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Pete Matthews, from Dublin, rides his penny farthing in the city centre.
senior spokes-man
Like cycling? Fancy a €43k-a-year job as Dublin's Cycling Czar?
The new appointee will have an input to Luas, bus and road projects and act as a cycling ‘advocate’ for the city.
DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL is appointing a new cycling supremo for the city, as one of a range of measures agreed as part of the 2015 Budget and passed at a meeting this week.
€43,000-a-year has been allocated for the role of Cycle Liaison Officer, which is expected to be filled by the spring.
The new ‘Cycling Czar’ will work with engineers and planners to ensure road projects cater properly for self-propelled commuters.
It’s intended they’ll also have an input on the Luas cross-city project and the proposed new Swiftway rapid bus system.
A similar role existed, funded by ex-Greens leader John Gormley when he was Environment Minister — but it was scrapped as part of cutbacks after the party left national government.
“Cycling is a success story in Dublin, so we need to keep it that way — we want to have someone in overall charge,” Greens councillor Ciarán Cuffe, who backed the move, said.
While we’ve come on in leaps and bounds in terms of getting people on bikes, our infrastructure lags far behind and is both dangerous and dysfunctional.
“Having a single person dedicated to improving the city for cyclists means major change can now be driven forward. All current and future cyclists will benefit from this move.”The liaison officer will also act as a cycling advocate overseeing training initiatives for schoolchildren, and other similar programmes.
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