Greens hit out at €40m 'road safety disaster'

A multi-million euro revamp of Dublin’s main thoroughfare has resulted in a road safety disaster, it was claimed today.

The O’Connell Street upgrade – costing €40m of public money – has left the historic boulevard positively dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, said Green Party Transport spokesman Eamon Ryan TD.

He branded the redevelopment a perfect example of bad planning and linked it to the state’s appalling road safety record.

“The new design of O’Connell Street may be attractive to the eye but in road safety terms it is a disaster,” said Mr Ryan.

Dedicated cycle paths and a 30kph speed limit, which were part of the original redevelopment plans, never materialised, he said.

“They could not lower the speed limit on O’Connell Street because it was designated a ’national road’ under the control of the National Roads Authority (NRA),” he said.

The NRA said re-designating the road as ‘non-national’ would impact on the controversial €10m signage system recently introduced in the capital.

Cyclists are forced to weave in and out of a busy bus lane and a heavily-used central median lane while lane markings disappear at a section of the road leaving cyclists in a lethal ’pinch point’ with other vehicles, according to the Green Party deputy.

“Plans to put pedestrians first have also been abandoned in the allocation of green crossing time,” he added.

“At the junction with Lower Abbey Street pedestrians are given a mere 20 seconds to cross the road while left-turning car traffic coming off O’Connell Street is given priority for over 80 seconds.

“The pedestrian crossing points at O’Connell Bridge are also a disgrace. Hundreds of pedestrians routinely crowd onto a narrow pavement, within inches of heavy goods vehicles, which are still going to be there even after the port tunnel opens.”

The jury at an inquest into the death of a pedestrian on O’Connell Street last year recommended improved sign-posting and clearer road-markings.

In the past three years six cyclists have also been killed on city centre streets and hundreds more have been injured.

“If we cannot make our prime national street safe for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists having spent €40m upgrading it, is there any wonder why we have such carnage on our roads?” said Mr Ryan.