Lyreen Pedestrian Bridge

It has been a long time coming – funding was provided for it a number of years ago – but Maynooth Cycling Campaign welcomes the new pedestrian bridge over the Lyreen River. It will greatly improve pedestrian and cycling facilities on Mill Street in the heart of Maynooth.

Road Safety

As far as cyclists are concerned, road safety has not gone away. The number of fatalities continues to rise. This is against a backdrop where the Department of Transport has announced the abandonment  of a 30kph default speed limit for urban areas. Instead of a default speed limit,  local authorities may implement 30km/h limits in urban areas where local authorities choose to adopt them.

Year	2022 (12 Months)	2023 (12 Months)	2024 (12 Months)	2025 To Date (8 Months)
No of Cyclist Fatalities	7	8	11	10

Substantial Number of Gardai Have No Interest in their Jobs.

Dr. Elaine Byrne, the chairperson of the Policing and Community Safety Authority has described as “shocking” a report which shows that a substantial number of gardaí assigned to Roads Policing are not doing their jobs, have no interest in doing them and don’t appear to care who knows.

While there are some people like this in every walk of life, it is shocking that a substantial number of gardai fall into this category. One of the core functions of An Garda Síochána is protection of the general public so it is doubly shocking that this includes roads policing where fatalities are increasing.

In the past, various cycling campaign groups have highlighted the indifference of some gardai. While we accept that there are many more serious crimes, the lack of enforcement of legislation regarding the parking of vehicles on footpaths or the parking on cycle lanes has been abysmal.

Provision of Cycle Lane Work near Moone 

The conversion of a hard shoulder on the R448 to a segregated cycle route has upset farmers and residents who live in the Moone area. The farmers are concerned that the narrowness of the road lanes are not wide enough for combine harvesters. Some of the residents argue that the section of cycle lane will be from nowhere to nowhere. The works have been described as a pilot with funding provided by the NTA. Maynooth Cycling Campaign welcomes innovation by Kildare County Council as much of the cycling infrastructure provided in recent years has not been in line with best international practice so we are somewhat sceptical about the quality of innovation.

The idea of converting hard shoulders to cycle lanes is not new. In 2012-13, the government provided funding to designate as “quietways”  the conversion of hard shoulders on a number of regional and former national roads. However the works were essentially limited to the addition of road markings so did little to enable increased cycling.

Maynooth Cycling Campaign is an independent local lobby group for better cycling facilities in Maynooth and Kildare generally.  If you would like to support our efforts, why not join us – you can find details here.