2009-07-16 Kevin St. D2

I notice that Dublin City Council have been busy painting new advisory cycle lanes all over the city centre over the past few weeks.

I’ve attached a few photos of the Bride St. / Kevin St. Junction which was repainted this week. The arms of the junction which were painted are not covered in the plans from the QBN Office for the Bride St. QBC from March 2009 so I guess they’re part of the general repainting that is going on. 

Above is Kevin St. approaching Bride St. Westbound. The cycle lane is completely new.

Note how the cycle lane is in the path of opening car doors. Note also how it hugs the pavement putting cyclists at risk of left turning vehicles turning into the left filter lane. The cyclist in the photo, who was carrying straight on, has sensible (but illegally) kept well out to defend himself from the car doors and left turning vehicles. I regularly cycle this street and have found that the only way to avoid conflict with vehicles entering the left filter lane is to cycle way out into the middle of the street.

Above is Kevin St. approaching Bride St. Eastbound. The cycle track marked through the junction is completely new.

The cycle lane in a shared left/straight lane is marked in the left of the lane and carried through the junction. Cyclists carrying straight on should cycle in the centre of the entire lane, not in the position which the cycle lane advises (and mandates by law) that they use. I have personally had problems with left turning vehicles in this situation at this junction on a number of ocasions.

Above is Bride St. approaching Kevin St. Northbound.

This is completely unacceptable by any standard. The newly painted advisory cycle lane is 1.2 m wide in a 3.0 m wide lane.

Policy 2.9 of the new National Cycle Policy Framework says that "We will also ensure that designs will provide for a safe passing distance of 1.5 m between motorised vehicles and bicycles." The 1.2 m cycle lane is already less than the 1.5 m minimum standard. How can a car then safely pass this cyclist leaving 1.5 m in the 1.8 m that remains? What happens in practice is that the markings encourage drivers to pass cyclists in a dangerous manner within the 1.8 m shown.

The comments above regarding the conflict with left turning vehicles also apply.