Cycling Infrastructure
The World Health Organization recently released a report stating that Ireland is soon going to be facing an ‘obesity epidemic’. Every county in Europe is getting fatter, except The Netherlands. How can we tackle this? We’re also going to become a much older population over the next 40 years.
So what have these two thing got in common – Cycling infrastructure. I lived in the Netherlands for about six years. I’d like to note two things.
- Most foreigners that moved to the Netherlands didn’t cycle on arrival. But pretty soon, everyone gets a bike and uses it. Why? Because it is handy, quick and cheap to use. But also because the bike infrastructure is there, it is safe. A good cycling infrastructure will get people cycling.
- Many people with disabilities and older people use the cycle tracks with their mobility scooters. This gives them freedom and independence that such people wouldn’t have in Kilkenny – see this short video to get an idea (4 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSGx3HSjKDo Think about where to population of Kilkenny is going. We are going to have a lot more older people in the future, and helping them stay active will be very important.
If we can get more people cycling in daily life in Kilkenny this will
- help reduce obesity
- reduce traffic
- improve the quality of life – which will help attract high skilled workers/companies to Kilkenny
- and a better infrastructure will allow older/disabled people have more freedom in the future
But these aims are long term, and need a lot of work. The cycling infrastructure in Kilkenny is awful. Really awful. Sorry. But hopefully I’ve convinced you of why it needs to be better. And we can make it better. There are a few things that could be improved in the masterplan to help this.
- Secure bike parking in at least one building on the site.
- The main road way thought the site will be for both pedestrians and cyclists. But in the pictures, there is not cycle path shown. If you really want to increase cycling in Kilkenny, there needs to be a dedicated cycle track. Shared spaces don’t work. It causes conflict and slows down cyclists. If I’m in a rush to work, I don’t want to meander through tourists. You wouldn’t place pedestrians and cars in a shared space, so why do it with cyclists? http://www.makingspaceforcycling.org/#principles
- More thought has to be put into how cyclist and pedestrians will cross the roads into the site. Example: If I’m cycling over Green’s bridge into town, where do I go? The brewery site doesn’t exist on its own, but as part of a bigger picture. The linking into the site for pedestrians and cyclists needs to be looked at in more detail.