Lee 2 Sea - An ambitious plan!

A dedicated greenway from Inniscarra Dam all the way to Crosshaven, with grade separated bi-directional infrastructure all the way? Cork Cycling Campaign, you are a bold one!

Dated Star Wars references aside, the plan brought forward by the intrepid guys & girls over at Cork Cycling Campaign looks seriously impressive. The Lee 2 Sea Greenway (L2S) will start at Inniscarra Dam, and follow the bank of the River Lee through Ballincollig into the City Centre, and then along the old railway line from Marina Park to Mahon and Rochestown, before hugging the shore to Ringaskiddy, before cutting across to Carrigaline and finally to Crosshaven. The plan aims to integrate existing infrastructure, such as the pathways in Ballincollig Regional Park, or along the Mardyke, as much as possible, while at the same time tying all of these landmarks together. It reads very well, and shows the type of ambition and optimism that is all too often missing in this city, where people still seem to be stuck in daydreams of past grandeur while at the same time unwilling to move out of the dirt they’re mired in.

It will not only provide a safe, dedicated thoroughfare for cyclists, creating a much needed new option to move through a city that is increasingly choking on its own traffic, but would also have a much more important effect. Building a separate cycling artery would do wonders to de-conflict motorised and civilised, I mean of course cycle traffic, reducing friction between these two modes of transport, and drastically reducing the threats of injury & violence that cyclists are exposed to on a regular basis. 

That being said, I do have some reservations about the plan. Not on principle, but based on logistical considerations. As a Ballincollig resident, one of my primary concerns is the integration of the Ballincollig Regional Park. It is certainly a great amenity, I wrote an article about it a while back. Just recently, a number of paths were freshly paved and now provide an excellent cycling path. However, it only has restricted opening hours, and its current entrances & exits are designed as just what they are: park entrances. Transit traffic, commuters, etc. don’t factor into its current design. This will have to be addressed for the scheme to be successful in the upper reaches of the River Lee.

The new paved roads in Ballincollig Regional Park would make a fantastic cycle corridor, but some serious work is needed to ensure that they're transformed from simple park ways into a full fledged greenway

While we’re on the topic of infrastructure, fly tipping and littering, as well as antisocial behaviour are an ongoing issue in the Cork area. It stands to reason that L2S will be affected by this as well. In my eyes, this little fact will make it crucial that the greenway is not only well lit but also monitored by CCTV at least in problematic areas. Solar/wind powered street lights are already available, and lighting up L2S would make it more attractive as a commuter route during autumn & winter, thereby increasing its utility far beyond tourism & leisure. This also ties in nicely with the current lack of bike parking in many parts of the Cork metro area. Currently, major employment hotspots, such as Barrack Square, and the two DellEMC facilities in Ballincollig have only a limited number of bike stands, and I haven’t found any for CastleWest Shopping. Any development of this greenway should therefore be accompanied by the provision of a significant number of bike stands along all major points of interest along the route, as well as at all employment hot spots.

Wether it's the office park at Barrack Square,...

Or Ballincollig Shopping Centre, now trading as CastleWest Shopping, bike parking is not a priority in any way, shape, or form at the moment.

Back to the topic of routes, and the part of L2S that will likely cause the most headache, the city centre passage. I have to disagree with the Cork Cycling Campaign about using the Wstern Road/Washington Street corridor as part of the city centre route for L2S. A fully segregated bi-directional cycle path along that street will likely be shot down by the taxi mafia lobby in the city In my eyes, it is better to use the . The Pope’s Quay bike lane is already one of the best in the city in my eyes, once you manage to avoid the god-botherers parking all over Camden Quay during mass times. Gives a whole new meaning to the term “mass transit”, I guess. It is from there that the problems start in my eyes. Both Camden Place and Patrick’s Quay would need significant redesigns to ensure a seamless cycle path through the city, something that will likely cause the Tim Brosnans, John Graces, and Susan Ryans of the city to have an aneurysm with rage when you even mention it. Patrick’s Quay will be particularly problematic, since it is currently an unofficial bus station for all the private coach operators serving Cork, and a chaotic parking free-for-all even by Irish standards. Clearing up that mess will require significant efforts both from a PR front, and from a civil engineering point of view. On the plus side, the new Harley Street Bridge will provide an easy connection to Parnell Place and from there to the south side of the city (South Central Cork represent, yo!).

Parnell Place marks the beginning of one of the best stretches of bike lane in the city. Unfortunately, it is far too short.

This leads me nicely to my next point. The Marina Park-Blackrock-Mahon-Passage walkway along the old railway line. This is of course a natural course for L2S to take, with not much in the way of slopes, and an easy, readymade path. However, leaked photos from the much delayed Cork Public Transport Strategy show that the old railway line is a preferred routing for a BRT or light rail line in Cork, which would by itself be a huge asset to the city. For someone like me, who’s as much a public transport nerd as he is a cycling nut (Hey, whoever said I was normal?), this naturally leads to a dilemma, as the infrastructure along the line was built with a narrow-gauge railway in mind (The old Passage West railway had a gauge of 914mm), with an appropriately small loading gauge leading to small diameter bridges. In Layman’s terms, there really isn’t that much space down there, and even if you go for a single track light rail line with passing loops at stations, it wil still be a tall order to squeeze in both the line, and L2S, at least if you want to avoid turning the whole thing into a concrete trench.

The old Passage West Railway line between Blackrock & Mahon is already a well established greenway, and adding it to L2S...

...if it wasn't for the new Cork Metropolitan Area Transit Strategy, which is so far delayed it makes you wander if the authors got their training at Bus Éireann. Anyway, leaks from that strategy show that the old railway line is supposed to accommodate a light rail line.

The final two issues are more or less conceptual, and have less to do with the L2S concept as such. One big issue is the lack of a “northern spur” of the greenway to hook up with Tivoli, Glanmire, Little Island, and Midleton. Granted, Significant parts of that area will be redeveloped in coming years, especially with the redesign of the Dunkettle interchange, and the coming redevelopment of the Tivoli container terminal, once port operations are transferred to Ringaskiddy, however omitting even a possibility of this northern spur from the plans is a major mistake in my eyes. Then again, this is a first concept, and I presume it’ll be some time before this project is actually started, so things might change between now and then.

The second issue is peripheral in the truest sense of the word. L2S, even if built to the highest standards, won’t be much use if cyclists can’t get to it. Consequently, a network of “feeder routes” will be required in large commuter towns along the way, such as Ballincollig, to channel commuters and other cyclists to this main greenway. This will likely cause some further resistance, as we all know how protective the people of Cork are of their streetside parking spaces. However, it once again is vital to the success of the scheme in my eyes. Current road manners in Ireland are lethal for cyclists, as is the generally dismissive, or even outright aggressive attitude towards them, so safe access corridors to L2S are absolutely necessary to make the scheme a success.

All in all however, this is a plan to be applauded and supported. The issues I mentioned above are, as I said, mostly logistical issues, which can be resolved. Changing hearts and minds could be a bit more of a challenge, but certain city centre traders are already gaining a reputation as town cranks due to their antics, so that issue might sort itself out in short order. Still, it is vital to get the marketing machine on this project firing on all cylinders, and to get some real momentum behind it, which is one of the reasons I’m writing this article, and have started plans for a video to be shot mostly on location once the weather starts behaving a little less “Irish”. 

That leaves one final variable in this whole debate, the political side. While getting the council onboard should be possible, I’d advise against relying on central government too much in this matter. Shane Ross is about as useful as Minister for Transport as a barber shop on the steps to the guillotine, to borrow a phrase from Blackadder. Even paying lip service is probably beyond his abilities, and so the ministry will likely not be able to support L2S until he is gone. In my eyes, the National Transport Authority can similarly not be relied upon. Despite some creative accounting tricks that help Coca Cola Zero Bikes running, and their apparent willingness to cough up at least part of the costs required to extend that system, they have generally proven as useful for cycling as a cat flap in an elephant house.

Instead, I believe that the Cork Cycling Campaign should take a serious look at crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter to facilitate, if not the entire project, which would be supremely optimistic, then at least feasibility & architectural studies. Of course, proper Kickstarter rewards would have to be found for backers, but given the length of L2S, and the amount of documentation, maps, etc. it would required, I’m sure plenty of opportunities can be found. This would effectively decouple some of the initial planning work from public funding, and put the entire project on a more solid footing when the time arrives to take the fight first to the city & county councils, and then to Dublin.

Which brings me to the end of this article. I urge you to check out the plans for the Lee 2 Sea Greenway over on the project website, they make for some really interesting reading. Also, don’t just passively read this, engage with the team behind it, Cork Cycling Campaign, and make sure you support them. This project could signal a paradigm shift in traffic patterns here in Cork, and with the recent upsurge in cycling infrastructure in the city, the time is now to get that paradigm shift going.