100 signatures reached
To: Limerick City & County Council
Restore the vehicle lane on Shannon Bridge
Remove the two-way cycle lane taking over the vehicle lane on Shannon Bridge before the schools go back, otherwise there will be traffic chaos. Instead put in proper cycle lanes either side of the bridge that will properly connect to the rest of the Condell Road, and leaving two lanes of inbound traffic over the bridge.
Why is this important?
The temporary cycle lane on Shannon Bridge implemented as part of the Council's 'Guiding Limerick Through Covid-19 Plan' has removed a full lane of inbound car traffic from the junction at Lower Shelbourne Road and Condell Road as far as the Dock Road roundabout.
During the school term this roundabout is used by 25,000 cars daily, the northside of Limerick City cannot cope with one single lane of inbound traffic on this bridge. The junction at Lower Shelbourne Road onto Condell Road is already a bottleneck for traffic. It is a one-way turn towards Shannon Bridge so all traffic is going in the same direction. With only one lane for cars this will be a traffic nightmare.
Using this junction is traffic for many schools such as Ard Scoil Ris secondary, Villiers secondary, Educate Together secondary, Salesians, JFK, and Gaelscoil Sairseal primary schools, plus Limerick Institute of Technology, as well as people on the northside travelling to schools in the city (e.g. the Model, the Project and Mary Immaculate College).
We want to cycle safely across the bridge, but this is not the way to do it. People cycling down Mallow Street or from the Dock Road direction are not even using the new lane, they are still cycling out over the bridge on the left traffic lane - squeezing all incoming traffic into one lane coming against them is more dangerous for those cyclists.
Please listen to people that are actually using this bridge on a daily basis. Motorists, passengers and cyclists. Older neighbourhoods is this area will suffer the most in this decision, traffic joining from Westfields and North Circular Road directions already wait in a tailback on school mornings to join traffic at Fernbank, this will get far worse. Traffic on the Condell Road will be worse as cars coming from Clonmacken meet traffic from Fernbank and all wait together to get over the bridge on that one single lane. This will cause huge delays, unnecessary mental health strain on everyone involved, and will be dangerous - and all for a cycle lane that isn't working.
We request Limerick City & County Council restore the vehicle lane and remove the current setup, and instead implement proper cycle lanes instead of these "short-term measures on a temporary basis" as it is called in the Council's 'Guiding Limerick Through Covid-19 Plan'. https://www.limerick.ie/sites/default/files/media/documents/2020-07/limerick-city-and-county-council-guiding-limerick-through-covid-19-15-july-2020_0.pdf
During the school term this roundabout is used by 25,000 cars daily, the northside of Limerick City cannot cope with one single lane of inbound traffic on this bridge. The junction at Lower Shelbourne Road onto Condell Road is already a bottleneck for traffic. It is a one-way turn towards Shannon Bridge so all traffic is going in the same direction. With only one lane for cars this will be a traffic nightmare.
Using this junction is traffic for many schools such as Ard Scoil Ris secondary, Villiers secondary, Educate Together secondary, Salesians, JFK, and Gaelscoil Sairseal primary schools, plus Limerick Institute of Technology, as well as people on the northside travelling to schools in the city (e.g. the Model, the Project and Mary Immaculate College).
We want to cycle safely across the bridge, but this is not the way to do it. People cycling down Mallow Street or from the Dock Road direction are not even using the new lane, they are still cycling out over the bridge on the left traffic lane - squeezing all incoming traffic into one lane coming against them is more dangerous for those cyclists.
Please listen to people that are actually using this bridge on a daily basis. Motorists, passengers and cyclists. Older neighbourhoods is this area will suffer the most in this decision, traffic joining from Westfields and North Circular Road directions already wait in a tailback on school mornings to join traffic at Fernbank, this will get far worse. Traffic on the Condell Road will be worse as cars coming from Clonmacken meet traffic from Fernbank and all wait together to get over the bridge on that one single lane. This will cause huge delays, unnecessary mental health strain on everyone involved, and will be dangerous - and all for a cycle lane that isn't working.
We request Limerick City & County Council restore the vehicle lane and remove the current setup, and instead implement proper cycle lanes instead of these "short-term measures on a temporary basis" as it is called in the Council's 'Guiding Limerick Through Covid-19 Plan'. https://www.limerick.ie/sites/default/files/media/documents/2020-07/limerick-city-and-county-council-guiding-limerick-through-covid-19-15-july-2020_0.pdf