Thread: Childers Road cycle route - Part I.
Childers Road works as an inner ring road around the southeast of Limerick city. Currently it's a hostile environment for cycling but it is earmarked to be a primary cycle route according to 2016 Limerick Cycle Network proposal.

New cycling projects rarely utilise the infrastructure that already exists - ie: roads. Instead, all we hear of are segregated cycle lanes. So before Limerick Council and the NTA arrive to bulldoze the sh*t out of this route to squeeze in bus lanes, here's an alternative option.

It's 2 years since I first visited The Netherlands to study their cycle infrastructure and what struck me was how seamless the transition was between different types of infrastructure on a single route was - residential street, cycle street, segregated cycle track, etc.

This for example in Utrecht shows how the segregated cycle track connects with an access road for short distance before diverging again. The access road has low traffic speed and volume so it's safe to cycle on. When cycling here, you hardly notice the change.

This is from last year as we cycled to Delft from The Hague. This is a local street so very quiet and safe to cycle on. I can't remember if this is a designated Cycle Street but the recently laid asphalt replaced cobbles to make it more comfortable for cycling.

The use of red surface finishes is important as it distinguishes the street from the black top finish used on roads where motor traffic has priority. Red unofficially means >30kph and expect people walking and cycling.

Limerick Council have done something similar on Lough Gur Road - a popular tourist location. Forget the crazy speed limit but the concept of using a different colour surface finish is used to indicate to motorists the prescence of cyclists & to slow down. So with that in mind...

This is Childers Rd from the sky. I'm going to look at the stretch from Ballinacurra Rd to the Roxboro Roundabout in this post. By using a combination of cycle tracks and the existing local roads running next to it, we could build a great cycle route here pretty quickly.

Section 1. Update junction at Greenfields, add cycle tracks to Rosbrien Rd to connect to Punch's Cross. Connect to Oakview/Ballinacurra Gardens to allow a connection with Portland Park cycle track which can later connect with Dooradoyle.

Section 2. Use quite local streets, Greenmount Ave and Ballyclough Ave, running parallel to Childers Road. Nobody likes cycling next to motor traffic so the greater the distance from motor traffic, the better.

This gives a basic idea of what this could look like. Filtering infrastructure would be used throughout to prevent motor traffic from using the new connections between local streets.

Section 3. Continue cycle route along Sycamore Ave to the south of Childers Rd. Create a new cycle track to the north running parallel to existing footpaths.

Section 4. Cycle tracks and updated junction layout required. Getting a bit more complex and controversial now but I'm living in a world where we need to reduce the volume of private motor traffic and carbon emissions drastically over the next 2 decades.

Section 5. Roxboro Roundabout. This is not too controversial. The ped and cycle crossing widths are reduced to 1-1.5 lanes at most meaning multi lane crossings are removed. The roundabout is still a bit big so I'd probably revisit this one but that's for another day.

The one thing about this approach is that the existing road is left practically untouched so it should be a simple project to deliver. Next week I'll look at Roxboro Roundabout to the The Parkway. /End.