A Chara, - The roads department of Dublin Corporation is engaged in a multitude of "traffic calming" schemes. Most of these involve the straightforward ramping of roads. But of late the Corporation is also narrowing roads and junctions significantly. This has the effect of reducing the width available to a bare two lanes on many roads. The aim is to force motorists to reduce speed and take greater care.
Such work is currently under way on Ailesbury Road in Ballsbridge. I cycle on that road several times a week and I find the work is making it dangerous for cyclists. To negotiate the many narrow sections of the road, cyclists now have to move out into the traffic flow and take their chances with motor vehicles. When I brought this to the attention of the roads department, I was told that cyclists have to move out to pass stationary cars anyway.
The safety of cyclists does not appear to be of great interest to road engineers, as Ailesbury Road could easily take cycle lanes, rather than have us dicing with motor traffic. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Jordan, Gilford Road, Dublin 4.