In the second part of WexBUG’s quick win blog series, we visit the Rosslare Roundabout to see what quick win improvements could be made there.

A common feature of cycling infrastructure in Ireland and very much so Co. Wexford, is that we give up at junctions.

This is certainly the case with the southbound R730 cycling lane in Drinagh that comes to an abrupt ending around 30 metres before the roundabout.
From this point, you can see the relative safety of the nice wide hard-shoulder of the Rosslare bound N25.

Remember what the rules of the road say about these type of hard shoulders?

There is a plenty of ground to the left of this roundabout and for a relatively small cost, the installation of a segregated cycle slip-way could massively increase the safety of southbound bicycle riders at this section.

In fact just down the road at the Ashfield roundabout, such a job has been done already with the westbound section there.

(I would argue that the surface could be much better and the exit point better aligned to the shoulder there, but you get the point.)

It would seem very short sighted to me why this was not added to the Drinagh project but as the saying goes:

“The best time to start was yesterday, the next best time is now”

FOOTNOTE:

This particular blog of course covers Quick Wins and as such only deals with the southbound section here.
This will not help cyclists who may want to head northbound. For that you need a bigger plan to do so safely.
I will leave you with an image from the Netherlands of how that can work, when you plan for all road users at the design stage.