Five-year wait for West Cork cycle routes
Cyclists in West Cork have a simple and safe idea: bicycle routes on quieter back roads around Clonakilty. But getting these routes implemented is proving to be a mission.
In 2015, Allison Roberts and a group of cycling advocates mapped out several cycling routes around Clonakilty leading to some of the beauty spots in West Cork.
That was more than five years ago and the hope was that the beta routes, as they are called, would be signposted as cycle routes taking cyclists along quieter and safer back roads.
But, the wait goes on.
Allison has long been a core organizer of the annual Clonakilty Bike Festival; she’s also a chocolatier and founder of Exploding Tree.
For the Clonakilty Community Cycle Scheme, Ireland’s first community cycle scheme launched in 2015, Allison and other volunteers helped design and map half a dozen cycle routes. (The rental bikes were subsequently sold off due to issues with insurance.)
The team of volunteers created cycle routes to Inchydoney, Courtmacsherry and Castlefreke all with elevation information. The idea was once the routes were mapped out, signage directing cyclists would follow.
“We’re trying to signpost people, especially tourists to the nicest, quietest, flattest back roads that would take them to their destinations,” says Allison.
As she pointed out, this would be a good thing both for cyclists and motorists.
Every year since, Allison and other cyclists in West Cork have been nudging Cork County Council to get the routes implemented. In 2018 the council contacted Allison with good news: funding had been approved, an engineer drove the routes and went through the mapping. All systems were go.
But, 2018 turned to 2019 and nothing happened.
Later on in 2019 Allison says she got a phone call from the council: she was told they needed to act fast or they’d lose funding.
Allison was told the routes would be in by Christmas of 2019. “Amazing,” she thought, not for the first time.
Alas, the cycling routes have still not been demarcated. Allison says she was told by a council official that building pedestrian and cycling infrastructure would make the council liable to potential insurance claims.
According to Cork County Council progress is being made with the installation of new cycle safety signs. As of the second last week of July, up to 14 cycle safety signs had been erected. More signs will be erected in Skibbereen and Dunmanway this summer.
However, the council are “awaiting policy and guidance from the Department of Transport with regards beta routes. There is no funding currently in place.”
More cycling signage will be erected now that Cork County Council was awarded €500,000 for the leg of the EuroVelo route which passes through the county, and runs along the west coast of Ireland as it connects a host of countries in Europe. But that funding is unlikely to be used for the local routes mapped by Allison and the other volunteers.
Allison says there’s a lot more people coming back to bicycles in and around Clonakility. Initiatives such as The Bike Circus in Clonakility, a community-run and not-for-profit bicycle workshop, undoubtedly go some way to helping a cycling resurgence.
“You notice a lot more families on the road and that’s kind of our main focus, trying to make the roads safe for the smallies,” Allison says.
Somehow, Allison remains upbeat about getting the beta routes across the line despite the yearslong setbacks.
“It’s coming anyway. It’s good for everyone and it’s cheap.” It’s just getting to that point.