Read the plans
Everything is on the council's portal. The photomontages are the quickest way in — they show what the road would actually look like.
Consultation closes 5pm, Wed 5 Aug
Have your say on the Celbridge Road.
Kildare County Council is planning an active travel scheme for the Celbridge Road — the road that serves two primary schools and that most parents won't let their children cycle on. It's a real improvement. We don't think it goes far enough. Until 5pm on Wednesday 5 August anyone can tell the council what they think, and the number of submissions matters.
Why this road
Right now, the Celbridge Road suppresses cycling
Two primary schools sit on this road. Plenty of the families who attend them live close enough to walk or cycle — and drive anyway, because the road doesn't feel safe enough to do otherwise. The result is a school run made of cars, on a road congested by the school run.
Ireland's own street design manual puts people on foot at the top of the pecking order, then people on bikes, then cars. This design still puts cars first. We support the scheme — we just don't think it is yet good enough to change how anyone travels.
Our position
What we're asking for
We welcome the scheme. These are the changes we believe it needs — and you're welcome to use any of them in your own submission.
Don't leave out the missing link
The scheme skips the stretch between the Rail Park and the Straffan Road. No land needs to be bought — a Section 38 order would cover it — so the gap is a choice rather than a constraint. A route is only as good as its weakest point.
Put something between children and the traffic
Along the open road, all that separates a child on a bike from passing traffic is a kerb 50–75mm high — light segregation, with no buffer behind it. Good design is forgiving: a wobble shouldn't be fatal. We accept there isn't room everywhere, but over a significant part of this scheme there plainly is.
Two ways to make room for that buffer
We'd prefer the first: make the Celbridge Road one-way outbound for cars, and let the Griffin Rath road and the new Eastern Ring Road — both built to a higher standard — carry the through traffic. That would also give drivers more green time at the Straffan Road lights. The alternative is to drop the southern cycle lane and turn Laurence's Avenue and the Rail Park into school streets. Either frees the space, and we would take either.
Narrow the traffic lanes, not the space for people
At 3.15m each, the traffic lanes are 0.3m wider than the TII standard for a regional road. Wider lanes mean faster driving, and faster driving means worse injuries — on a road with two primary schools on it, that is the wrong way round. Road deaths are rising nationally, and the Road Safety Authority reports that almost half of those killed are vulnerable road users.
Entrance kerbs at every side road
Where the footpath and cycle track cross a side road, both should carry on across it over an entrance kerb, whose steep rise makes drivers slow and leaves priority with the people going straight on. The National Transport Authority specifies exactly this. These drawings show raised tables instead, which hand the priority back to turning drivers — and entrance kerbs have been available from Irish suppliers since 2025, with Dublin City Council already using them.
Design for people who find the road hardest
Shared space should be a designer's last choice, not the first. People cycling at 16–20km/h do not belong beside people on foot: on the Celbridge Road today, adults already ride on the footpath because the road frightens them. Give each group protected space of its own and the road becomes usable for the wheelchair and mobility-scooter users who avoid it now.
Show the health and economic case
The council models the traffic and the costs when it builds a road, and road schemes reliably pass that test. The World Health Organisation's H.E.A.T. tool does the same arithmetic for walking and cycling — carbon saved, health costs avoided, early deaths prevented. More than seventy countries use it. Kildare should apply it here.
Three steps
How to make your own submission
It does not have to be long, formal or technical. Councils count and read every submission they receive, and a short one from a local resident counts the same as a long one.
Write what you actually think
A few honest sentences from a local resident carry real weight. Say where you live and how the road affects you. Personal experience persuades more than technical language.
Send it before the deadline
Submit through the portal, quoting planning reference P82026.02. Late submissions cannot be considered, and submissions become part of the public planning record.
Part 8 — Proposed Celbridge Road Active Travel Scheme, Maynooth
Planning reference P82026.02 · Kildare County Council · Closes 5pm on Wednesday 5 August 2026
Consultation closed · 5 August 2026
The Celbridge Road consultation has closed.
Thank you to everyone in Maynooth who made a submission on the Celbridge Road Active Travel Scheme. Kildare County Council will now consider the submissions received before the scheme goes to elected members.
Our position
What we asked for
Don't leave out the missing link
The scheme skips the stretch between the Rail Park and the Straffan Road. No land needs to be bought — a Section 38 order would cover it — so the gap is a choice rather than a constraint. A route is only as good as its weakest point.
Put something between children and the traffic
Along the open road, all that separates a child on a bike from passing traffic is a kerb 50–75mm high — light segregation, with no buffer behind it. Good design is forgiving: a wobble shouldn't be fatal. We accept there isn't room everywhere, but over a significant part of this scheme there plainly is.
Two ways to make room for that buffer
We'd prefer the first: make the Celbridge Road one-way outbound for cars, and let the Griffin Rath road and the new Eastern Ring Road — both built to a higher standard — carry the through traffic. That would also give drivers more green time at the Straffan Road lights. The alternative is to drop the southern cycle lane and turn Laurence's Avenue and the Rail Park into school streets. Either frees the space, and we would take either.
Narrow the traffic lanes, not the space for people
At 3.15m each, the traffic lanes are 0.3m wider than the TII standard for a regional road. Wider lanes mean faster driving, and faster driving means worse injuries — on a road with two primary schools on it, that is the wrong way round. Road deaths are rising nationally, and the Road Safety Authority reports that almost half of those killed are vulnerable road users.
Entrance kerbs at every side road
Where the footpath and cycle track cross a side road, both should carry on across it over an entrance kerb, whose steep rise makes drivers slow and leaves priority with the people going straight on. The National Transport Authority specifies exactly this. These drawings show raised tables instead, which hand the priority back to turning drivers — and entrance kerbs have been available from Irish suppliers since 2025, with Dublin City Council already using them.
Design for people who find the road hardest
Shared space should be a designer's last choice, not the first. People cycling at 16–20km/h do not belong beside people on foot: on the Celbridge Road today, adults already ride on the footpath because the road frightens them. Give each group protected space of its own and the road becomes usable for the wheelchair and mobility-scooter users who avoid it now.
Show the health and economic case
The council models the traffic and the costs when it builds a road, and road schemes reliably pass that test. The World Health Organisation's H.E.A.T. tool does the same arithmetic for walking and cycling — carbon saved, health costs avoided, early deaths prevented. More than seventy countries use it. Kildare should apply it here.
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