Forum

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments on our site. Whilst I am very sorry that you hold this view, there are one or two points and inaccuracies with your statement, which I would like to take this opportuity to address:-

1)We are in no doubt that the Connect2 schemes in Northern Ireland and across the UK will bring immeasureable benefits to the communities they serve. The key objective of Connect2 is to link communities across physical barriers which have historically impeded freedom of movement, thereby permitting people greater access opportunities and engagement with their local area. We aim to change the mental map of a project area to make cycling and walking the easiest and most common-sense travel options for local people.

2) Sustrans is very committed to increasing the frequency of all walking and cycling journeys whether for leisure or utility purposes. You need only look at the hugely popular Lagan Towpath to see ample evidence of all these user groups. There is a large and growing number of commuters who benefit from the National Cycle Network on a daily basis including myself and my colleagues. In order to illustrate this point I would like to outline statistic from a recent users survey conducted at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. Monitoring at this site has shown a huge increase in the numbers of walkers and cyclists over a 2 year period between 2004 and 2006 all thanks to improved cycle and walking provision along the Laganside. One example records a total of 69 cyclists using the cycleway (in one 12 hour period on a week day during shool holidays) in 2004. In 2006 during a comparable 12 hour period this figure had increased to 820. Questionnaire surveys of users who are cyclists have demonstrated that 85% are using the cycleway for the purposes of communting to and from work.

Another ambitious scheme which Sustrans is currently working on is the creation of the Comber Greenway a shared walking/cycling path along the old Comber Railway line. This green corridor will provide a direct link between many urban comminities and the City centre providing not only an attractive linear park amentiy but the most common-sense route option (a safe and traffic-free environment), assisting untold numbers of commuters to reach the business district of the city.

3) We generally do not support cycling on pavements with a white line drawn down the middle and believe that cycling should wherever possible be on a suitable road network or traffic free paths.

4) In our effort to create and improve the National Cycle Network (NCN), Sustrans have cooperated with a large number of organisations and interest groups. In Northern Ireland a great proportion of the NCN falls under the ownership and responsibility of the Roads Service and numerous Local Authorities. Sustrans on the other hand is a charity, whilst we are instrumental in the planning and provision of high quality walking and cycling infrastructure, we have no authority to legislate for, or police the Network. Whilst I empathise with your statement regarding car-parking in advisory cycle lanes, unfortunately we can not issue parking tickets and must rely upon higher authorities to dictate and uphold the legal position on public roads.

I do hope this will help to alleviate some of your concerns.

Yours

Ciaran Mullan
Area Manager & Funding Co-ordinator

This post was edited by a moderator at 11/05/2007 16:29

I notice that the proposed projects for Northern Ireland (in line with most of the completed ones) consists of useless cycle lanes.

As far as I can make out Sustrans in Northern Ireland is only interested in leisure cyclists or helping with government and local authority PR - they don't in fact provide many useful routes for commuters like myself.

They either paint a white line down an existing foot path (!!!), declare a narrow walkway a cycle-lane (thereby increasing the danger to both pedestrians and cyclists) or paint white lines on the sides of roads without imposing any parking restrictions.  Give me a tin of white paint and I could created 100s of miles of cycle paths for a fraction of the cost!

The money would be better spents encouraging people to get out in the traffic and making the traffic slow down and accommodate cyclists - that way we could all take the quickest route to work with endangering the lives of pedestrians or having to take elabourate detours.