New Kilkenny Road layout hailed as success
The new layout on the Kilkenny Road into Carlow
ALMOST 400 cyclists and 3,000 pedestrians were recorded going in one direction using the new widened footpath and cycle lane on Kilkenny Road in a week.
At a meeting of Carlow town municipal district, director of services Pádraig O’Gorman gave a presentation on the recently completed Kilkenny Road Active Travel Scheme.
Mr O’Gorman said that the scheme replaced a substandard, car-dominated road that had no cycling facilities, damaged footpaths, an unsafe entrance junction for South East Technological University (SETU) and bus stops that were not accessible. Post-construction, the road now has a two-way segregated cycle lane, fully signalised SETU junction, toucan crossings, new bus stops and no more dangerous left-turn slips.
Equipment that the council temporarily installed to measure usage of the cycle lanes and new crossings recorded that 390 cyclists and 2,919 pedestrians used the facilities in one direction in a week. Drone footage that the council took at peak travel times also showed traffic and pedestrians moving well.
While Mr O’Gorman acknowledged that there had been opposition to the project during construction, he called the scheme a “pathfinder project.” He mentioned as previously reported, that there had been tampering and criminal damage to traffic lights equipment intended to cause delays, which had been reported to An Garda Síochána.
Cathaoirleach Ken Murnane said that there were numerous complaints during the works, but most people that he had spoken to recently could see the improvements the scheme had brought, though traffic was moving a bit slower.
He joked that people will stop driving their kids to school, adding “everyone’s going to have to get on their bike”.
Cllr Andrea Dalton raised concerns about the timing of the traffic lights as she believes that even when traffic is light, the flow does not feel as smooth as it could. She asked whether this will improve over time or might be related to the criminal damage that had taken place.
Mr O’Gorman said that they would keep her feedback under review and noted that the effect of the tampering was unknown.
Cllr John Cassin acknowledged that traffic on that section of road had slowed, but that was partly the scheme’s purpose. He raised concerns about the ability of emergency vehicles to get through that section of road and said that he had seen a video where an ambulance struggled to get through.
Council officials told him that the scheme was compliant with road regulations and that the drivers of emergency vehicles had special training for navigating urban areas.
Cllr Cassin was not reassured by this and said that the road had been made too narrow for ambulances to pull in.
Cllr Murnane then said that similar roads existed in every town in Ireland.
Cllr Cassin then requested a copy of the fire service’s plan for responding to incidents on Kilkenny Road.
Cllr Andrea Dalton noted that the Carlow fire chief had previously told the council that he was not too concerned about the changes to the road layout.
Cllr Murnane agreed to ask the fire chief to provide a report on how they will handle the route going forward and cllr Cassin was satisfied with that.
