Every child should be able to get to school and home safely. We need to make it possible for as many children as possible to walk, scoot or cycle to school, so that they establish good active travel habits early in life, which will make it easier for them to continue such habits into adulthood, improving their expected health and help to lower their carbon footprint. We also need to do something about the increased traffic congestion that happens when the school run is on: the obvious thing is to make it easier for parents to allow their children walk, cycle or scoot to school and not feel they need to jump in the care and bring them.

Gaelscoil Inse chór is an Irish language primary school which has been in the Memorial Park in Islandbridge since 1988. As the name suggests (Inse Chór is the Irish for Inchicore) the majority of the pupils come from the Inchicore and Kilmainham side of the Chapelizod Bypass/Con Colbert Road, and have to cross that major artery (which links the N4 with the city centre) to reach the school. Parents of the school have been campaigning for decades to have the conditions for pedestrians improved, but until now their calls have been ignored. With the safe routes to school scheme introduced by the last government, the city council have eventually opened a consultation on improving things. You can see the consultation here: https://engage.dublincity.ie/en-IE/projects/proposed-front-of-school-works-gaelscoil-inse-chor. While it is to be welcomed, it falls a little short in a few areas.

I would appeal to anyone who has children in the school, or who needs to cross the road to access the park or other schools (children from Islandbridge are in the catchment of the Model School in Inchicore) to make a submission to the council at the above link before 14th September, and express their support and gratitude that something is finally happening. I have included my submission below, and invite you to copy and paste as much of it as you see fit.

Submission to by Oisín Ó hAlmhain:

Thank you for finally starting to review this junction. I note that it is now 11 years since I first contacted the council and councillors highlighting the problems with these 2 junctions, and now only have one child left in the school. However, these crossings are also very important for residents of Inchicore & Kilmainham in reaching the Memorial & Phoenix Park which are an essential amenity in our area.

Traffic Warden

Traffic wardens need to be provided at both of these junctions. There are many schools throughout the city who have been allocated traffic wardens even on roads as busy as the Con Colbert Road and where traffic signals are in place. No reason has been provided as to why the cannot be employed at Gaelscoil Inse Chór.

Pencil Bollards

I welcome the placemaking of the pencil bollards, and the electronic road signs to alert motorists of the schools in the area, and the fact that children are crossing. However, I would suggest that there is no need for bollards on the footpath and that they should all be on the outer edge of the cycle track. The cycle track is used by parents who may be walking on the footpath while supervising children who are cycling on the path, and any bollards in between them serve no purpose: with bollards on the cycle lane there is never any attempts at parking in this area, and so a solid bollard preventing access at either end of this would be fine. The pencil bollards are best placed adjacent to where the motorists are, rather than between pedestrians and cyclists.

School Zone Road Surface Sign

I think these are a good idea, but they should be as large as possible, given the size of the roads involved.

Concrete Footpath Buildout

Again I am in agreement, but there is no buildout shown on Con Colbert Road in the drawings provided. I am unclear as to where they could be placed, and so it is difficult to comment.

Colourful Road Markings

Again, I am in support. However, it would be important that these are on the actual road, and not just on the cycle track as those recently installed on the North Strand. Cyclists are acutely aware of children and schools, unlike motorists.

Electronic School Ahead Signs

These are useful. In other parts of the city, such as outside St. Brigids School in Killester, they are accompanied by reduced speed limit signs at school times. It would be appropriate to have a 30Kmh speed limit for SCR and to reduce Con Colbert Road from 60Kmh to 50 or 40.

Raised Ramp at Entrance to Park/School from SCR

This is an excellent idea and will help motorists understand that pedestrians have priority at this and at any junction where the road crosses the footpath. It would be essential that the raised ramp would not be too severe, as children will be turning onto the ramp while cycling/scooting down the hill.

Pedestrian Signal Timing

I welcome that the timing is to be extended at the park entrance during school hours. Please see my comments below with regard to guardrails and the impossibility of crossing legally in one phase.

Pedestrian timing needs to be improved at the SCR/Con Colbert junction as well. I would suggest that the crossing over the left filter lane from Con Colbert onto SCR Northbound would have a green signal for pedestrians crossing at all times that the signal for motor vehicles is red. This will allow parents cross legally with the green signal without having to wait for multiple phases of the traffic lights, and press the request button up to 5 times, as for example they do when crossing to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham side of the junction.

Extension and painting of existing Guardrails – not in favour.

The Department of Transport Design Manual for Urban Roads & Streets (DMURS) suggests that the use of guardrails could be counter productive as it increases vehicle speeds and aggressive driver behaviour (p23-24). They create a false sense of safety for both drivers and pedestrians (guardrails will only stop vehicles travelling at very low speeds). They block intervisibility between drivers and children.
They can also result in pedestrians/cyclists being trapped on the carriageway or found in locations
that are not anticipated by drivers. In fact there have been fatalities of cyclists in Dublin due to these pieces of street architecture. The suggestion will reduce the width and capacity of footways and crossings. This is in particular a problem at the junction of Con Colbert and Memorial Road. At present, at busy times, many parents and children cross outside of the guardrails, as, if there are people crossing from the opposite direction, and people are pushing bicycles, prams and scooters, there is insufficient space. All pedestrians are corralled through a chicane in the middle of the road, leaving insufficient time to reach the second phase of the pedestrian crossing in time (before the amber “do not start to cross” signal has commenced.

At this junction it would be appropriate to remove all guardrails and widen the crossing to 2 – 3 metres, removing the set back of the crossing from the Memorial Road (Section 4.3.3. of DMURS) so that pedestrians cross the road in a single phase.

It would also be appropriate to change the sequence of the pedestrian crossing to before the green signal for motorists exiting Memorial Road: Frequently 2-3 motorists will continue through the junction after the signal has changed to red. If the sequence is changed, this will no longer endanger vulnerable road users.

It would also be appropriate to consider that this crossing would be raised, although noting that design due to be implemented with Bus Connects will move this pedestrian crossing to the east of the junction.

Amber Left Turn Signal from SCR to Con Colbert Road

Many drivers ignore this and treat it as a full green left turn arrow, putting people travelling straight at the junction in danger. To deal with this, a green left turn signal which operates at the same time as a right turn filter from Con Colbert Road onto SCR – removing the need for vehicles travelling from Con Colbert Road onto SCR southbound needing to go around the current bridge structure which is causing poor driver behaviour due to the 4 conflict points with other traffic flows. The guardrail on this corner could be replaced with a solid bollard to prevent HGVs from cutting the corner.

Vehicles Exiting Memorial Park against the direction of Traffic

I urge the council to review their negative response to Traffic Request TRF659831401 lodged on 04/11/2024 and reduce the size of the amber “keep clear” box on the south circular road at the gate to the school. At present the arrangement encourages vehicles to break the law and exit the park this way, as traffic going southbound on the SCR has left a space for them to merge with that traffic lane. The keep clear box is only required on the northbound carriageway to allow traffic to turn in to the gate.

Cearta Teanga

I am surprised that this consultation, in particular given that the school is a Gaelscoil, has not been provided bilingually, as outlined by An Comisinéar Teanga at this website: https://www.coimisineir.ie/dualgais-dhireacha?lang=EN. I have not responded in Irish as I appreciate we have all been waiting a long time for action here, and am unclear about whether there is capacity to process submissions in Irish, given that this has not been made explicit.

Edit: zebra crossing

I did forget to include some points in my submission. In the park, at the end of the avenue to the school there is what is known as a courtesy crossing which the children use to cross from the footpath to the school side. I think that this should instead be a zebra crossing. The Department of Transport has recently approved these crossings even in the absence of orange flashing lights and I think that at this point a zebra crossing would show motorists more clearly that the priority is with the pedestrians.

As noted in the consultation, this part of the plan is the responsibility of the Office of Public Works who run the park, and so I will be contacting them with this suggestion. The consultation does say that they will be renewing the road markings, which is well overdue.