A complete review of safety and accessibility for those with mobility and vision impairments must be carried out by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council (DLRCC) as a matter of urgency.
That’s according to Aontú Rep for the area, Mairead Tóibín, who says that her party has been made aware of some 40 cases currently being taken against DLRCOCO, mainly by pedestrians, who have incurred injuries on roads in the area.
Ms Tóibín is calling on the Local Authority to carry out an audit on its Active Travel Infrastructure, in light of the €290m that has been set aside this year for walking and cycling initiatives throughout the country.
She says “These Active travel projects include the development of segregated cycle lanes and widened footpaths, new walking and cycling bridges and new pedestrian crossings. The key aim is to increase the number of walking and cycling networks so that walking, cycling and public transport will account for 50% of all journeys made by 2030”.
“Much of this is welcome, it’s nearly €1m a day when funding for Greenways is included, and cycling safety for the most part has been improved considerably, however, this cannot come at reduced safety and accessibility to our neighbourhoods for those with disabilities”.
“Door to door travel is a necessity for many disabled people including visually impaired people. The further away the drop off point is the more difficult it is to safely locate a destination. Kerbs or other barriers delineating cycleways from the main carriageways are trip hazards. It’s terribly dangerous for people with disabilities”.
“This is totally unacceptable, at the very least and we passed a motion at our recent Ard Fheis calling for DLRCOCO to carry out an audit on all aspects of their Active Travel infrastructure immediately. Delay is quite obviously, dangerous “.
