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2009-11-05 Stephens Green West
Some good news for once as rumour has it that Dublin City Council have been down looking at this particular puzzle with a view to sorting it out...
When cycle facilities are built the designer or contractor or both are supposed to cycle it afterwards to make sure it works. This rarely if ever happens. It's a shame because it would immediately show that many schemes are impossible to use while complying with the rules of the road. Take this example on St. Stephen's Green West:
Here there is a short stretch of St. Stephen's Green West beside the Luas which is pedestrianised. Someone has decided to put in a cycle track to increase permeability for cyclists. Great so far. The scheme might have looked fine at first glance at a plan. However, nobody has thought about how cyclists making particular journeys get from A to B.
See the photos above. It is assumed that the cycle-facilities aren't for cyclists going into the multi-storey car-parks. If you come from Grafton Street along St. Stephen's Green West you can enter the cycle track on the left. Fine so far. However it then dumps you at the other end of St. Stephen's Green West where you are going the wrong way down a one-way-street!
It's even worse in the opposite direction. See below:
Coming from Kevin St. along St. Stephen's Green West you can enter the cycle track on the right hand side. Fair enough. However, again it dumps you at the end of St. Stephen's Green West going the wrong way down a one way street. Even worse, this time it dumps you on the right hand side of the traffic which is coming towards you. Note the cyclist in the photo who has managed to get over to the parking on the left hand side. You finally arrive at the busy Grafton St. / St Stephen's Green pedestrian crossing but there are no lights facing you to tell you that the pedestrians have priority.
Ironically this seems to work reasonably well in practice as some sort of an informal "shared space". This isn't an excuse for substandard design. I don't know the history of this but it could have arisen when the traffic direction on St. Stephen's Green was changed.
JL 4/12/09
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