This evening, local councillors agreed unanimously to my motion to make walking and cycling safer in Ballinteer. I proposed this after a number of local people got in touch with me, particularly about walking safety in the area.
We can get small improvements one by one here and there, but I would like the council to look at Ballinteer holistically, just as Dundrum, Stillorgan, Dalkey, Blackrock and Glasthule have benefitted from significant investment over the past few years.
Examples of what people have requested so far and that I am in favour of the council exploring in more detail:
- a pedestrian crossing across Ballinteer Avenue beside the Wesley roundabout.
- safer crossings and wheelchair friendly kerbs across side roads such as Ballinteer Court. Many side roads on Ballinteer Avenue currently fail standards for road crossings for wheelchair users and visually impaired people.
- public benches, particularly so that older people can rest mid-walk.
- cycle lanes on Ballinteer Avenue. In my view there is enough space from Brehon Field Rd to the Coach House to do this without affecting any other road users.
- ending rat-running through Woodpark.
I would like ideas like these to be tied together by the council, and baked into an overall plan to bring improvements to Ballinteer on par with what other areas of the county have had over the last while.
The National Transport Authority allocated €34m to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown for walking and cycling infrastructure in 2021. Of this, just over €5m is for miscellaneous and non-specified walking and cycling improvements. I feel it would be more than justified to spend some of this money on improvements in Ballinteer.
I’m keen to gather as much feedback as possible so if you have ideas to make walking and cycling safer in Ballinteer, please do leave a comment, send me a message or drop me an email on [email protected].
If you have any issues to report to the council, you can also report them easily here or email [email protected]
