One Way Or Another…?

GG & the missus get in a tizzy…

t was down at the old school kids party at The Cove on Saturday that a mildly frustrated cyclist pointed out the glitch in the matrix to us.

The arrows on our seafront bike lanes are all pointing in the wrong direction.

“There’s been a few banged heads around here,” the cyclist told us. “Your instinct is to go with the traffic flow, on the left, but the arrows are telling you to cycle on the right right.

“How the f%#k did this happen? All along the seafront!”

The foulmouthed lady is right. How the f%#k did this happen?

“They are in the way we were instructed to put them in at the time of construction by the NTA,” town engineer Ruairi O’Hanlon informs us.

And no one here raised the point that the arrows are going in the opposite direction to normal traffic flow?

“The matter was raised with the NTA at the time, as were a few other design considerations we weren’t happy with, and we were instructed to put it in that way,” continues Ruairi. “Basically, the arrows are not pointing the wrong way, according to the National Transport Authority, who set the design guidance criteria for cycle schemes.

“They’ve just launched a new design guidance and so we’ll check in with them to see if their thinking has changed.”

So, that’s that then. For now.

If anyone out there knows just why the arrows are going against the grain of common sense here, do let us know. We’re waiting to hear back from the National Transport Authority.

In the meantime, if you’re out and about on your bike, mind how you go. And always wear a helmet. Or a suitcase.