Comment & Analysis: Over the years of debate about Strand Road, even some people who otherwise support sustainable transport have, without question, accepted that Strand Road is a leisure route that couldnt be useful for commuting trips, but this is simply not the case. A lot of this stems from the idea that Strand Road is some great detour from the Blackrock area to the main employment centre. The fact is, Strand Road is useful for commuting by cycling, and is not a massive detour from Merrion Road to many major employment centres around the south east of the city centre.For example, from where the two routes diverge at the Merrion Gates, the inland route is 4km to Googles HQ at the southeast edge of the Docklands, while the Strand Road route is 4.06km, which is well within the distance tolerance for people cycling to detour to a better route.In fact, when you compare the two routes further, the 60 metre difference is not significant at all. Much longer detours would be acceptable to most cyclists, given the advantages (and Im not talking about the sea view).The main main diffrencess are: Nearly 3km continuously segregated route (70% of the route) via the coast vs a patchwork of painted lines and bus lanes on the inland route.2-3 main junctions (Im including the level crossing as a possible extra delay) on the coastal route vs 8 large signalised junctions on the inland route.A few car park access points on the coast vs far more minor conflict points on the inland route, including far more driveways, access points, loading bays, bus stops, at least one filling station, etc.An unprotected right turn into Shelbourne Road, etc, is needed on the inland route.While BusConnects will fix some of the issues on the inland route, many will still exist, including many more conflict points.The above means that the coastal route will have fewer points of stopping at traffic lights and far fewer conflicts, causing delay and danger.The Strand Road route (shown in purple) also starts to make far more sense as a commuter connection when you include the areas planned cycle route (orange) and bridge connections (shown in red) in the case of BusConnects, approved and ready to be built.Strand Road will be the more direct route to Sir John Rogersons Quay, the North Docklands, Eastpoint Business Park, etc. While Dublin needs a cycle network, make no mistake: Strand Road can serve as a primary commuter route, and it can be delivered quickly while major construction is underway across the city. This will be invaluable for enabling a modal shift ahead of that disruptive construction, keeping more people moving. And, as covered last year, 9.5k people moving in next door at the former Glass Bottle site is exactly why the Strand Road cycle path trial needs to go ahead. A near-core city area with more housing needs more effective use of the road space already available, which will not be expanded significantly.