You may have missed these two reports in the Irish News yesterday. If you are a cyclist they both make for sobering reading.
I will first briefly summarise the gist of the report on Belfast's cycling infrastructure*:
In 2022 the Department for Infrastructure allocated £16m to improve Belfasts cycling network until 2025. DfI have managed to spend just 20% of those funds over the past four years. The rest probably disappeared into potholes. Scandalous!
There were 16 cycling projects on which those funds were to be spent. To date only two have been completed (12.5%).
A DfI spokesperson stated that "cycling infrastructure improvements are being delivered in accordance with the Belfast Cycle Network Delivery Plan". The plan is there, but almost 90% of it remains unfinished or has not even been started. DfI, stop assuming cyclists are stupid! You are not doing your job.
The same spokesperson goes on to say, "Development of schemes needs to be thorough if we want to deliver the highest quailty infrastructure and typical schemes often benefit from several rounds of engagement with the community [...]." The problem here is that DfI has not got a clue about what constitutes "highest quality infrastructure", nor does it engage with cyclists or cycling campaign groups in a meaningful way. Instead it focuses on accommodating drivers as much as possible - which of course leads to the delays mentioned later on.
"The spokesperson said a number of schemes on the Belfast Cycling Network had been completed [...] since 2022." Correct: that number is TWO - out of sixteen. I'd call that a Fail.
*The spend on cycling infrastructure in the rest of the province was similarly poor.
This might be a good time to point out to DfI that existing cycling infrastructure actually needs regular maintenance. You now have an Active Travel budget of 10% of DfI's £800m - that's £80 per annum. Get busy!
Stop not only procrastinating the installation of new, fit-for-purpuse infrastructure but maintain the existing infrastructure. Repaint the faded green bikeboxes at intersections all over Belfast and surrounding boroughs.
Make the laughable advisory cycle lanes permanent by spending some of those unspent £12.7m on painting solid white lines along those bike lanes.
While you're at it, start enforcing No Parking on the coned off bike lanes in the centre of Belfast - and replace all those missing cones that were damaged by drivers.
Provide some funding to PSNI to run a campaign aimed at cyclists to demonstrate the huge blind spots with which lorry drivers have to deal with. For me such a demo by the Met on the Embankment in London was an eye-opening experience. Let Gary McMahon's accident not have been in vain.
Take away John O'Dowd's ministerial car for a week and make him travel to his appointments using Active Travel. I take it he's got a Smart Pass? That'd be a definite win for taxpayers and cyclists alike.
Active Travel... - that brings us to the Claire Hanna report. I suspect most, if not all NI cyclists have received abuse from drivers. Apart from verbal abuse many will have suffered close passes, have been cut up by drivers at intersections, have been brake checked or have had their way deliberately blocked as they try to filter through congestions.
This morning BBC's Stephen Nolan covered the mess that is Belfast traffic congestions in the run-up to Christmas. What struck me listening to the comments from Nolan, from taxi drivers and from commuters was the common theme that public transport was too expensive and too inconvenient.
Too expensive, because "it's cheaper to park in Belfast than to take public transport". Hellooo: time to wake up, all you drivers! Stop complaining about congestion: you are actually causing it.
There's an easy way to fix that: it's called a Congestion Charge. £10/day should do it.
As for the on-street parking charges in Belfast: raise those to £4/hr. That'll be a nice earner for the City Council.
And here's one for the Department of Finance: tax a parking space at a Belfast workplace as a benefit-in-kind. 8 hours/day @ £4, multiplied by 200 workdays = £6,400 of taxable benefit...
If drivers don't like those ideas to reduce congestion, they should investigate Active Travel or get on a bike: with fewer cars on the road it will be much safer on the road for cyclists.
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