Thoughts on the Tulla Road Cycle Scheme

Ironically, I’m writing this just after having hernia surgery, which means I can’t even cycle for the next few weeks. Typical timing.

But seeing all the debate around the Tulla Road cycle scheme made me want to put down a few thoughts because, overall, I support it.

That doesn’t mean I think it’s perfect. There are parts of it I’d probably do differently. But I also think people forget what that stretch of road was actually like before this.

The old “cycle lane” was basically paint beside traffic. I never considered it proper cycling infrastructure, and I certainly never considered it safe. Cars flying past you while you balanced on a narrow strip at the side of the road was not a serious setup for encouraging ordinary people to cycle.

More importantly, I’d struggle to let my own kids cycle on it. That’s probably the clearest way I can explain how unsafe it felt.

The Tulla Road isn’t some quiet road on the edge of town anymore either. Huge numbers of families now live along it and around it. It’s busy all day with commuters, schools, people walking, traffic heading in and out of town, and more housing constantly being added.

And for such a built-up area, there actually weren’t many proper pedestrian crossings. The new scheme will add a lot more crossings and safer points for people to cross the road, and I think that’s badly needed.

One thing worth mentioning too is that there were alternative ideas discussed locally over the years. Better Ennis, the community cycling organisation, had proposed a two-way cycle lane on one side of the road at one point. Given some of the concerns people now raise around emergency access, that kind of approach might actually have been an easier answer to some of those worries.

To be honest though, a lot of the claims around emergency services seem unproven at this stage anyway. It’s fair for people to ask questions, but some of the discussion has become very dramatic very quickly before the scheme is even fully operational.

One of the biggest reasons more people don’t cycle is simple: people don’t feel safe using the roads.

If ordinary people — teenagers, older people, parents, or less confident cyclists — don’t feel safe, they simply won’t cycle. That’s why I think safer infrastructure matters, even if the final result isn’t perfect.

Fair play as well to the Gaelscoil walking bus and cycling-to-school group. It’s great to see people trying to make alternatives to the school run work, but those efforts need infrastructure that actually supports them.

I also think the situation with Knockanean school highlights a bigger issue. A lot of children living around the Tulla Road area are travelling out there every day, and realistically that creates huge traffic pressure. Right now there’s no proper cycling connection to the school as part of this scheme, but I honestly don’t think the idea of a future cycling corridor out that direction is crazy either.

There’s also a bigger picture here.

Towns that become known as good places to walk and cycle are generally nicer places to live and spend time in. They attract families, visitors, and investment. Across Europe, loads of towns benefited economically after improving cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. There’s no reason Ennis can’t aim a bit higher in that regard too.

And to be honest, compared to some other counties, Clare has probably been slower getting these kinds of active travel projects delivered. So while this scheme isn’t flawless, I still think it’s a step forward rather than backward.

Personally, I’d love to see the cycle lane continue all the way into town someday. The current scheme will already make cycling far more practical and safer for people using the road, but a fully connected route into town would make it even better again.

Reasonable people can disagree about parts of the project. That’s fair enough. But I don’t think doing nothing was a good option either.

For me, the old road felt unsafe, unpleasant, and designed almost entirely around cars. This at least feels like an attempt to make it work better for everyone.