Supporting College Green Plaza

Cycling already accounts for 27% of all traffic on Dame Street, making it the most popular cycling area in Dublin, in spite of the current hostile conditions. With an expanding population and national policy to increase the share of walking and cycling trips across the city to 25% in the coming years, this area needs to be equipped to handle a proportionate increase.
We’re calling on the City Council to guarantee the delivery of a new College Green that meets the needs for current cycling and walking volumes and is future-proofed for projected demand. The area needs to deliver for all users of the space, no matter where they’re coming from or going to, whether they’re walking through or lingering; whether cycling with children or cycling to work. The needs of visually impaired people, deaf people, children and the elderly need to be catered for at the proposed plaza in particular.

The tried and tested Dutch model for cycling, employing high quality segregated routes and widespread permeability, is the only proven way to realise truly inclusive levels of cycling. Cycle flows must have the same attention to detail as public transport to unlock the true potential of cycling in Dublin. We’re concerned that the latest drawings do not convey this. Specifically, we’re calling for:
A detailed design that takes advantage of the principles of sustainable safety and does not use shared walking and cycling areas, in accordance with section 1.9.3 of the National Cycling Manual (NCM). We view this as central to the success or failure of the plaza;
Use of self-enforcing separated cycle tracks which are well-defined visually and spatially, using angled kerbs, grade-separation and colouring to create new bike permeability for Trinity, Dame Street, Grafton Street Quarter, O’Connell Street and other destinations in the area;
Use of bus stop bypasses at all stops on Dame Street and all other possible measures to separate busses and cycles in the area, including bidirectional paths in accordance with the NCM/Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets requirements.

660 Dubliners have already backed our calls for improved walking and cycling commitments in this year’s City Development Plan, joining almost 8000 overwhelmingly positive submissions on the 2015 Dublin City Centre Transport Study. The leading business groups have also backed the College Green proposals, which will make the city even more attractive to the world’s leading companies and their workers. The council has already shown what quality cycling routes can achieve in Dublin with the Grand Canal Cycleway. It’s now time to build on that success.