centre and access the motorways just outside the city.
However, the Port Tunnel opened in 2007 to take the trucks from the port and underground to the M50, away from the city centre. Trucks are now banned from transiting through city centre Dublin.
These developments were followed by others to encourage more cycling in the capital, including the bike rental scheme.
And now Keegan wants to take those plans much further, to give cyclists the upper hand, at least on the north quays where cars would be reduced to one lane and cyclists would enjoy a two-way cycle lane.
Keegan said he knew the plans would slow traffic but believed policies must be put in place to encourage sustainable transport practices. And that meant encouraging and facilitating cyclists.
“It is not something we have to apologise for,” he told The Irish Times.
“It is inevitable. Cycling has to be for the unbrave as well,” he added of facilitating cyclists on the north quays.
He said the city could not expand the Luas service with a third line connecting the red and green lines and the leave everything else unchanged.
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