New bike shelters to encourage cycling to school
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| The new shelter in CPC. |
The idea is to encourage the use of bicycles in getting to and from school by the students at each (and maybe even the teachers too). "The idea came from a comment last year which noted that only three out of some 800 students at CPC used a bicycle to get to school," says Martin Murphy, who is on the Board of Management at both schools. "So we looked at the idea, costed it, and then sought some funding for two shelters to start."
That funding, in the amount of €4,000, was sourced from the Local Property Tax provision in Kildare County Council, through the good offices of Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer and her colleague Cllr Fintan Brett. The shelters were put in place last week and over the weekend, and are now available for use in each school.
While there was some commentary that cycling isn't safe in the Kilcullen area, the idea agreed by the schools' management was that if the shelters are there, more people might use them. "If there's a take-up in the use of bicycles in the schools, it will encourage the Council to support other cycle-friendly initiatives in Kilcullen, like cycle lanes and paths," Martin says. "Other groups in the town are also looking at facilitating cycling, such as the Kilcullen Design Statement project by Kilcullen Community Action. They should all complement each other."
He notes also that the bicycles idea fits in with other school health initiatives, like the running track installed in Scoil Bhride last year so that pupils there have a safe dedicated space to do the 'Mile A Day' as part of the school's wellbeing programme.
The shelters were installed by local contractor Iomar Kelly.
