Walking & Cycling in Cork: A Connected Active Travel Network
The Vision | Why focus on walking and cycling? | Walking in Cork | Cycling in Cork| The Bigger Picture
The Vision
Cork aims to become a city where walking and cycling are natural, safe and attractive choices for everyday travel. Whether travelling to work, school, college, shops, public transport, or leisure destinations, people should be able to move around easily without relying on a car.
Why focus on walking and cycling?
Walking and cycling:
- Improve health and wellbeing
- Reduce traffic congestion
- Support a cleaner environment
- Create more vibrant and attractive streets
- Make it easier to connect with bus, rail and future light rail services
- Provide affordable travel options for everyone
Walking in Cork
Walking is part of every journey, even when using public transport. Cork has already introduced improvements such as pedestrian priority areas, wider footpaths and better crossings in parts of the city and surrounding towns.
Current challenges
Some areas still make walking difficult because of:
- Narrow footpaths
- Street clutter
- Limited crossing points
- Poor connections between neighbourhoods and destinations
- Accessibility barriers for some users
Planned improvements
The strategy aims to:
- Increase walking for short trips, particularly journeys under 2 to 3 km
- Create safer and more accessible streets for all ages and abilities
- Improve lighting, wayfinding and pedestrian routes
- Remove unnecessary obstacles from footpaths
- Strengthen links between walking routes and public transport
- Ensure new developments prioritise pedestrians over private cars
- Upgrade walking facilities alongside BusConnects, cycling projects and future light rail infrastructure
Expected benefits
A stronger walking network will help create:
- Healthier communities
- More liveable neighbourhoods
- Better access to schools, workplaces and local services
- Safer and more attractive public spaces
Cycling in Cork
Cycling is recognised as an affordable, sustainable and increasingly popular way to travel in Cork. The objective is to create a comprehensive network that allows people to cycle safely and confidently across the metropolitan area.
Key priorities
The cycling network will focus on:
- Connecting major residential, employment and education areas
- Providing direct north south and east west routes
- Improving access to schools and colleges
- Supporting new development areas
- Expanding greenways and quieter cycling routes
- Integrating cycling with public transport services
Types of cycling infrastructure
The network will include:
- Cycle lanes alongside roads
- Segregated cycle tracks separated from traffic
- Greenways through parks and open spaces
- Quietways using low traffic residential streets
- Mixed streets where cycling and local traffic share space safely
Supporting measures
To encourage cycling, plans also include:
- More bike share schemes
- Increased cycle parking at homes, workplaces and public destinations
- Shower and changing facilities
- Traffic calming and lower speeds in suitable areas
- Better junction design and safer crossings for cyclists
The Bigger Picture
Walking and cycling are not being planned in isolation. Both networks will be developed alongside BusConnects, rail improvements and future light rail proposals to create a connected transport system across Cork. The goal is that more people can complete all or part of their journey without needing a car.
What Success Looks Like
A Cork where:
- More people walk and cycle every day
- Short journeys are made without a car
- Streets are safer and more welcoming
- Public transport is easier to access
- Communities are healthier and more connected
- Sustainable travel becomes the first choice rather than the alternative