| Dear Cycling Campaign Supporter, We have exciting times ahead with the Smart Dublin Cycle Challenge with €100,000 to be awarded for good tech ideas; closing date is May 3rd so get those thinking caps on!
Also in May, Dublin will be participating in a European Cycling Challenge 2016 that involves tracking all your journeys for one month. If you want to learn more about it, come along to our next Public Meeting this Monday 11th at 8pm, at the Central Hotel.
And not only in Dublin have cycling campaigners been keeping busy! See below for news from Waterford, Cork, Kerry and beyond!
If you are in Dublin, we have new Members Rewards this month for you to take advantage of, and if you are not a member yet, please Join Us! From as little as €10 per year you can really help us to continue growing as an organisation. Happy Cycling!
Dublin Cycling Campaign | | | 
Love 30 Next Meeting The Love 30 Campaign will be having a meeting on Tuesday 26th April, in the Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square at 7.00pm. Please come along if you want to get involved in the campaign for lower speed limits. See our Facebook page, Love 30 Campaign, and our website www.love30.ie for more information. | | 
New Members Rewards More and more businesses are offering discounts to members of the Dublin Cycling Campaign. Just show your membership card to get the discount!
Two new businesses have signed up to our Member Rewards Scheme this month. FunkedUpFixies are offering a 10% discount to our members. And Yoga Dublin are offering 2 for the price of 1 classes, or 10% discount on monthly membership. They run classes in Ranelagh and Dundrum.
Not a member? Is easy to sign up online. Your subscription helps us made Dublin a more cycling friendly city! | | 
Cyclist.ie Elects New Chairperson Colm Ryder has been unanimously elected Chairperson of Cyclist.ie - the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network. He has taken over from Dr. Mike McKillen, who stepped down this year, having held the post since Cyclist's inception in 2008.
Colm’s former role in public service, and his professional background as a Civil Engineer in Transport and Environment, will help to continue to build positive relationships between Cyclist.ie and local and national government agencies. It should help to cement the recognised positive role that Cyclist.ie plays in sustainable transport advocacy.
Colm is committed to Cyclist.ie’s vision of an Ireland in which cycling is a core part of transport planning and a recognised everyday utility transport option. He is also committed to the principle of teams and individuals working together to shape the future of Cyclist.ie. Colm says:
"This is a critical period for national decision makers in the area of Active Travel - an area that needs to be recognised as an essential element of transport policy and future investment. Furthermore, current and future governments need to face up to the effects of climate change and increasing traffic congestion. Cyclist.ie will be at the forefront of this battle for greater awareness and change!" | | 
Choreographed cyclists impress at the parade! Dublin Cycling Campaign received really positive feedback from the organisers and viewing public after our St. Patrick’s Day parade performance. With an estimated half a million spectators on the streets, it was a great opportunity to put cycling into the minds of Dubliners and visitors to the capital. As well as our performing team within our 100 strong presence, we had over 20 cargo bikes in the mix, showing citizens and tourists the carrying capacity of these amazing machines. Read more...
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Waterford Greenway
There was a great progress on the Waterford Greenway (also known as the 'Deise Greenway') in March.
Works on a foot bridge over the N25, the national primary road from Cork to Waterford have started and the official launch is set for August 2016.
There will be information evenings in April, on the 13th at the Park Hotel Dungarvan, on the 18th at the Rainbow Hall, Kilmacthomas; and on the 21st at the Ramada Hotel Waterford City. All starting at 7.30pm. The Council will be happy to chat about business opportunities all along the new Greenway. Check out the Deise Greenway Facebook page for updates. | | 
“Build it and they will come” approach works in Denmark While cycling has been booming in Copenhagen over the past 20 years, cycling levels at national level in 2010 were well below 1990. In order to reverse that negative trend, a Bicycle Fund 2009 – 2014 was put in place by the national government and equipped with 1 billion Danish Krone (approximately 133 million Euro) for investments in cycling. A mid-term review now indicates that these efforts have paid off. Read more... | | 
Cork’s Public Bike Schemes – Continuing the Journey One year after the official launch of Coca-Cola Zero Bikes, the Transport and Mobility Forum Cork (TMF) hosted a half-day seminar on 8th March 2016 on the scheme. The event saw a packed conference room in the Metropole Hotel with about 50 transport professionals and bicycle planners attending. Presentations were given on the public bike schemes by the NTA and a group of Master’s students from the UCC Centre for Planning, while the smaller scale Clonakilty Community Bike Scheme received lots of praise too. Planners for Cork City Council reported on their infrastructure improvement projects, as did those from Cork County Council and Cork University Hospital. Delegates learned that there are a number of major employers not yet within the reach of the public bikes. Read more... | | | 
Dublin to participate in European Cycling Challenge At our monthly meeting, Sinéad Flavin, NTA Smarter Travel Workplaces, will be giving a public talk on the European Cycling Challenge at the Central Hotel at 8pm on Monday 11th April.
The European Cycle Challenge is an annual event since 2012, coordinated through the University of Bologna to encourage cyclists throughout Europe to register their trips throughout the month of May.
By using the Cycling365 App you can keep track of your daily commute and see how much CO2 you will save by using your bicycle too. More details here. | | 
Smart Dublin SBIR - Cycling Challenges & Opportunities As part of the Smart Dublin initiative, the four Dublin local authorities and Enterprise Ireland recently launched the €100k Small Business Innovation Research Challenge (SBIR). In line with a push towards a healthier, more liveable city, Dublin is seeking smart, innovative and low cost solutions to increase the number of people cycling in Dublin.
If you missed the Smart Dublin SBIR Cycle Challenge launch or briefings, here is an opportunity to catch up. The closing date is the 3rd May 2016. | | 
#FreeTheCycleLanes A reminder that the #FreeTheCycleLanes Campaign, which documents the problem of vehicles blocking mandatory cycling lanes, is still continuing to highlight this issue.
We would like the RSA (Road Safety Authority) and the Gardaí to take this matter more seriously as it affects the safety of cyclists in Dublin and indeed elsewhere too.
You can contribute to the campaign by tweeting @dublincycling a picture using the hashtag #FreeTheCycleLanes | | 
South Dublin News Dublin Cycling Campaign has submitted views on Material Alterations to the draft Development Plan. There are lots of measures to increase numbers cycling and walking, but no proposals for measures to encourage intermodal transport.
Work is ongoing on the Tallaght to Templeogue Cycle Track Scheme and the council hope to start work on the Grange Road scheme later this year. | | 
Cycling Exhibition & Photography Competition, Waterford
"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike". Waterford Walk & Cycle Campaign / Cyclist.ie are organising the above event. It will run April 25th - May 7th and take place in the Index Gallery, Central Library, Lady Lane, Waterford
The theme of this exhibition of photographs is everyday or normalised cycling. It aims to engage people with the image of cycling as an enjoyable, simple, everyday activity & to increase awareness of the work of Cyclist.ie. In tandem, a photography competition invites the public to submit images of everyday cycling in Waterford, the best of which will be included in the exhibition. The launch takes place on Wednesday April 27th at 6pm. All welcome. For more info you can write to mariepower26@gmail.com | | 
News from Great Southern Trail (GST) group in West Limerick Two years ago Waterford City & County Council and Kerry County Council were each awarded state funding for developing greenways along old railways. Waterford have excelled themselves and will deliver double the expected route length before the end of 2016. The result will be a 50km state of the art cycleway along the CIÉ-owned former railway line. Waterford Council are now encouraging private enterprises to take advantage of their superb new amenity. Kerry hasn't yet turned a sod along their Glenbeigh to Cahersiveen project which was promoted as being "shovel ready" two years ago; a statement still being contested by some of the private landowners who now own the former railway.
Meanwhile, the former North Kerry line, still in state ownership (like Waterford), languishes; there being no apparent impetus by Kerry County Council to develop it and thereby extend the 40km West Limerick GST Greenway to Listowel, Tralee and Fenit - a further 50km. Thus, the opportunity to have Ireland's longest Greenway at the doorstep of Kerry and Shannon airports is being lost and so is the spinoff to local businesses. As Liam O'Mahony, Cathaoirleach of Great Southern Trail, commented "Kerry has deservedly been accorded accolades for its scenes in Star Wars. Unfortunately, when it comes to Greenways it is definitely orbiting in a different planetary system to Waterford."
Check out GST's amazing aerial film which highlights the starkly different degrees of progress in developing the Greenway on either side of the Limerick / Kerry border. | | | |
