At last month's municipal district meeting, I asked the Council if it intended hosting a review meeting for the stakeholders involved in the Kilcullen Road active transport scheme - to see where the contractor and Council excelled, and to identify areas where improvements could have been made.
While the scheme will no doubt prove to be a huge success, we can learn valuable lessons from the entire process. Given that KCC has committed to implementing the provisions that were included under Naas Pathfinder project that was withdrawn last November, we will be doing this kind of thing again.
The lessons we learn from the Kilcullen Road scheme will help us do future schemes better. I believe we should take a more formal approach to assessing the impact of the plan for a wide range of users. We could also put more emphasis on the benefits of the new road layouts for the sustainability of the town.
However I was disappointed at the Council’s response – there won’t be a review, not even with the seven councillors from the Naas Municipal District. There were certainly a number of instances that immediately spring to mind that could have been substantially avoided, or certainly the impact limited. I hope these experiences have been documented, and that should a change of personnel take place, these experiences from the Kilcullen Road scheme will have been documented for whoever is overseeing the next project.
While the population of Naas grows exponentially, the space we have available in the town centre is not going to grow, therefore we must be efficient and strategic about how we use it. This requires ambition. We need to reduce the use of private modes of transport, increase the use of active travel (on foot, by bike) and increase the use of public transport.
It also requires the joining up of the bits and pieces of active travel infrastructure around the town. You can currently cycle in along the Blessington Road but the cycle lane stops at the junction with Ballycane. You can cycle from the schools at Killashee to Murtagh’s Corner and then the cycle lanes stop, leaving you to navigate a very busy junction and main street at your peril.
This jigsaw puzzle approach prevents active transport from becoming a viable alternative for the people of Naas.
If you are in a position to share feedback in relation to the construction phase of the project, do not hesitate to get in touch.
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