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Dublin's College Green (source Paddy Smyth on YouTube).JPGDublin cyclists to get Danish-style 'green wave' technology
Cyclists in Dublin are set to benefit from ‘greenwave’ traffic signals similar to ones already employed in the Netherlands and Denmark under an initiative that will also see a speed limit of 20 kilometres an hour imposed on a busy bus route in the Irish capital.
The Journal reports that the proposals for the College Green bus corridor have been unanimously approved by Dublin City Council’s south-east area committee, with the changes due to be implemented next year subject to planning approval.
> Video: Rotterdam to get green wave system to help cyclist
Traffic lights will be synchronised to let people riding at a constant speed of 20 kilometres, or 12 miles, an hour meet a succession of green signals.
Proposed by Fine Gael councillor Paddy Smyth, who has produced a YouTube video showing how it would work in practice.
He said: “The redesign of College Green in Dublin's city centre will significantly increase the area dedicated to the pedestrian. This will dramatically improve the amenity of arguably the city's most important civic space.
“However, the decrease in available road space means that cyclists will have to share a lane with Buses.
“In order to ensure that cyclists are safe, and made to feel safe, it is proposed to reduced the speed limit in this shared section to 20kph. This is the average speed at which commuter cyclists travel on the flat.
“In order to reinforce compliance with the new speed limit and also aid cyclist to traverse the area efficiently, it is also proposed to delineate the lanes with sequenced LEDs, co-ordinated with the traffic lights, which will clearly demarcate the maximum speed allowed.”
He told The Journal: “There was only one slight objection at committee to the idea, and that was because the councillor in question was disappointed that cyclists would have to share lanes with buses at all.”
However, Nial Ring, independent councillor for North Dublin, described the initiative as “mad.”
He said: “There’s an anti-motorist bias in Dublin for certain.
“If the speed limit drops down to 20 it will be like returning to Flintstones-style transportation. It’s mad stuff, absolutely mad stuff.
“It’s the retailers I feel sorry for. Just as we’re seeing a slight recovery, a hare-brained scheme like this is just another kick in the teeth for them,” he added.
Sstudies in places such as Copenhagen and New York City, however, have shown that initiatives that promote cycling have a beneficial effect on local shops.
Last month, we reported how the city of Aarhus in Denmark is piloting a scheme that sees RFID tags attached to bikes to allow traffic lights to be automatically turned to green as cyclists approach them.
> Cyclists in Denmark can turn red lights green with special RFID tags
Cycling campaigners in London welcomed the move and said they would like to see similar technology deployed there.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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8 comments
If anyone has any quarms or opposition they should see what they have done in Poynton, Cheshire, which some of you will know about. It really is gold and in that clip shows the retailers' sales went up too, whilst also now being a very congenial place to be.
Check out the interesting scheme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vzDDMzq7d0
"It really is gold" At £4m for a load of block paving that wouldn't surprise me.
Christ it looks hellish. Massive congestion, no segregated cycling facilities & no room to filter past the queing traffic. The cyclists in the clip are either hi-vis ed up or on the pavement. A woman said that her commute time had dropped from 20 minutes to 10 minutes, say 10 minutes at a 20mph average so about 3.5miles and she is not encouraged to ride or walk by the new layout.
Anyway, the scheme was such a success that they've decided to do the by-pass anyway.
But apart from that...
"“It’s the retailers I feel sorry for. Just as we’re seeing a slight recovery, a hare-brained scheme like this is just another kick in the teeth for them,” he added"
The fool has obviously never seen the 'struggling' retailers around the corner on pedestrianised Grafton Street. It was a hell-hole before pedestrianisation in the '80s.
That was exactly the first thought that popped into my mind. I would assume that this scheme will be a massive advantage for the restaurants and shops in the area. Instead of it being merely a place that traffic passes through it will be a pleasant destination that allows a reasonable amount of traffic through. I'm looking forward to this happening. I do wonder about the height, location and maintenance of the "sequence LEDs".
Once again lazy politicians trot out the well worn but completely baseless claim that increased cycle and public transport will negatively affect local businesses. You'd think, as per the studies, that having more passing traffic and a nicer environment around your shop may actually encourage people to spend more time and therefore money there. But no, just say anything to appease the vocal minority of motorists who hang on to their right to drive, pollute and cause congestion like Charlton Heston held on to his guns.
I have no idea about this particular chap, but in general, it is not always laziness - some politicians are just really into getting paid lobbying work. Most lobbying money is coming from car firms and oil firms and petro-chems, I think. No riches in lobbying for liveable cities and human-centric transit!
Reminds me of an interesting blog article about why newspapers don't like cyclists (the articles all being about buying stuff or dangers) and it came down to their writers being largely establishment people aware of who pays their bills.
That is interesting and makes a lot of sense.
What really pisses me off about the "retailers will lose business" bullshit, is that even if it were true, it is taken for granted that the right to pursue profit is more important than reduced congestion, pollution and improved public health. Of course this is in Ireland but it is exactly the type of neo-liberal logic that ultimately results in horrendous inequality, a massive housing crisis and huge levels of private debt in this country. It's really no surprise that our "leaders" only pay lip service to cycling and sustainble transport in general.
He is the usual establishment insider masquerading as a "man of the people". As someone else speculated in another comment he is personally financially involved with oil and gas exploration.
The Jerry Beades mentioned in the article linked below is a FF-linked developer who runs a ridiculous outfit known as "The New Land League" which seeks to present itself as modelled on the circa famine-era Land League, but in reality prevents the bailiffs taking back multi-millionaire developers' speculative acquisitions.
If I were seeking to draw a parallel with the UK, Ring would be a sort of UKIP/populist type.
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/nial-ring-26650781.html