Residents push for council to slow down cars and trucks on Crumlin Road

About 40 people gathered in a circle, holding small electric candles.

A framed picture of Josilaine Ribeiro was propped on the ground of a grassy traffic island by the Camac Bridge.

Some people clutched signs, calling on the council to slow down the cars and trucks on Crumlin Road, the artery that runs south from the canal at Dolphin’s Barn, where Ribiero – a 36-year old carer from Brazil – was struck and killed by a lorry while cycling.

The gathering was just after 6pm on the first Thursday in December, almost exactly one month on since her death.

Against the roar of traffic, local Elaine McCaughley spoke into a microphone, reading a letter sent from Ribeiro’s family in Rio de Janeiro.

“It is our deepest desire that her sacrifice helps the Dublin population to have better and safer roads,” McCaughley said, relaying the words.

In the month since, locals in this part of the city have formed a campaign group, Calm Crumlin Road, hoping, they say, to call attention to the hazardous nature of the route.

They want the 50kmph speed limit to be enforced, says McCaughley. And, “proper pedestrian crossings, protected cycleways and protected bus lanes. Because the cycle lane is constantly encroached by buses and cars.”

Data from a six-month speed survey by residents earlier this year found that an average of 83 cars an hour broke the speed limit, says local Brigid Reilly.

There are several schools around Crumlin Road, she says. “There are GAA and football pitches, and it’s a nightmare, because it would not be uncommon, especially on a summer evening, for children to be walking and cycling here.”

The issue, says Green Party Councillor Carolyn Moore, is that the road is an arterial one, and so it’s built for traffic to move fast. “That almost supersedes the actual day-to-day use for people who live there.”

Dublin City Council did not comment when asked what traffic-calming measures it would consider, if any, for the Crumlin Road.

But at a meeting of the council’s South East Area Committee on Monday, a council engineer said it was doing speed surveys and could look at making changes. “We need to take some actions now,” he said.

Breaking points

When McCaughley’s teenage daughter was four years old, she narrowly avoided being hit by a car on the road while on a pedestrian crossing, she said on Thursday night.

“A speeding car broke a red light and took an illegal left turn,” she says. “It missed her by millimetres.”

Countless residents on the road tell similar stories, says Bonnie Dempsey. “The speed and ferocity of that road means it’s hard for all us neighbours to band together.”

Many neighbours only started to swap stories recently, she says. “The only times we talk to each other as neighbours is during the days when the marathon happens, or when the road is closed off due to an accident.”

A breaking point for many locals was in June, she says. “I was out for the day with my kids, and we turned the corner at about lunchtime and the road was closed.”

“The first thing one of my kids said in the car was, ‘Oh no, somebody’s had an accident’,” she says.

A boy, 11 years old, had been injured in a hit-and-run, she says. “He had been out for a cycle with his mum and two siblings, and the emergency services were literally scrubbing blood off the footpath.”

Dempsey no longer lets her kids cycle on the road, she says. “It annoys them, because one is at the end of the primary school cycle, and the other is starting secondary school.”

Both of her children are only about a 10-minute cycle from their schools, she says. “And there’s a huge tension in our house, because their bikes have been locked up, but I can no longer let them cycle.”

“They’re too big now for the footpaths,” she says, “but they’re just simply too precious for the road.”

What is needed?

On 13 November, a week after the death of Riberio, Moore, the Green Party councillor, told council officials at a meeting that they need to make sure Crumlin Road is safe for cyclists and pedestrians.

Safety issues on that road have been discussed regularly at their meetings, she said at the meeting of the South East Area Committee.

Traffic engineers have said – in response to a September request from the public –  that the bus lane markings could be repainted on the stretch from the Coombe to the Grand Canal, says a council report.

As part of the BusConnects plan to redesign the city’s bus network, the new D-spine, a core bus corridor linking Tallaght and Clondalkin to the city centre, is due to run down the Crumlin Road.

Various traffic management measures are proposed in the National Transport Authority’s plan, an NTA spokesperson said Tuesday.

“In terms of cycling infrastructure, from the south end of Crumlin Road to its junction with the Grand Canal, a parallel segregated cycle route along Kildare Road and Clogher Road is proposed, connecting in with the Grand Canal Greenway,” they said.

The NTA submitted the planning application for the D-spine to An Bord Pleanála in May, the NTA spokesperson said.

At the South East Area Committee meeting, Moore, the Green Party councillor, said that the BusConnects proposal for the junction doesn’t address safety issues for cyclists on the bridge.

Social Democrats Councillor Tara Deacy said she had first raised issues of traffic calming around Crumlin Road four years ago, but there has been no meaningful action.

Adding a lollipop lady last year was welcome, but not sufficient to deal with this complex stretch of road, she said. “We have said on more than one occasion, what is it going to take before something happens here and it has happened.”

Neil O’Donoghue, a Dublin City Council senior engineer, said that the council was about to run speed surveys at three different points on Crumlin Road.

After that, the council can put forward proposals, he said. “Measures will be looked at and the proper measures for the area, like we have to look at the whole Crumlin Road as one major area.”

Some of the issues are related to enforcement, he said. “Dublin City Council cannot enforce it. It is a matter for the Gardai to look after that.”

In a council report presented at the most recent area committee meeting on Monday, 11 December, traffic engineers replied to another request from the public, saying that the council’s Transport Advisory Group liaise with Gardaí regarding traffic speeds on the Crumlin Road.

Dealing with speed

Council speed surveys regularly find that a large percentage of drivers break limits.

In 2021, staff surveyed 24 roads. On five of those roads, more than 20 percent of vehicles broke the limit – and for three roads, more than 50 percent of vehicles did.

While the council gears up to do speed surveys on Crumlin Road, residents are ahead of them – with data suggesting that a chunk of drivers break limits.

In January 2021, as part of a UCD data science project, Brigid Dunne put up a traffic counter sensor to catch vehicles breaching the 50kph limit during daylight on the Crumlin Road, she says.

The sensor was positioned midway between the Sundrive Road junction and the canal.

Between 15 May and 13 November 2023, the sensor counted almost 1.4 million cars and close to 450,000 heavy vehicles at this location, says a report of recent findings. Also, more than 180,000 two wheelers used the road during that time, it says.

Of those, 59 percent were going at between 30kph and 50kph, with the average speed 47kph. Meanwhile, 15 percent of the vehicles clocked in between 50kph and 70kph.

An average of 83 motorists an hour broke the speed limit, Dunne says. “If you’re a cyclist there, and you’re sharing that space with a car going 50, that’s not a suitable speed if you have no segregation.”

Colm Ennis, a senior executive engineer at the council, told the South East Area committee on Monday that the council carried out one speeding survey, and would conduct a second after the meeting.

“We have some data back on that already,” Ennis said. “And we’re developing proposals for the road with that information, with the information from residents and from councillors as well.”

The data collected by residents could also be taken on board, he said.

The council can also look at short-term interventions to be put in place on the road, he said. “There is the BusConnects, the bigger project, that will come through here in the future, but we need to take some actions now.”

Crumlin Road is currently designated as an arterial route, says Moore, the Green Party councillor. “From a legislative and speed perspective, the purpose of the road is to get cars in and out of the city as quickly as possible.”

That is why the current limit is 50kmph, she says. “And that is why the road is as wide as it is. But in actual fact, it is a residential road with schools and busy sports grounds.”

A 50kph limit is wholly unsuitable for the road, Dunne says. “I would like for the speed limit of that road to be changed to 30kmph.”