Thread by @NiallQuinnLK73

LONG THREAD: (But there's pictures!) Seen some comments in the last week with people venting frustration at aspects of #Limerick A City For Cars Post Covid plans. Some have claimed the city is being choked and ruined by @LimerickCouncil 1/
#limerick50days
#LimerickEdgeEmbrace

modest, half hearted and to my mind disengenuous nods at pedestrianisation and provision of safe cycling infrastructure. The comment of one particular young lady who went full on lickspittle claiming the city was ruined by bike lanes and you could go nowhere because of them. 2/

She also mentioned them going past schools for some reason. I think she meant that because they were there she wouldnt be able to chuck her car 2 wheels up on a footpath to drop kids off? I dunno. No idea where she was even referring to. Struck me as a bit unhinged tbh 3/

Anyway I decided to check out how much actual cycle lane I'd encounter on a commute into Limerick -I could check out the new lane on Shannon Bridge and see what the kerfuffle about sarsfield bridge/O'Callaghan was as well. Here's my route. It's 11.6 kms. 4/

My commute takes me into Limerick via the Long Pavement a route that'd be massively enhanced with some protected cycle lane. My worry here and some other places of course is always that I'll be 'winged' by a vehicle passing too close from behind. 5/

about 3.3km into my commute I encounter my first stretch of "bicycle lane".
I estimate it to be 10m long. There used by one of these at the four points of Hassetts Cross. 
Doesn't seem to be one opposite this for some reason. Maybe they ran out of paint? 6/

A few hundred meters on we encounter the first zebra crossing of my commute at Shelbourne Park. I've now been cycling for 3.8km, passed the gate of a school about 300m back and 7/

Kileely Rd is a major artery/crossing point for kids going to the national school in Ballynanty (my alma mater). 3 kids have died on Kileely Road in my lifetime -though some would point out I've had quite a lifetime. 8/

Now 4kms from home and 2.5kms into Limerick City I encounter my second stretch of cycle lane. Another 10m barely -put there to keep bikes out of cars way at the lights. Though I won't pass it today I'm going to count the zebra crossing down by the Salesians as the 2nd one 9/

on my jaunt. You can't see it from here. It's a rare thing in Limerick you can see a pedestrian Crossing from another pedestrian crossing. And anyway this junction Union Cross isn't one either -it's the standard 'begging button' type you find in Limerick -if even. 10/

Normally on a commute I'd be heading straight through but today I'm going to take a left onto Ennis Rd to check out the kerfuffle about this new O'Callaghan Strand layout. This is exciting! A cycle lane! A cycle lane! a WTFfffffffffff!? 11/

Okay...I think. At the junction of Ennis Rd and Sarsfield Bridge we find this. I'm not sure where to begin and neither is it. I'm a 47 year old, experienced commuter cyclist and this seemed well off to me. 12/

I can't understand why they didn't leave it on the left and let cyclists take a right turn position in 'their box' at the lights. A cynic might think it's set up to fail. It's not even clear cyclists are ALLOWED take a right turn onto O'Callaghan Strand. 13/

Just that they're expected to bear right into that lane which, in the video below /above, brings the cyclist into a head-on scenario with a coach. Would the designer let their children use this? (prepare to cack yer kecks at 10secs) 14/

But not to be all negative -I'm going to be generous and call this 80m of cycle lane -so 4.7km from home I've been granted the use of a full 100m of cycle lane. 15/

This photo is taken from same spot looking back behind using the sign as protection and on a quiet summers evening. Now imagine this road with even moderate traffic -which of course moves faster. Comedy Gold. 16/

Though I was unable to ascertain whether I was even allowed to turn onto O'Callaghan Strand I did anyway -so now, possibly a fleeing felon, I made my way along it to Fernbank. Before getting there I'll make an observation on O'Callaghan Strand 17/

O'callaghan Strand was already one of the better scenarios for non-motorised people in this city. Narrow vehicle lanes, wide footpaths, good few ramps. No zebras mind. 18/

But still -Limerick corpo @LimerickCouncil going after that was picking low hanging fruit and worse solving a problem that didn't exist in a hope to be seen to do something while there's so many other mobility and liveablity problems about the city they won't go near. 19/

So here we are at the junction of Condell road and Fernbank 5.6kms into our bike ride. What's there to say of the new contraflow cycle lane? Its grand -competent and unremarkable cycle lane. It is far from best practice. But it's a million miles better than nothing and... 20/

what's more once the principle that a cycle lane should be there is accepted then you can start working on the nature of the lane and get it properly protected and segregated. So fair play @LimerickCouncil it's a start - 21/

I don't know where or how it ends just. I'm going to be generous to a fault and call it 600m of cycle lane. So after 6.2km of cycling I've availed of 700m of bike lane -80% of it put in this week. 22/

These are just a few pictures of Limerick City Center I took at 9.30pm on a Thursday night. They're installing 'parklets' on O'Connell St. which has no pedestrian crossings. Zero. 23/

None on Patrick St, Rutland St, O'Connell Ave or Ballinacurra Road either. More on that in a bit. I'd waited nearly 5mins at this junction for the lights to change. Eventually gave up and ran the light ...a torch wielding posse of I-Pay-Road-Tax types in hot pursuit ...maybe. 24/

I thought of hiding from them in the 'panoramic wheel' but the poor sods operating it had given it up as pointless hours ago and pissed off home. (More to follow below -apparently you can't add more than 25 posts in a post) 25/

With me less attractive to the torch wielding mob than say the comments section of @Limerick_Leader articles on Facebook I pointed my front wheel toward Corbally and fled. By one of our most famous landmarks St Marys cathedral I encountered this rare beauty. 26/

This is a zebra crossing or as I prefer to describe them a pedestrian priority crossing. I believe it's the third I've encountered thus far in all of Limerick -a university town of close on 100,000 peopleand with 7.3kms of cycling behind me. But this one is special .27/

Moreso if you're coming the other way down the hill. If you're coming that way and keep going straight you won't meet another one of these babies til you're outside the Crescent Shopping Center. 28/

That's right -3.5kms of unhindered motorist priority right through the center of #Limerick A City For Cars -the third biggest city in this state. Beautiful in it's own way. 29/

Not only are there no pedestrian crossings -there are 250 and 350m gaps between 'begging button' crossings in there spanning multiple blocks. Yet some of our Road-Tax-Afflicted will tell you #Limerick is "full of jaywalkers" 30/

Leaving Limerick city proper we encounter our next stretch of cycle lane -some 40-50m of it, at Grove island roundabout. So that's 750m of cycle lane in 7.7kms of cycling. 31/

In keeping with all other such facilitation we've encountered this is less to do with helping cyclists and more to do with getting them out of the way. You jump a kerb and career down a poorly maintained tranche of tarmac that ends in gravel. Classy. 32/

While I'm here lets look at the cycle paths here. Across the road is the only stretch I've come off a bike on in recent years. There was frost. But heh -who grits a bike lane? (the Dutch, the Danish etc....) 33/

Back from that at the Corbally road entrance to the roundabout is a stretch I don't use unless I've business out the Dublin Rd. Even moreso than its counterpart on the Dwyer Bridge side we just mentioned this one is here to take Bicycles off the roundabout 34/

for the sake of motorists rather than giving cyclists a marked lane on it ...sending them on a 150-200m detour from their townward path via a pedestrian crossing (yay another one!) outside SuperValu. 35/

Talking of Pedestrian Crossings here's one on Corbally Rd. I make that 4 and I'm going to be generous and add the one at supervalu along with the one at Salesians which aren't technically on our route -so that's 5 thus far in 7.8kms   36/

Sorry all these photos are a little soft focus. I stopped up and took them on my phone in fading light. 37/

A little further on I took a detour down Mill Rd which I'm not including in the mileage here to see if there was doings a transpiring as I'd heard there's been some argy-bargy about plans for here too. 38/

What can I say -Mill Road is what it is -an insane place to have allowed the level of development that's gone on in there with what is basically a farm access road to service it -one way in, one way out. 39/

I bet some clever clogs marketed it as a gated community in all but name back in the day.

Bad planning has consequences. 40/

This is the very special perhaps unique place in Limerick I mentioned I'd be coming to earlier. Right outside St Munchins College there's a pedestrian crossing and while standing at it you can see, off in the distance, ANOTHER pedestrian crossing. 41/

Aside from a few roundabouts -this is the only place in Limerick I can think of where this is possible. If you know of more such phenomena do name them -lets celebrate our pedestrian crossings in Limerick -rare though they may be. 42/

So 9.1kms of cycling down I encounter the 6th and 7th (and final) pedestrian crossings of my circuit.
Here's this rarity from the other side -by the tollhouse at Athlunkard bridge. Its hard to make out  -but we know it's there. 43/

There's no more cycle lane either after Grove island so I'll have gotten to use 750m of cycle lane in this 11.6km cycle -most of that a temporary installation that went in this week in July 2020. 44/

Crossing Athlunkard Bridge I leave Limerick city behind for my last leg home to Parteen. I've written to cllrs here in my ward of @ClareCoCo late last year asking about cycle lane on this stretch near Westbury/Shannon Banks from Larkins cross 45/

or better again from Ardnacrusha all the way to the city boundary. I'm told in the interim the speed limit on a stretch of that has actually been INCREASED from 60 to 80kmh 46/

-that stretch goes right past Corbally United football club and Sean Choill all weather sports facility where Parkville football club and many others train -yet someone thought that was a good idea? 
Heh .... we are where we are. 
Thanks for taking the time to read.
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UPDATE and addition 1. A lot of the thinking behind this exercise was confronting misinformation, hysteria and -outright bullshit frankly with something a bit more data based. So to correct a slight innacuracy in this thread the 80km zone drops to 60km right outside Corbally UTD

UPDATE and addition 2 -it begins just after the entrance to Carraig Mhidhe(sp) housing estate.
Wherever I find any other inaccuracies I'll correct them. If you spot any or have other information or observations I've missed please do add them.

UPDATE and addition 3 -I'd encourage anyone in Limerick to try this in your area or on your commute whether you're walking, cycling or driving. Maybe there's loads of cycle lane for example on the streets you use. Maybe you're blessed with safe crossing provison.