Four different active travel projects approved for Cork City

Cork Cycling Campaign has welcomed the approval of four cycling projects by Cork City Council at a recent meeting, and has called on the council to deliver the active travel projects “in an expedited manner”.

At a council meeting on Monday, four separate active travel developments were approved through either the Part 8 Planning Process, or the Section 38 process which allows projects to be progressed in the interest of the safety and convenience of road users.

The most significant of the four is the first phase of a cycling route between Glanmire and the city centre, which will see a two-way cycle track, segregated footpaths and a new cantilevered boardwalk developed on the 1.4km stretch of road between Glanmire Village and the Dunkettle/Tivoli Roundabout.

Other projects include improvements to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure on the Kinsale Road, and new cycle lanes at Innismore in Ballincollig, as well as through Maryborough Woods.

David Teixeira-Lynch, a member of Cork Cycling Campaign, said that they are pleased with the schemes that were approved, “all with seemingly positive amends from the consultation feedback”.

“It should now fall to the council to deliver these schemes in an expedited manner to continue to encourage the promised and committed modal shift in Cork that exists in the City Development Plan and Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy,” he said.

However, he added that it is “extremely important to note” the schemes that have been shelved or deferred, such as a cycling scheme proposed for Ballincollig’s Leo Murphy Road which was deferred at Monday’s meeting due to queries about parking arrangements.

Mr Teixeira-Lynch said that the deferral was “extraordinarily disappointing” and that Cork Cycling Campaign would be striving to ensure it, along with other shelved projects, are brought forward as part of BusConnects plans.

Green Party councillor Dan Boyle praised progress in the city on developing cycling infrastructure, recalling a meeting of Cork Corporation less than 20 years ago where a motion to build any kind of cycleway in the city was defeated.

“We are now in the process of approving half a dozen motions or more that makes this council, and I think it is nip-and-tuck between ourselves and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council, as being the most active in terms of active travel in the country,” he said.