Study Visit: County Mayo, Ireland

On 8-10 November, the Dutch Cycling Embassy (DCE) welcomed a group of representatives from Ireland’s County Mayo for a study visit to learn about Dutch cycling infrastructure applications for rural and semi-rural regions.  

The study visit began in Nijmegen, where Margot Daris kicked off the day with a presentation about the past and present of cycling in the Netherlands. Then, Dick van Veen from Dickvanveen Street Design Public Space gave a presentation on how lessons from Dutch network design can be applied to a rural context. Later, the group was joined by Jeroen Drabbe from AbelLeisure who presented on building a cycling culture. After these lectures, the group then hopped on their e-bikes to explore Nijmegen’s surrounding towns and villages such as Berg en Dal to see how the topics they learned about are applied in Dutch contexts applicable to County Mayo. After a 25km ride, the group had gotten a taste of Dutch urban planning and were now cycling with confidence!  

On the second day of the study visit, the group was joined by Ruxandra Aelenei from R.A. Planning who talked about how to manage car traffic and parking to better facilitate people-first public spaces. Next, Alex van Gent from Arcadis joined to talk about the more technical aspects of infrastructure design. Feeling inspired by everything they’d learned so far, the County Mayo representatives brought out some of their current street network plans for some advice from the DCE and the day’s experts. The group worked collaboratively using expertise from around the world to workshop County Mayo’s upcoming mobility plans and made progress on some of the plan’s uncertainties. Feeling inspired and ready to get more hands-on learning, the group got back on their e-bikes for a tour to Lent and Weurt. 

The third and final day of the visit started off with presentations about roundabouts, infrastructure, and traffic by Sjors van Duren of RoyalHaskoningDHV, as well as the combination of cycling and public transport by Ruben Loendersloot of Loendersloot International. Delegates then embarked on an extensive ebike tour of Arnhem or Groesbeek and Cuijk, experiencing innovative cycling infrastructure first-hand, such as the cycling bridge connecting Nijmegen and Cuijk. The day ended with a wrap-up session where delegates, DCE staff, and experts shared their learning outcomes of the study visit and enthusiasm for the next steps to be taken locally in County Mayo to facilitate more cycling in the region.