rain miles count double

Some slightly concerning news has come from the CTC, via @nevsutter on Twitter, of plans to restrict cycling in parts of Belfast city centre. As part of the Streets Ahead scheme, cyclists will only be allowed to travel in one direction on Donegall Place and Queen Street.

CTC Councillor for Northern Ireland Barry Flood said:

CTC and Sustrans worked closely with the independent consultants to advise on the safe routing of cyclists through Belfast city centre. In spite of this, the Department of Social Development has decided to ignore the consultants’ expert advice that options other than two-way cycle access through Donegall Place would force cyclists into some of the heaviest traffic in the city centre. Both in terms of cyclist safety and encouraging cycling in Belfast this perverse decision, taken in the face of professional advice to the contrary, is incomprehensible and will put the lives of ordinary cyclists in Belfast city centre at completely unnecessary risk.

The first stage of the plans for Donegall Place are to have wider pavements and partial pedestrianisation with buses running only in one direction, which perhaps explains the reasoning behind restricting cyclists to one way travel.

Donegall Place, Belfast. Buses and cyclists will be restricted to travelling towards the City Hall.

I don’t know what the consultants decided was the “safe routing of cyclists through Belfast city centre”. The obvious alternative routes are either to take North Queen Street if you’re heading north out of the city, or head along Chichester Street and loop back around to Royal Avenue via High Street as the re-rerouted buses now do. Both routes are much busier than Donegall Place, with both being four lanes of heavy traffic heading mostly for the motorways. They’re negotiable by bike, but it’s not a trip for the inexperienced or faint hearted.

Both routes are much busier than Donegall Place in any case, so I think the CTC have a very valid point about how cyclists’ safety will be adversely affected by these changes. That’s not to mention the discouraging effect that much more heavily trafficked routes may have on potential cycle commuters.

No mention is made of cycle lane provision along the alternative routes.

The ultimate goal is to remove bus traffic from Donegall Place altogether by 2012 (also reported here by the BBC) and you have to wonder if cycling will be totally banned then too.