On your bike

The ambitious National Cycle Network (NCN) is already under way, and is a planned core cycle network of 3,500km which will traverse the country connecting more than 200 villages, towns and cities. In our capital, there are more than 30 cycling infrastructure schemes, which will provide segregated bike lanes across Dublin city, under construction or in planning and design. According to Dublin City Council, 95 per cent of Dubliners will be within 400m of segregated cycling facilities once these are completed. Meanwhile, Waterford City Council says its upgrades to cycle paths will lead to a projected 541 per cent increase in cycling.

It’s probably fair to say that Ireland’s cities are unlikely to become a Rotterdam or Copenhagen where cyclists rule the road, but can cycling really become a viable alternative to cars when it comes to getting around?

According to Paul Norton of Cycling Ireland, we are clearly lagging behind other European countries when it comes to the quantity and quality of our cycling infrastructure. “Where quality segregated cycling lanes have been constructed, there has been a significant increase in cycling traffic but also the opposite is true; where cycling infrastructure has been shoehorned into existing road infrastructure, cyclists are less likely to use it,” he explains. “There is also an overwhelming focus on urban areas versus rural roads, which needs to be addressed. In order to encourage people in rural areas to take a bike instead of a car, towns need to be linked with quality, segregated cycle lanes.”

Norton says the pandemic led to an upsurge in cycling, while recent figures suggest more kids are choosing to cycle to school. He asserts, however, that the “overwhelming” reason as to why people choose not to cycle is safety. “Most people who cycle and nearly all people who don’t cycle would prefer not to have to share the road with fast-moving motor vehicles. So the two key factors in planning quality cycle infrastructure are segregation – safety from both motor vehicles and pedestrians – and the connectivity or convenience of the infrastructure. If it is not perceived to be safe and if it is not convenient to use as an alternative to the roadway, then people are simply not going to want to use it, whether that’s people who currently cycle or attracting non-cyclists to start cycling.”

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He notes that in the area he lives and cycles – Fingal and Dublin North – the length and quality of cycling infrastructure has significantly increased in recent years. “Where segregated lanes haven’t been possible to build, many on-road cycle lanes have been introduced with the use of bollards. While not visually appealing, they have helped connect more segregated and non-segregated [bollarded] lanes together.”

It is the Government’s hope that cycling will play a “major role” in the decarbonisation of transport, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Transport. “While there are no specific targets in terms of the number of people cycling, the National Sustainable Mobility Policy contains an overall aim of 500,000 additional daily active travel and public transport journeys by 2030 based on 2021 levels,” she says.

CycleConnects, an initiative of the National Transport Authority (NTA), aims to improve sustainable travel by providing the potential for more trips on a safe, accessible and convenient cycling network, connecting more people to more places. The aim of the NCN, the spokesperson adds, “is to ultimately create a safe and connected network between urban centres which both cyclists and, in some cases such as greenways, pedestrians can use on a day-to-day basis.”

Initiatives such as the Cycle to Work Scheme and subsidised CycleRight training for primary school students are also seeking to address the barrier of affordability. “This can be a stumbling block in increasing the uptake in cycling. In addition, the Department of Transport is working with the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform ahead of Budget 2024 to explore more options for financial incentives to promote cycling.”

Going from four wheels to two isn’t for everyone, but with safer and better infrastructure, it may become a viable option for more people, says Norton. “Obviously Cycling Ireland is hugely in favour of taking people out of private cars and on to bikes,” he says. “We want to see improvements to our cycling infrastructure that benefits all cyclists, young and old.”