Streets for everyone: Pop-up cycle lane on Dublin Road in central Belfast

In response to Covid-19, Northern Ireland’s Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon announced a number of infrastructure improvements to enable safer social distancing and for key workers to travel more safely.

These measures included the widening of pavements and some pedestrianisation, as well as a number of pop up cycle lanes.

This film focuses on the temporary protected cycle lane which was constructed in just 3 weeks in the summer of 2020 at Dublin Road in central Belfast. One of the key findings of the Bike Life survey was that most people in the city (77%) want more protected cycle lanes.

Sustrans interviews local business leaders and residents about the cycle lane and calls for it to be improved and made permanent. #StreetsforEveryone

[Music] belfast 2020 a pop-up protected cycle lane has been installed starting on bankmoor street running along hardcastle street marcus ward street and dublin road providing safer infrastructure for people to cycle [Applause] dublin road cycling is a good start to enable more people to cycle in belfast but it’s a pop-up cycle in and so by its name it’s a temporary measure we would like to see it become permanent and also finished at both ends at the chastry square end and at ormo avenue so that it takes people where they want to go and it certainly has the support of local businesses and local residents that we have spoken to we hope to see that cycling being used much more by the 350 organizations in this district we want to try and reduce car use improve the air quality in the city centre look to more sustainable forms of transport that will help with the climate emergency that we’re trying to tackle having just opened a new business in linen quarter i think it’s a really welcome addition to see the cycle lanes in belfast obviously a lot of european cities have this infrastructure and it’s nice that belfast can also be put on the map for that so it’d be nice to see it as a more permanent feature cycle line is very good for belfast and for my business as well because i’m using deliveroo so i think my customers getting more faster food using that cycle line i think it doesn’t affect at all as a car parking because we have a car parking back of the moving house cycles line is good but just i think it’s should be improved to to get out of the tesco site as well as being this business owner in the area we live locally we’re only about 90 seconds walk from here the belfast bike station at bankmoor square is right on our doorstep it’s really handy just to get out and about around the city and employers have a responsibility as well to the local area in terms of improving air quality in terms of reducing their carbon footprint so if they can encourage their staff to use these cycle lanes and to provide facilities provide showers and cycle racks and to work with sustrans to provide some training and confidence building then it’s just going to be a win-win for everybody and we’re going to have a much more positive city as a result you