11: Cycling and Personal Mobility Devices
I live just off Kimmage Road Lower, I work at a school in Terenure. My 3 children go to school in the area. I cycle to work, but I can’t allow my children to do the same. They scoot on the footpath. My oldest starts secondary school in Harold’s Cross in September, and I've just told her that she cannot cycle to school. It is just too dangerous. We have bicycle lanes for some of our school commute, but the roads are narrow, and the buses are terrifying. The footpaths are also extremely narrow on our side (no pedestrian crossing) on the Terenure Road West. Everyday I worry that my 6 year old will tumble off her scooter and fill in front of a bus. There is no margin, no space for cyclists and the narrow footpaths are crowded with young children. If the proposal goes ahead, there will be more busses, traveling faster (that is the whole point, I believe!), but the roads are not fit for purpose. There simply is not room for 2 x footpaths, 2 lanes of traffic, and cyclists. There are so many roads going towards the Terenure Crossroads- could a one way system ever be considered? A single lane road, with a seperate bike and bus lane? We are committed to walking, cycling and /or using public transport, for our health and for environmental reasons. This proposal makes our chosen mode of transport a dangerous one- it is pushing us to use our car for this short, local school commute. So this massive expenditure on public transport will increase use of cars, at least by one household. I imagine many more parents feel the same- but I haven't gathered data to determine this, have you?