The Dublin Cycling Campaign is an independent, voluntary lobby group that has been working to improve the city for all cyclists for over a decade and a half.
Sign up to our free email newsletter to keep up to date
2009 Velocity Poster
James Leahy presented a poster to Velocity 2009 in Brussels on the idea of recycling general vehicle lanes into bus/cycle lanes.
James Leahy – Dublin Cycling Campaign – VeloCity 2009 – Brussels – Poster - 8 May 2009
Bus/cycle lanes as a catalyst for the recycling of streets:
A case study of Dublin, a “climber” city.
Compared to typical European cities, Dublin (pop. 1.2m) is a low density city with sprawling poorly planned development outside of the historic core. Growth in employment, population and car ownership since 1990 has led to a massive increase in car use and congestion, with significant negative social, environmental and economic impacts.
Since 1990 there have been two parallel and competing strategies for transport and urban development: The dominant one is a predict-and-provide approach to increase capacity through road building and the provision of underground rail. An alternative strategy of reallocation of road space to cycling, pedestrians and bus/trams has also been implemented at a local level.
The first strategy has involved the provision of roads outside the city centre and active traffic management in the centre to increase capacity for traffic. This has created streets hostile to cycling. In addition to this, planned Metro investment will tackle congestion on radial routes. However, as it creates an independent underground system it will not directly address the root of the problem, and does not directly improve the hostile environment for cyclists.
In parallel to the dominant strategy, the local authorities have pursued an alternative one where streets clogged with mixed traffic are recycled, with space reallocated to pedestrians, cyclists, buses and public spaces. This has had striking success in certain areas. The focus on creating mixed use streets and the removal of through traffic in Temple Bar in the 1990’s successfully regenerated Dublin’s cultural quarter. This radical shift from previous policy has acted as a template for later redevelopment of the city centre. The reallocation of general traffic lanes to bus/cycle lanes, called Quality Bus Corridors, has on the better routes achieved a significant modal shift from car to bus, with real reductions in car numbers. These bus/cycle lanes are the main catalyst for the creation of cycle facilities in the city. After many years of decline cycling is increasing.
This sub-strategy has however been hampered by a lack of integration, piecemeal implementation, and a lack of political support. In many cases, the design of bus/cycle lanes is substandard resulting in a deterioration of conditions for cycling. In others, the lack of a clear strategy for the allocation of road space and piecemeal implementation has led to bus-jams creating a very hostile environment for cyclists. Lastly, poor integration of design can mean that the bus/cycle infrastructure can be ugly, instead of creating good urban spaces.
This poster will illustrate the ideas above by illustrating developments in Dublin since 1990, and highlighting examples of good and bad practice. With political will, a clear strategy, and better implementation, Dublin could be a “climber” city; an example of how streets can be recycled in a low density city unsuited to high capacity public transport.
