Offaly County Council’s First Protection Junction installed on Collins Lane in Tullamore
Offaly County Council unveil its first Protection Junction in Tullamore to promote additional road safety features for all road users.Offaly’s first protected junction is located at Collins Lane, Tullamore (R443-5), at the junction with Ballin Rí and the road serving the Educate Together National School, The Hawthorns and Norbury Woods.
A protected junction is a road junction where pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles are separated from each other as they move through the junction. The aim of this active travel initiative is to make the junction safer for all road users, and particularly for those on bicycles and to encourage people to choose to walk or cycle to work, to school or for their everyday journeys, when possible.
A protected junction provides the numerous benefits to all users including:
• A safer way for all road users to travel through the junction.
• Crossings for pedestrians are improved and separated from the cycle crossings.
• Segregated cycle ways for cyclists, protected by concrete islands and kerbs.
• Dedicated cycle signals and advance starts will be provided for cyclists.
Instead of bicycles mixing with traffic, and waiting in the middle of the junction to make a right-hand turn, the new design provides a safer option. Pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle movements will all be controlled by traffic signals, each road user shall wait for the green light and move forward when it is safe to do so. Left turning vehicles must take care and yield to cyclists who are travelling straight through the junction.
In addition to the physical kerb and concrete islands separation, Offaly County Council will also pilot flashing amber road studs at the cycle crossing point. These amber road studs will flash while traffic on the opposing arms have a green light and will alert left and right turning vehicles that they need to yield to cyclists crossing the junction.
An informational video providing explanations for all road users, on how to use on this new type of junction, is available below and is also available through Offaly County Council’s social media channels.
This strategic scheme has been made possible through funding secured from the Department of Transport (LCSS scheme) and the National Transport Authority (NTA) under their Active Travel Investment Programme. This scheme forms parts of a wider active travel programme to make Tullamore a more sustainable town and Offaly a more sustainable county.
