Something new is afoot in the land of Dublin’s cycle lanes. I first noticed it a few months ago, travelling from Goatstown to UCD. As per usual, I turned up from the Clonskeagh Road onto Roebuck Road and followed the cycle lane. I had seen work being done on the lane a few days earlier, and thought nothing more of it. But something was different. The lane had gone from being smooth, in relatively good condition, to being…crunchy.
It had nothing to do with dirt, gravel, or glass. The crunch was deliberately applied, I discovered, as part of a new ‘anti-skid’ surface on the cycle lane. Anti-skid surfaces, I learned, are intended to reduce accidents by helping vehicles increase their grip on the road, particularly during wet weather.
Safety measures are always welcome, of course. But I couldn’t help but feel that the new surface was both somewhat unnecessary and even potentially damaging to the bike. After all, cycling on anti-skid surfaces is rather like cycling on sand. The cycle lane in question, while it has a fair amount of users due to its proximity to the university, is often fairly quiet. It’s a relatively easy stretch, too, and there isn’t much need for sudden braking or making sharp turns. Perhaps most frustratingly, the new surface has the effect of actually slowing down the bike significantly. This would be fair enough, I suppose, if the road was plagued by cyclists wantonly zipping up and down the cycle lane on their souped-up bikes at ludicrously high speeds, narrowly avoiding pensioners and small children and cackling maliciously in their wake. But, believe it or not, it isn’t. The surface for motorists hasn’t been treated with the anti-skid material, so why limit it to cycle lanes?
It now seems that the anti-skid treatment is becoming more common in cycle lanes across Dublin, as I’ve experienced the gritty crunch, and the slowdown, as your tyres meet the often pungent new surface in several other locations in the south city and suburbs. I suppose the councils responsible for the decision to apply it to cycle lanes in their jurisdictions will claim that it is merely intended to make cycling safer and therefore more appealing. Perhaps. But, you have to ask, since when were skidding bikes, and bikes travelling at high speeds, the main safety threats to cyclists in the city?
