Sandymount residents are appealing to Dublin City Council not to reinstate two-way traffic on Strand Road, in advance of a decision from the Court of Appeal on the fate of the coastal cycle path.
Since last October Strand Road has been partially restricted to one lane of traffic for Irish Water works. The water mains replacement programme is due to be completed in the coming weeks, but Strand Road residents are urging the council not to allow the return of two-way traffic.
In a letter to the council management and local councillors, the Strand and Beach Road Residents’ Group said allowing the return of “motorway-like traffic” is “untenable, in respect of the health and wellbeing of residents”, and said the council should await the court’s decision on its proposed six-month trial of a cycle path that would also require traffic to be restricted to one lane on the road.
The road, which runs along Dublin Bay, has been at the centre of a long-running dispute over the council’s plans for the cycle path, which would have restricted traffic to a single outbound lane, with the other lane used as a two-way cycle track.
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Local resident Peter Carvill, of the Serpentine Avenue, Tritonville and Claremont Roads (STC) group, and Independent councillor Mannix Flynn took a High Court challenge against the council’s plans to conduct a six-month trial of the path from March 2021. The court ruled the council needed planning permission for the path. The council appealed the decision and is waiting for the court to issue its decision.
The residents’ group said local councillors should have the opportunity to “deliberate on issues that are of serious concern to Strand and Beach Road residents that have been raised over the past six months, including the safety of cyclists, extreme noise problems, excessive emissions”. Furthermore, they said, the “threat to the viability of the special area of conservation” of Dublin Bay and “the general issue of climate change/road use allocation” needed to be considered.
“There is far more involved here than just the proposed cycleway trial, including major risks to the health of residents,” the letter said.
The water works had provided an insight into the traffic patterns which could result from the cycleway. “The plain truth is the predictions of traffic Armageddon have been proven false. Traffic diverted as a consequence of the one-way system has been dispersed over a large number of roads which, on an individual basis, have only borne a relatively minor increase in traffic volumes,” the letter says. “The village of Sandymount was not ‘destroyed’. The forecasts of traffic chaos and anticipated urban mayhem were proven to be pure whataboutery and hysteria.”
[ Residents threaten legal action over Sandymount’s Strand RoadOpens in new window ]
The council said it was aware of the residents’ request but once the Irish Water works were completed the traffic restrictions would be removed “in the absence of the Appeal Court judgment being issued or a motion from the elected members”.
However, it said, councillors would have an opportunity to consider the issue at a council meeting in advance of water works completion.
Labour councillor Dermot Lacey said there were a “whole range of issues” affecting Sandymount which needed to be considered. “Undoubtedly Strand Road has been nicer as a result of the traffic restrictions, but Tritonville Road, Claremont Road and Serpentine Avenue have not been nicer.”
Green Party councillor Hazel Chu said bringing a motion forward to retain the traffic restrictions would “sow more discord” in the community. “We should have a discussion in relation to the traffic data, but I think having a motion to keep the one-way system would inflame the situation.”
Fine Gael councillor James Geoghegan said the current traffic restrictions had “caused chaos” in Sandymount, including one occasion where gardaí had to be called to protect children walking to school. There was a need to get a taskforce up and running to address the traffic issues facing Strand Road and Sandymount, he said.
