PICS: These odd-looking cycle lanes in Kildare have been attracting a lot of attention

They might look confusing, but there’s no mistake.

New cycle lanes that take up more than half of the road have been attracting a lot of attention in Clane in Kildare in recent days. According to Kildare Now, the lanes, which have been painted on to the Ballinagappa Road in Clane, have been causing confusion and attracting negative commentary on social media since being painted onto the new road surface. On the face of it, from the pictures below, via Clane News on Facebook, it’s understandable why the lanes might cause confusion amongst road users as the cycle lanes (marked out by dashed lines below) take up more than 50% of the road surface. Engineers with the local council have said that the lanes comply with engineering laws and are designed for sharing when there are multiple road users on the road. "I have spoken with the Council's Area Engineer who reminds me that a dashed line cycling is designed for sharing with vehicles where there is not enough space for a segregated continuous line cycle lane,” local councillor Padraig McEvoy told Kildare Now. “I agree that the new configuration looks different and creates the appearance that vehicles are very restricted along part of the route. As with these type of projects, there will be a safety audit to assess the design implementation before it is signed off on." McEvoy said that the implementation of the cycle lanes was part of an overall strategy from the Kildare County Council that involved a new housing development but that his personal preference was for fully segregated cycle lanes similar to cycle lanes currently used in Belgium and Holland. Cheers to Caroline O'Connell-Barron for sending this our way. Got a story for JOE? Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, send it to our WhatsApp number 087-4001102 or mail editorial@JOE.ie.