For more than 30 years, people have been campaigning for a safe walking and cycling route around Dublin Bay. It could transform our city, connecting northside and southside and restore the environment I grew up in, where children were much more free to wander and explore.
It has been championed by many organisations and has a variety of names: the Sutton to Sandycove cycleway, the Coastal Trail or Dublin Bay Greenway. But its history tells a sad story of a lack of political will that is stopping us from fulfilling the true potential of our city.
I remember in the mid 1990s heading out to Bull Island on a protest cycle organised by the Dublin Cycling Campaign. We were full of hope, only to be frustrated when a local resident opposing the plans had the ear of an influential councillor, and progress was delayed for years. Now the northside section is introduced, I don’t think a single person would want us to go back.
Around the same time, we argued with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to compulsory purchase a sliver of land beside Blackrock Dart station to remove one of the worst bottlenecks on the route. We were told it would take too long, and asked to be patient and allow an alternative approach to see the light of day. We are still waiting for that to this day.
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Fifteen years ago, things changed for the better when, despite budgetary hard times, money was allocated for the first proper greenway between Newport and Achill. It was built quickly and at low cost because local people wanted their children to be able to meet their neighbours without having to navigate the dangerous main road. A few years later, the 46km Waterford greenway became a similar success story and every council started to consider what might be possible.
Under the last government, they were allocated the staff and funding to develop their plans. Transport Infrastructure Ireland was given the responsibility of connecting up a national greenway network, and the National Transport Authority had the key role of approving projects and allocating budgets. Their orders were to prioritise local needs, deliver at speed and avoid over-engineering solutions in order to keep costs down.
During Covid, the best example came when the mix of a visionary community group, an enthusiastic council and a great local authority official built out the coastal cycle route between Blackrock and Sandycove. They did it in record time and at minimal cost, transforming Dún Laoghaire for the better.
It would make you cry. Half a century to deliver a three-metre track along the 22km it takes to get around the bay
However, things fell back again when Dublin City Council tried to emulate the same approach in Sandymount, only for the High Court to stop the trial. What made it worse was the chilling effect the decision had in every council across the country and that it took four years for the Court of Appeal to reverse the judicial decision in April.
At last, it seemed that the Strand Road section was ready to be built. With Dublin Port also promising a safe route from Clontarf to the East link bridge by next year, an end-to-end Dublin Bay Greenway finally seemed to be at hand.
However during the interim period, some Dublin City Councillors appear to have lost their nerve. They and some residents are arguing we should await the introduction of flood protection works before building the cycle path, which will likely delay things for another 20 years.
It would make you cry. Half a century to deliver a three-metre track along the 22km it takes to get around the bay – and all that delay because our political system is so attentive to local opposition, while the silent majority opinion that wants change remains by its very nature unheard.
Public officials and regulators read the political temperature in a similar way and hold back on making hard decisions. Whatever you do, do nothing, becomes the order of the day.
But what happened in Dún Laoghaire shows what is possible. The Dublin authorities are starting to deliver other game changing pathfinder projects and slowly but surely are improving things along the canals, Liffey, Tolka and Dodder. By joining up these various initiatives, we can reach a tipping point where Dublin once again becomes a great city to cycle and walk around and the perfect place to raise a child and call your home.
Recent developments in Limerick, where a cycleway will connect the three universities, and on the Waterford Quay – where a sustainable transport bridge is about to be installed, which will link the existing greenway to the Waterford to New Ross greenway – give similar cause for hope. But you cannot force local authorities to make the necessary decisions. However, greater targeting of the active travel budget can change political dynamics.
Those councils willing to build with ambition, speed and low-cost solutions should get most of the funding. Those who don’t should be asked to come up with more ambitious greenway plans and a plan to make it happen quickly.
