Cycle lanes that ultimately ‘go nowhere’

“We have cycle lanes that start in Kinnegad and just stop, like they leave people in the middle of a road, they go nowhere!” said Cllr Denis Leonard asking the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District for an increase and extension to cycle routes in Kinnegad, Killucan and Rochfortbridge.

“I’d like an examination of those three. Because sometimes we forget about the fact that three quarters of us in this country live in rural Ireland, and that we also need to cycle, we also need to get from A to B,” the Labour man quipped.

“We need to have the lanes, we need to have the shelters, we need the infrastructure. But we also need a strategy where we put cycle lanes and walking routes into our major towns outside of Mullingar.”

Supporting Cllr Leonard’s motion was Cllr Hazel Smyth.

“Even looking at Mullingar itself, the response given is that there are more kilometres of cycleway in Westmeath than any other county. I’d like to know where you got that statistic from. I have no doubt it’s correct. The cycle lane goes along the Greenway, however there’s none through the town, so people are expected to get off their bike and walk through the town if they’re not on the Greenway. It’s not a good enough response,” argued Cllr Smyth.

“There is a lot more work that we could be doing. The transition away from car travel needs to happen, we need to move away from relying on single car use, cycle lanes are key to this.

“We need to commit to our word and give people the option to cycle and ring fence money for segregated cycle lanes,” she said firmly.

The written response from the Municipal District was that there are currently “no plans” for cycling lanes in Kinnegad, Killucan and Rochfortbridge.