Dublin's four local authorities have installed about 247 kilometres of cycle track over the past three years in an attempt to encourage more city commuters to switch to the bike. Dublin Corporation has the largest network with 98 km of cycle track, followed by South Dublin County Council (66 km), Dun Laoghaire Rathdown (46 km) and Fingal (37 km).
Cycle facilities have also been installed in counties Kildare, Meath and Wicklow under a five-year Dublin Transportation Office plan, which will increase the cycle network in the greater Dublin area to 360 km by the end of next year.
Cyclist numbers had been decreasing steadily in the capital since the 1960s until the start of this year, when an 18 per cent increase in bicycle traffic was recorded by the corporation. There are now an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 daily bicycle commuters in Dublin.
The DTO's efforts are primarily aimed at the estimated 60,000 motorists who commute into the city in the morning rush hour each day over short distances of 3.5 miles or less. Mr Michael Aherne, the agency's acting senior engineer for traffic management, said the tracks served two purposes: "One, raising awareness among motorists of the ever-presence of cyclists, and two, giving cyclists some space of their own."
He conceded some of the earliest tracks were "over-cautious" in their design and geared "pretty much for the 10-year-old". As a result, experienced cyclists had been discouraged from using them.
However, he stressed that revised facilities were being installed along a number of routes such as the Stillorgan Road where the tracks now filtered onto the dual-carriageway at most junctions rather than staying off-road.
A design manual which the DTO produced for local authorities in 1997 is being reviewed in light of experience. Updated guidelines are due to be circulated next year.
Mr Eamon Ryan of the Dublin Cycling Campaign welcomed the changes and said cyclists were starting to see much better facilities.
"There is a lot more common sense coming through in designs although there is still a major difficulty with parking. Rules differ from place to place as much for political reasons as anything else. In fact, most of the lack of clarity and mistakes are probably due to engineers scaling back because of local objections," he said.
As well as tracks, the DTO is planning to introduce up to 25,000 bicycle parking spaces, concentrated in city-centre locations and public transport hubs such as DART stations.
Already, facilities at Bray DART station in Co Wicklow are attracting an increasing number of users, including both local people who are transferring from bike to train at the station and commuters coming from the opposite direction who cycle from the station to workplaces.
Other suburban cycle track and parking networks are being planned for Greystones, Maynooth, Celbridge and Dunboyne.
