Proposed Quietway route. AECOM AECOM

PLANS FOR A Quietway in Dublin are being revived after reports that MetroLink’s Southside section are to be scrapped.

Developed in London in the UK, Portland, Oregon in the United States and in parts of the Netherlands, Quietways are designed to reduce traffic-flow and eliminate rat-running.

Instead of travelling on busy traffic corridors, pedestrians and cyclists would travel along segregated cycle tracks from Kimmage to Donnybrook, on residential streets, laneways and through cul-de-sacs. 

Stretching from Herbert Park in Donnybrook to Corrib Road in Terenure, Fine Gael councillor Paddy Smyth’s proposal involves a Quietway running through residential streets across 6.5 kilometres of Dublin’s Southside. 

Dublin City Council tendered for a feasibility study in 2016 for this urban Greenway, which was shelved in 2018 after concerns surrounding permeability, access and MetroLink were raised. 

The major stumbling block to Dublin’s Quietway is the now-in-jeopardy MetroLink.

“The MetroLink completely torpedoed the plan,” says Smyth. ”That the National Transport Authority [NTA] decided to put a Metro down the middle of Ranelagh.”

MetroLink’s section through Ranelagh cut off pedestrian and cyclist access at Cowper on the Luas Green Line – the midpoint of Smyth’s Quietway. 

Quietway in London Sustrans.Org Sustrans.Org

With a reconfiguration of the area needed to facilitate MetroLink, councillors argued that Smtyh’s Quietway couldn’t proceed. At the time, certain local representatives argued that not enough public consultation took place, either. 

Smyth disputes this, however. “I have been pilloried in public and in the chamber for a lack of public consultation on this project,” he says. “But when certain councillors had the opportunity to give the public their say on this, they voted it down.”

The Quietway project, which has estimated cost of close to €1.4 million, was shelved by councillors last May. 

Smyth says that he now plans to bring the Quietway plan back to the council chamber in April where he’ll “be asking [council] engineers to start public consultation with all stakeholders”.

The Quietway designed in three sections: from Herbert Park to the Cowper Luas stop, from Cowper Luas stop to Terenure Road North and from Terenure Road North to Corrib Road, according to Smyth. “We can make a really safe route across the city for cyclists.”