There is no escaping the reality: the humble bike must form part of the solution to Dublin's traffic gridlock. Thankfully,

Mr John Henry, chief executive of the Dublin Transportation Office, is an enthusiast. About £4 million will have been spent on the development of cycle lanes in the capital by the end of the year.

A 180km network of lanes is planned, with an additional £13 million earmarked to get all this up and running: "Each (Dublin) local authority is developing its own plan that will link into a strategic network."

Cyclists can go three or four times faster than a pedestrian, but use five times less energy in the process, according to Ivan Illich, one of this century's most challenging social thinkers.

The bicycle, says Illich, can perfectly "match human metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion". Equipped with this tool, he says, "man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines, but all other animals as well".

Since the 1960s the bike has been a forgotten icon, at least until recently. But something of a "deathbed" conversion is discernible since the traffic planners have come to concede its strategic importance.

Mr Henry concedes this has also been something of a Pauline conversion: "Some 12 engineers, including myself, who were involved in the Dublin Transportation Initiative emerged from that process radically different in our outlook."

Mr Henry admits his current worldview is not typical of the traditional road engineer: "I'm more interested in giving priority to the roaduser rather than the vehicle."

In practical terms, this means the DTO is actively promoting the bike culture as the second element of its transport strategy for Dublin next only to quality bus corridors for getting commuters quickly to and from work.

The Tour de France gave public consciousness of the bike's utility a major fillip. The sight of so many superbly fit and bronzed athletes pushing themselves to the limit along Dublin's wet and windswept cobblestones reawakened something in the couch potatoes.

A similar reaction overcame the thousands that turned out to line the approaches to the capital next day, as the peloton returned to Dublin, after the sprint through Wicklow. By the third day, the State had taken the sport of cycling to its heart, as the race swept south through Sean Kelly country, en route to France.

The captive tripper and the reckless traveller are equally dependent on transport, Illich argues. Neither can do without it. It follows that a few hours strapped into a high-powered car seat make one complicit in the distortion of human space, signalling assent to the design of the city's geography around cars rather than people: "Man has evolved physically and culturally together with his cosmic niche." If that relationship is determined by the velocity of vehicles rather than by the movement of people, Man the Architect is reduced to the status of a mere commuter.

The DTO blueprint is a comprehensive manual of cycleway guidelines developed in consultation with Dutch road engineers, acknowledged experts in the field.

THE central theme of the manual is the pre-eminence of the bicycle as a tool for the able-bodied commuter. Hence its strategic role in the overall DTO scheme of things. Implicit in this is the need for the education of motorists to establish without question the right of the cyclist to be on the road.

Dublin - and indeed all Irish cities - are hazard zones for cyclists at all times, as the bruises picked up by this writer in more than 20 years of commuter cycling can testify.

Dublin is taking its cue from countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark, where the bicycle emerges as first among equals at traffic lights and road junctions. But there is still a long way to go, Mr Henry concedes, as he insists the number of cyclists in peak-hour traffic in Dublin will double before long.

Let's start with the removal of parked cars from suburban cycleways, the latest source of apoplexy for the long-suffering bicyclist.

Commuter cycling is all very well, but what about the tourist? That's the sentiment expressed by TCD engineering graduate Keara Robins, who returned to Ireland from Amsterdam six months ago with a business idea which has taken off. Before that she had worked in the oil industry with Shell.

On her return, she proceeded to set up Bike Tours, which shows mobile tourists the delights of medieval Dublin from the cobblestones of Dublin Castle out to Kilmainham (Gaol and Royal Hospital) and back again.

Sounds delightful, and it is. But the absence of proper cycleways and the less than cyclist-friendly Galway road mean the bike convoy must take to the footpath for part of the return lap, to connect up with the National Museum at the former Collins Barracks. The crossing at Heuston Station is particularly hazardous for the unwary.

"I'm very much in favour of what the DTO is doing," says Ms Robins, who pays a high insurance premium for the public liability cover essential for her business. "But these cycle lanes are all aimed at the commuter. A holistic approach should be adopted to the city environment which would cater for the tourist as well."

In the Republic, she says, priority is given to front gardens and the exits from houses, rather than the cycleways running alongside. This contrasts sharply with Holland where the bicycle has priority status. The potential for tourist-friendly routes is enormous, she argues, along river paths adjoining the Dodder, Tolka and Camac, for instance, as well as the two canals separating traditional Dublin from its outer suburbs.

The former oil engineer has a passionate belief in the bike as icon. But there is still some way to go, she concedes, before the golden age of cycling returns to our busy towns and cities.

Colman Cassidy lectures in journalism at Dublin City University and is completing a PhD in political science at Trinity College Dublin