Real solutions in terms of cycling safety come in the form of dedicated, segregated and connected cycling infrastructure.
There are though, some quick wins that can help with overall safety in the meantime.
This is blog #1 in our series of ‘quick wins’. This particular one, should not be seen as a silver bullet, but as easy, cost effective cycling safety solution.
The first one of these involves linking a broken hard shoulder on the southbound section of the N25 at the Johnstown Castle turn off.
Joining up the hard shoulder at either side of this southbound N25 stretch, would improve rider safety.
Even though this isn’t an official cycle lane, hard shoulders with a single broken yellow broken line along the side are mainly for cyclists and pedestrians already.
From the rules of the road.
To understand the dangers associated with this missing hard shoulder, and our simple proposed solution, please take a look at this YouTube clip below.
You will see that the hard shoulder disappears altogether at the turn off. This necessitates the rider to merge with 100km/hr traffic on the the main lane.
Riders experience of this manoeuvre
A simple solution here for a quick win would be to lay some tarmac on the wasteland inside the broken yellow lines at this point. This would join up the hard shoulders and allow a rider to proceed without the added risk of merging.
This is a very popular route for Wexford cyclists and could be used as some future dedicated cycling network.
