Appeal for urgent review of new Mayo active travel route on 80km/h road
An appeal has been issued for an urgent review of the new active travel scheme on the 80km/h N60 route at Breaffy, Castlebar.
It comes from Cian Ginty of IrishCycle.Com, reader-funded journalism covering active travel, public transport, the politics of open space, the path to decarbonising transport and road safety.
In his latest article published on August 26 last under the heading "Would you let your children cross here? When an active travel route is built on an 80km/h road," he urges Mayo County Council to quickly review the project.
He outlined: "Residents in Breaffy, Castlebar, have been looking for a safe path and lower speed limits along a suburbanised part of the N60 for decades.
"The good news is that they now have the path; it’s nearly finished as part of an active travel project.
"But the speed limit for most of the project is 80km/h and users of the active travel path have to cross that road.
"The higher-speed areas are on the opposite side of the new N5 dual carriageway from the town centre, but the crossings of the N60 seem to be far more problematic.
"In a future article, I’ll look more closely at the N60 Breaffy Active Travel & Safety Measures Scheme, but these crossings are such critical safety issues that I’m publishing this ahead of the main article.
"There are two video examples — the first is just inside the 60km/h zone (just east of the N5) and the second in Breaffy village, connecting the village to the bus stop and the local GAA club.
"A third crossing in the higher speed area, which is not included in the video examples, is at the minor road L5757 (Breaffy Cemetery), and it looks like it will suffer from similar issues.
A traffic island will be added to the second and third crossings, which will improve it slightly, but given the speed and traffic volume, it’s unlikely to make the crossing safe.
"The first crossing also does not have enough space to include a traffic island.
"I would urge Mayo County Council to quickly review the project as there are also other issues, including large traffic signs obstructing the sightlines between the shared path and motorists, and a section of shared path at road level which is not segregated from an 80km/h carriageway and is being mistaken for a hard shoulder (if this is awaiting segregation, there should be traffic cones in place in the meantime)."