Dublin city centre came alive with the sound of bells and whistles on Sunday morning 2nd April as hundreds of cyclists took to the Liffey Quays calling for safer cycle infrastructure along that route. Organised by Dublin Cycling Campaign, the event attracted over 500 cyclists of all ages and abilities riding their bikes from the Phoenix Park to the Point Village in the Docklands.

Cycling has been in the news for the wrong reasons recently with five cyclists losing their lives on Irish roads in the first three months of 2017. A further ten cyclists died in 2016. These utterly needless fatalities have highlighted the urgent need for proper, safe cycle infrastructure in our cities, towns and villages – and on routes between built-up areas.

The Liffey Cycle Route is just one of several key routes that the Cycling Campaign is pushing for Dublin City Council to complete. The primary routes currently being campaigned for include:

• The Liffey cycle route
• Greenways along the Royal and Grand Canals.
• A River Dodder Greenway
• The Sutton to Sandycove (S2S) coastal route.
• The North Strand cycle route.

Additionally, Dublin Cycling Campaign is advocating for higher design standards on all cycle routes across the capital. We need all the help we can get so as to succeed with our campaigns for the quantity and quality of cycle infrastructure projects required so as to make cycling for the ‘8 to 80’ cohort safe and easy.

The main points we are reminding decision-makers on are that cycling for everyday travel offers a myriad of benefits to the individual cyclist and to our wider society – such as improved health and well-being, reduced travel costs, lower emissions of greenhouse gases, less traffic congestion, reduced noise pollution and more liveable built-up areas.

New faces are always welcome in Dublin Cycling Campaign, so if you’d like to become more involved in advocating for cycling then please join! If you’re interested, but unsure about joining, please come along to any of our public meetings which are held on the second Monday of every month in the Central Hotel on Exchequer Street - details of the next one are here. You can also keep track of our events by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Finally, do take a moment to watch the short video of the event produced by Photographer and Campaign member Kieran Ryan.