Active School Travel

About the Initiative

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council have launched the Active School Travel initiative, aimed at encouraging increased walking and cycling in the upcoming back-to-school period. All schools across Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown are currently preparing to return to the classroom, in line with the Department of Education & Skills ‘Reopening Our Schools - The Roadmap for the Full Return to School’, published on Monday 27th July 2020.

 

This will mean supporting and promoting various alternative means for children to get to school safely and actively, with a focus on walking and cycling. This will reduce the impact of schools reopening on the public transport system, avoid traffic congestion at school gates and encourage a continued shift away from the use of private cars. This initiative is also aligned with the Council’s wider climate action agenda.
 

As part of the Active School Travel Initiative, the Council has prepared a Parents Pamphlet. The pamphlet explains the Active School Travel initiative and includes a link to our interactive web map, including locations of bike repair outlets. The pamphlet also contains links to cycle safety documents from the Road Safety Authority. The Council has also published guidance documents on School Travel Plans, Walking Bus and Cycle Bus, which can be used by schools, parents and children in planning school journeys, by walking and cycling. All of these documents are available in the 'Related Documents' section of this page.

Report Local Travel and Traffic Issues

Local schools are invited to identify local travel and transport issues, where the Council can provide assistance and support in overcoming them. These issues and hazards can include, things such as the need for cycle parking, deteriorated footpaths, traffic pinch points, and pedestrian crossing issues.
 

Schools can raise these issues by using the Council’s ‘Report It’ tool, available at: https://www.dlrcoco.ie/en/report.

Submissions from schools should reference this Active School Travel initiative.

Interactive Web Map

The Council has launched an interactive web map which shows walking, cycling, and other sustainable transport routes across the County. This tool can be used to inform back-to-school travel plans and help inform local choices, in walking and cycling to school.

The interactive map can be viewed below, or click here to open it in a new window. A brief description of the map functions can be found in the 'Related Documents' section of this page.

Active School Travel project update 16/09/22

There will be a period of further engagement with stakeholders in relation to the Deansgrange route elements of the Active School Travel (AST) Project and the Chief Executive has committed to bringing a report back to Elected Members by January 2022.  The project team are currently preparing a plan to complete further engagement with stakeholders.

At the Council meeting on Monday 13 September, the notification under section 138 of the Local Government Act 2001, which related to works for the entire AST project, consisting of all three routes, was withdrawn by the Council Executive.

The Active School Travel project is centred on the concept of providing a connected and safe network of walking and cycling routes to schools across the county, and this has been emphasised from the project's inception in August 2020. There are parts of two of the routes, Mountains to Metal and Park to Park, that go through the Deansgrange area and the design for these routes was completed based on providing a safe, continuous active travel route from end to end. With the delay in facilitating further public engagement on the Deansgrange elements, there isn't certainty, at this stage, on the design and layout over the full length of these two routes.

The design, safety evaluation, environmental assessment and NTA funding and technical approval for the Active School Travel project was progressed based on completing the project in its entirety, i.e. delivery of all three routes, and so the project team will now need to review the project to determine how the elements not related to Deansgrange may proceed separately. 

This will involve a review of the overall project design, including a review of safety evaluation and environmental impact, as well as further engagement with the NTA on funding approval, technical design approval and ensuring that the project continues to align with objectives to deliver specified cycle routes as set out in the GDA Cycle Network Plan. The Council will necessarily need to have clarity on the possibility of proceeding with elements of the AST project separately, and how long this might take.

03/09/21

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council has published the latest report detailing the initiatives' progress since the recommendations were issued at the end of the public engagement period in late 2020. This report also includes information in relation to the proposed next stages of the project. Additionally, a report on route options relating to the proposed one-way system/two-way cycle route on Deansgrange Road is now available. You can read both reports and also view the maps of the three Active School Travel routes below under the Reports and Consultation tab.