“There is definitely a lot of fear,” said Labour councillor Fiona Connelly, when asked about children cycling on the roads.
“When our children are on the back of the bike, we can navigate the road and we have more control, but when the time comes for them to cycle, it’s really stressful and they have so much to learn.”
She was speaking on a sunny Tuesday morning at the opening of a “mobility school” located at Eamonn Ceannt Park in Crumlin, Dublin.
As a teacher, parent and local resident, she praised Dublin City Council for the initiative, which aims to create awareness about road safety among cyclists, to promote the use of bicycles and reduce our carbon footprint.
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With the help of street markings painted in an exercise yard, the facility allows people to re-enact the rules of the road, navigate right- and left-hand turns, roundabouts, stop signs and pedestrian crossings, and to familiarise themselves with road signs and signals, before they hit the roads proper.
“It’s a really great asset, as it’s off the road completely. It’s a brilliant way to introduce people to cycling,” said Cllr Connelly, who was deputising for the Lord Mayor at the event.
She said the unpredictability of drivers and the competition for road space makes for stressful navigation, particularly during commuting times.
Carmel O’Callaghan, active cities officer at the council, was one of the people behind the idea.
“People focus on kids cycling, but if the parent isn’t confident cycling, they’re not going to let their child cycle. So, we will focus here a lot on cycling with confidence, programmes for adults, and cycling in traffic.”
Eamonn Ceannt Park was chosen as the location for the mobility school because of the velodrome there, the bike hub located in the park, and an interest in cycling in the local community.
This is only Dublin’s second mobility school, with another located in Blanchardstown, and a third in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, according to O’Callaghan.
“There was a traffic school in Clontarf up until the early 2000s. At the time, it needed a lot of investment so there was a move, rather than bringing schools to a particular location, to bring the trainers out to the schoolchildren. Over the years, we have missed having a location like this,” said Brendan O’Brien, executive manager at the council’s traffic department.
“It provides a good template for an area like this to bring kids to help with the cycle training and help to encourage people to get back on bikes and to do that safely,” he said.
“We spend a lot of time trying to come up with cycle tracks and make the roads better, but we also know that people need some encouragement, some training, a safe place just to get back on a bike. They might be a bit wobbly at the start if they haven’t been on it for a few years, and having a safe place like this is huge to us.
“Whenever we’re trying to think of climate change and how we respond to it – it’s a multitude of small items linking together to form something bigger rather than one big item. To us, it’s a big thing, but in the overall context it’s a small link in a chain for how we encourage people to make those changes,” said Mr O’Brien.
Ms O’Callaghan said “The feedback so far from the community has been amazing”. The council will monitor the mobility school’s use with a view to considering opening other such facilities in Dublin. The facility is free to use but advance booking is required.
