A CYCLING lobby group has welcomed the proposed national review of speed limits as a step towards making roads safer for cycling to work or to school, or for leisure and tourism.
"For too long Ireland has turned its back on the potential for cycling tourism. Ireland has the potential to quickly develop a unique tourism product [eco-tourism] based around the multitude of country lanes and boreens," said chairman of Cyclist.ieMike McKillen.
In northern Europe, he noted, cycling tourism represented a significant proportion of overall tourist activity. According to the German national cycling strategy, such tourism could be worth up to €5 billion to the German economy annually.
“What is needed for Ireland to tap into this market are low-cost measures such as lower speed limits, maps and good road signs,” Dr McKillen said. He added that there was also a need for German-style legislation to restrict minor country roads to local traffic only.
Cyclist.iewants the suitability of the road designs audited. "Where speed limits are proposed to be increased, this should not happen unless adequately wide and well-surfaced hard shoulders are available for cyclists and pedestrians."
