I was cycling along Nutgrove Avenue in Rathfarnham on Tuesday evening, and came across the following newly installed traffic light pole.
I was so shocked by the terrible placement of the poll – right in the middle of the cycle path – that I just had to stop and take a photo.
I'm pretty tolerant of dodgy cycling infrastructure when it's been around a while. But this poll had just been installed, that day, by some contractors that had spent the proceeding 2 weeks renewing the pedestrian and cycle path surfacing around the new pedestrian crossing. So it's not like they didn't know that it's a cycle path.
Anyway, so I decided to contact South Dublin County Council on Facebook. I sent them a private message on the Tuesday evening to say that it was a shameful bit of road planning. And in fairness to them, they came back the next morning to say that bit of Nutgrove Avenue isn't in South Dublin, it's in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown. They also said that it's their policy to site traffic light poles on the inside of the footpath.
So I got back onto Facebook, and sent a private message to Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to point out the same problem. And I'm rather pleased to report that they got back to me within a day as well. They say the civil contractor installed the pole in that location because it happened to be where all the underground services (wires) were present. However, they have agreed to relocate the pole on the boundary between the footpath and cycle track, and say that the works should be completed shortly.
I just hope the traffic lights themselves (currently hidden under the orange cover) don't overhang the cycle path and decapitate passing cyclists!
I'm also quite impressed that both councils responded to my Facebook messages – within a day – with meaningful answers.
UPDATE: It took a couple of months for the rework to be done on the site, but the pole was eventually moved out of the way.
