The Canal Way Cycle Route was officially open on the 22nd of March 2012 and is connecting Portobello with the Docklands. Brendan O’Brien, Head of Technical Services (Traffic) at DCC says, “The Canal Way Cycle Route is mainly segregated so as a cyclist you won’t share the route with pedestrians or motorists. The only exceptions to this are Grand Canal Quay and Forbes Street, but these streets have a very low volume of cars. However, at junctions, cyclists will have to interact with pedestrians and cyclists. Special cyclist signals have been introduced at some junctions. Some of them are complicated, as we’re working with traffic signals for three types of road user – motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. As well as a main traffic signal (for motor vehicles) we have separate traffic signals for both cyclists and pedestrians. The signals for cyclists and pedestrians will operate at different times – this gives cyclists and pedestrians more time to cross the junction and reduces the potential for collisions. Since we have opened the Cycling Route the number of cyclists has grown 70% and so far we have no accident data since opening i.e. we have no report of any accidents.”

The DCC comprehensive Traffic Management Solution is going to be on show when traffic planners and ITS specialists from all over Europe meet at the 9th ITS European Conference which is taking place this week in Dublin June 4-7. The new cycling route not only passes right by the Conference Centre, it is also very much in line with the overall theme of the Conference which is ‘Real Solutions for Real Needs’.

Sara Bullock, International Sales & Marketing Director AMG Group comments, “AMG Systems have worked very closely with DCC since 2007, where we won the tender for supplying our fibre optic transmission system AMG3700 for traffic management and control of Dublin City and surrounding motorways. Since then, new elements of traffic complexity has been added to the solution, such as the LUAS tramways and the Samuel Becket moving bridge, which has a comprehensive traffic signal and control solution integrated into the existing solution. The new Cycling Route has 15 new camera locations along the route with AMG3700 drop and insert units being used for both CCTV and the Traffic Signal Communications.”