— Eastbound cycle lanes removed from Parnell Street

— People on bicycles mixed with buses and general traffic

— Lanes shared with buses cross tracks at unsafe angles

— New turning and one-way restrictions added to existing ones.

Conditions for cycling on Parnell Street will be downgraded under plans for Luas Cross City — this is despite the fact part of the street is a planned primary cycle route.

Construction drawing for Luas Cross City released to IrishCycle.com after a Freedom of Infromation request shows the extend of the problems with the tram project and cycling on Parnell Street between Dominick Street and Marlborough Street.

Issues include the removal rather than upgrading of advisory cycle lanes on Parnell Street at both sides of the north end of O’Connell Street; the mixing of people on bicycles with buses, and lanes shared with buses and general traffic crossing trams tracks at unsafe angles. As we’ve previously reported, planned contra-flow will not be provided on Parnell Street (see map below).

At one point in the design, a right turning lane into Moore lane and maintaining two lanes westbound are prioritised over having southbound cycle lanes. This is in an area of the street which does not have bus routes.

The cycle lanes provided are also against advice in the National Cycle Manual which states that dash-line cycle lane markings should be upgraded to solid-line markings.

The design also seems to go against the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Street in a number of areas, including: wider turns than recommended, a lack of crossings at every arm of junctions, and giving minor side streets and even private entrances visual priority over busy footpaths.At the top of O’Connell Street pedestrians will still be expected to use three seprate pedestrians crossings to cross one roadway.

Footpaths are to be widened in locations but the widening is mainly on the northside of Parnell Street, not on the busier southside of the street.

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When the tram tracks started to be installed in streets, the Luas Cross City team were commended for clear communications around crossing tram tracks at as close to 90 degrees as possable. At the same time, however, the design team for the project were not keeping that principle in the design of routes for bicycles (see example image and drawings below).

In June we reported that there are few signs of cycling-friendly designs across the Luas Cross City route as many restrictions will apply, but this is the first time the detailed drawings of Parnell Street with lane markings are published.

When reporting in June, we asked the Luas Cross City team will the existing cycle lane in this area be replaced, improved or removed, the project team said: “The currently proposed Luas Cross City design includes an advisory cycle lane”. No mention was made of the removal of the cycle lane in one direction.

Here’s the drawings released under FOI starting at Marlborough Street and heading westwards:

The following image was stitched together:

MORE: Luas Cross City Parnell Street drawings released under FOI (PDF on Google Drive)

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