The council have opened a public consultation on upgrading Chapelizod Road and Conyngham Road, which are between the Phoenix Park and the Liffey at Islandbridge. At present it can be difficult for people who live in the area to get across these roads on foot or by bicycle, to access the park, so it is good that something is happening. The cover photo on this post shows a ghost bicycle which was put in place when a cyclist was killed while attempting to cross into the Phoenix Park at the Islandbridge Gate in 2017.

Below is the submission I am sending to the council:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on these plans. I am supportive of improved active travel provision on these roads but the plans provide fall very short of what is needed.

I cycle through Islandbridge almost daily, and have done so for the last 10 years. Currently my teenage children cycle this way to get to Cabra which is the nearest secondary Irish language medium to Inchicore. A large number of people from Dublin 8 and 12 access the Phoenix Park this way, many on foot or by bicycle. The existing cycle lane, even though it is close to the military road in the Phoenix park which provides an alternative route for cyclists (sheltered from traffic) is a pleasant way to reach Chapelizod from the city centre, avoiding the hill and traffic mayhem required by going the alternative route via St. Lawrence’s Road.

Junction of Conyngham Road/Chapelizod Road with the South Circular Road

I have had to make a number of reports to Garda Traffic watch about incidents at this junction, many due to driver behaviour, but a contributory factor has been the current layout of the junction.

It would be appropriate to provide pedestrian crossings on all three sides of the junction and to plan the cycle infrastructure on the outside of these crossings, as a projected junction similar to many of the examples in the NTA Cycle Design Manual. There is sufficient space for such a design, given that the area currently surrounded by plastic bollards on the Chapelizod Road/SCR side of the junction is to be built out.

The proposals also show the intention to retain the set back stop lines for motorised traffic coming eastbound towards the junction. At present this is causing a number of problems, including the fact that motorists turning right onto SCR often fail to trigger the right arrow green sequence as they fail to move forward to the sensor. This causes vehicles to be “trapped” in the middle of the junction when the lights are red. A further problem then occurs for traffic, including cyclists, crossing the junction from SCR as vehicles travelling east to west become confused by the trapped traffic and fail to notice the red light/cyclists crossing. The Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets (DMURS) suggests that all stop lines should be closer to the junction, and in this case, in line with the corner, to prevent these problems.

A further issue at this junction is that pedestrians and cyclists enter the park at the gates marked on General Arrangement Drawing Sheet 04 as “Existing Pedestrian Entrance to Phoenix Park” which is at the bottom of steps which come out near the Wellington monument. This is the shortest route when crossing the park from Islandbridge towards Blackhorse Avenue/Cabra, where there are a number of schools. At busy times there is a queue of people entering and exiting here. There is a bus stop nearby, to which local residents will have to cross the same pedestrian crossing to reach. Extra space will be needed on the footpath at this point. It might be appropriate to narrow the eastbound traffic lanes to achieve this.

Junction with “Khyber Road” at Islandbridge Gate of the Phoenix Park

This was the site of a fatal collision between a person on a bicycle turning in to the park and a motorist travelling eastbound (see Irish Times Article linked here) in 2017. It is also a busy junction at times, as many motorists take the “rat-run” through the park at various times. Many of those exiting the park in motor vehicles are turning right (some may be avoiding the M50 toll) and so the pedestrian crossing should be located to the East of this junction, where it would also provide better access from the flats at Sarah Place and the bus stop to the park, in addition to making the road crossing safer for people cycling towards the park from the South Circular Road direction.

The Khyber Road is in fact a two way road for traffic, with the gate itself being exit only for cars since some point in the 1990s or 2000s when the volume of cars using it became too great. The junction needs to reflect that this is the only place for people to enter the park by bicycle from the South Circular Road (and in future from the War Memorial Gardens) to access established cycling routes onwards through the park, without a signifiant detour to either the Park Gate at Parkgate Street or at Chapelizod Church.

Bridge from Memorial Park Islandbridge

Why can the pedestrian crossing not be directly in line with the bridge? As it is not a bridge for vehicular traffic there should be no need to stagger the crossing for pedestrians as planned. The location and frequency of crossings should align with key desire lines in accordance with the p90 of DMURS. A crossing directly in front of the bridge would be more appropriate at this location, particularly if there is to be an entrance into the Phoenix Park from this point at some time in the future.

Choice of Side of Carriageway for Cycle Track

In the proposals, the two way cycle track has been suggested for the southern side of Conyngham Road and Chapelizod Road, which is the side closer to the river. At present when there are events on in the boat clubs, parks and other sporting facilities some motorists have chosen to park on the bike lane. Outside of the apartments on Conyngham Road there is on-street parking particularly out of hours. If the cycle track is to remain on this side of the road, robust measures will be needed to prevent motorists from leaving their cars on it.

It might be better to place bike lane on the northern side of the road, and allow more frequent pedestrian crossings at apartment blocks and recreational venues, which would have the added benefit of cutting down overall vehicle speeds on the road.

In addition, people crossing from the memorial park on foot or by bicycle will probably want to cross straight away to the Phoenix Park side of the road. If there is not to be an entrance directly to the park, it is likely that those crossing from the Memorial Park will wish to continue onwards to the Phoenix Park, and the most intuitive and obvious way for cyclists to do this will be if the cycle lane is on the side of the road beside the wall of the park.

Bus Lane on Conyngham Road

The bus lane eastbound on Conyngham Road at the approach to the park gate is currently not enforced leading to a large number of motorists ignoring it at peak travel times, delaying buses and causing conflict with other motorists who try to turn left, either into the park or on to infirmary road. Some kind of forcing function is required here to ensure that bus passengers are not delayed. It might be appropriate to use a solid kerb (in place of the plastic wands) and/or a “bus trap” similar to those used in other countries such as Belgium, where vehicles with a smaller axle width than buses are unable to use the lane. Alternatively, camera enforcement will be needed.

General Comments

There are 15-20 reports of incidents which were dangerous to cyclists reported on the Active Travel Collision Tracker (https://www.collisiontracker.ie/map) over an approximate 2 year period, including about 5 incidents at the SCR junction and a fatality (cyclist struck by a car) a number of years ago at the Islandbridge gate of the Phoenix Park. This shows that there is a notable danger from motorists to other people in this area, which is possibly related to the higher speed limit allowed on Chapelizod Road from the Islandbridge Gate, west towards the village. Reducing this speed limit to 50 km/h with a further reduction to 30km/h between the future bridge across the Liffey from the Memorial Gardens to the Islandbridge Gate/Khyber Road would be appropriate and would improve safety in the area, without increasing motorist journey times.

In general, the proposals would do well to better reflect the principles and guidance in the DMURS and National Cycle Manual. I look forward to walking, cycling and driving through the finished project.