In Clontarf, drivers visiting the West Wood Club block the fancy new cycleway and footpath

At the entrance to the West Wood Club last Thursday, the driver of a black car trying to nose out into traffic on Clontarf Road stopped right across the footpath, blocking pedestrians.

It’s a common problem, said Jamie Proctor, who was standing near the junction, holding his bicycle, and talking to a couple of friends. Cars coming in and out also often stop blocking the fancy new cycleway here, Proctor says.

“This little intersection is awful,” he said, before cycling off into Fairview Park.

At particularly busy times, drivers waiting to get into West Wood’s car park from Clontarf Road will be queued up bumper to bumper, stationary, across the new cycleway and the footpath – with only narrow gaps to slip through.

“It just annoys me when you see people sitting in their cars like that and pedestrians and people with buggies are desperately trying to find a way through, and the people are in their cars listening to their music pretending they don’t even notice,” said Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney.

Social Democrats Councillor Catherine Stocker said people were “raising it with me on the doors all the time”.  It’s “Not acceptable that major public infra[structure is] being consistently disrupted by a single private business and its clients,” she said Tuesday by WhatsApp.

Staff in the West Wood Club on Thursday said they weren’t in a position to discuss the traffic at the entrance to the car park, but offered email contacts for managers. John Clarke, West Wood’s group operations manager, replied by email but didn’t respond directly to queries including what the solution to the issue is.

However, on Thursday there were big signs posted at the entrance to the club’s car park saying “Caution: Cyclists” and “Motorists: Keep Cycle Lane Clear”. And an attendant in a high-vis vest was managing traffic in the car park.

“Fair dues to them, they’re trying to deal with the situation,” said Dave Sheridan, who was putting his gym bag into the boot of his car in the car park that Thursday.

In Cooney’s view, though, they are not doing enough. The rules of the road are clear, she says: cars should not be stopped blocking the cycleway and footpath like this as they come in and out of the car park. “I suppose it’s just a matter of strong enforcement.”

Yes, says Stocker, “Enforcement (fines/policing) badly needed but as per usual likely won’t happen”. So “Westwood need [an] active solution”, she says.

The council needs to get onto West Wood and push them to manage the drivers coming into and out of their car park better, says Cooney.

A council spokesperson said that “Since opening of the inbound cycle-track cars have been observed parking on the cycle-track and the footpath.”

The team behind the Clontarf to City Centre cycleway scheme “has engaged with a number of interested parties on the matter and are pursuing options to try mitigate against such driver behaviour”, the council spokesperson said.

Pressure via new lease

Cooney and other councillors have tried to get council staff to push the company to make improvements, using leverage the council has.

Templeville Developments, trading as West Wood Club, leases both the car park directly at the club – and another on the other side of the Dart tracks – from the council.

The lease on the car park on the north side of the Dart tracks ended in 2020, and last year council managers brought to councillors for approval a proposed new lease for it.

Discussions about granting the company a new lease for that car park spread out into discussions about the traffic management problems at the entrance to the club.

When the proposed lease came before the North Central Area Committee in October, Cooney, along with Social Democrats Councillor Catherine Stocker and Fine Gael Councillor Naoise Ó Muirí, proposed an amendment.

“That the lease to Westwood Club be reduced [from 20] to 15 years, starting at 2020 and that the lease should include a stipulation that ‘traffic management works’ be undertaken by the club to prevent danger to pedestrians, cyclists & blocking of bus lanes,” it said.

At that meeting, Stocker said the chief executive of the company had met with councillors about their concerns.

“I do think they need to be looking at incentivising their clients toward using public transport, active transport, a long-term plan that does not rely on us having to renew this lease again,” she said.

There are bike racks in the car park at the club, and last Thursday they were full of bikes, presumably of people who’d come to use the gym or the pool or get to the creche.

Councillors on the committee backed the amended new lease. The lease then went to the November monthly meeting of the full council, where councillors again backed it.

The new lease included a clause saying the company had to “engage a Traffic Management Specialist to devise a plan and subsequently implement the plan to maximise traffic flow and the safety of the travelling public in the vicinity of the car park entrance”.

“The plan to be agreed by the Dublin City Council Environment and Transportation, Roads and Traffic section in advance of implementation,” it says.

When designing the Clontarf to City Centre scheme, the council knew that cars entering the club would have to cross the cycle track and footpath to enter the club’s parking lot, a council spokesperson said Thursday.

“In such scenarios pedestrians on the footpath and cyclists on the cycle-track travelling straight maintain priority over left turning vehicles,” she said.

But this hasn’t been working well, said Cooney, the Green Party councillor. And the situation at the entrance to the club has not been solved yet, she said.

Aside from stronger enforcement against drivers blocking the cycleway and footpath, and pressure on West Wood, she said she wasn’t sure what could be done.

Maybe the cycleway across the entrance to West Wood Club could be resurfaced in red? she suggested. “Colour would make it clearer that it is a cycleway.”

The council spokesperson said that although the layout “meets required design standards, the Project team is nevertheless considering further potential options which is hoped might alleviate the scenarios emerging”.

One option on the table? “In the short term it is proposed to colour the cycle-track to make it even more obvious to motorists that there are encountering a cycle-lane,” the spokesperson said.

Clarke, West Wood’s group operations manager, said by email on Tuesday that “Every business in the area will have faced difficulty with access and traffic in the last few years. We are very much not alone.”

UPDATE: This article was updated at 10.19am on 7 March to include the council’s response, received at 9.52am on 7 March, to queries about the issue sent 29 February.