This is the vision of the Lee to Sea Greenway (L2S) — a safe, protected walking and cycling route linking the region’s beauty spots with its busiest and most bustling centres and putting them within easy reach of over 200,000 people.

The Lee Fields, the Regional Park, the Marina, the Blackrock walkway, and the Crosshaven-Carrigaline path are wonderful and treasured parts of the area. But they could be so much more if they were linked. Accessible to more, closer to more, used by more.

To raise sustainability and enhance quality of life, the L2S should be a priority for local authorities and the government.

We need to reduce the amount of car journeys by creating attractive and practical alternatives. Some 157,000 people live within two kilometres (a 20-minute walk or five-minute cycle) of the L2S’s envisaged route. A total of 229,000 people live within six kilometres of the proposed route.

The L2S will benefit people in both city and county, passing neighbourhoods, business parks, schools, colleges, hospitals, shopping centres, hotels, restaurants, and cultural and heritage institutions. 

There is a huge appetite for more varied and better leisure facilities and greater access to green space in Cork. The need for such amenities was obvious even before the pandemic reinforced how vital exercise and green space are to our well-being. Pedestrianisation of the Marina, east of the city centre, for example, has been an unqualified success, while thousands now benefit from better access and sympathetic development of wildflower meadows, pathways, and a playground in the Regional Park in Ballincollig.

The L2S would multiply the value of these amenities and open up new beauty spots for people to discover.

It would also deliver a highly marketable attraction for the region’s tourism offering, particularly in the growing active tourism market. Just imagine the incredible experience it could offer — visitors could enjoy exploring the Lee valley or Cork harbour, or delight in Cork’s rich historical legacy like Spike Island and Camden Fort-Meagher, and afterwards venture into the city for good food and culture. Accommodation and transport connections are already in place: there are 2,200 hotel beds on the doorstep of the route, and bus, rail, liner, ferry, and air connections to the rest of the country and continent.

The L2S could also play a small but important role locally as part of efforts to avert catastrophic climate change by rapidly reducing our carbon emissions.

Transport accounts for 40% of Ireland’s carbon dioxide emissions, but people cannot change unless we provide attractive alternatives to the private car. And public transport alone cannot deliver the reductions needed. Electric vehicles’ lifecycle emissions deliver only modest gains over petrol and diesel cars but, in contrast, the L2S provides a zero-carbon alternative for many trips around metropolitan Cork.

Our major retail and employment centres are located along the route, while 48,000 students and staff at Cork's colleges and a further 33,000 schoolchildren are all within two kilometres of the route.

In Vienna and Amsterdam, political choices mean that it’s normal to walk or cycle to the train station or bus stop. The L2S would complement existing public transport infrastructure and enable similar transport choices here.

If you are a driver, the L2S is also in your interest - the more people walk or cycle to get around, the less traffic congestion and parking demand for drivers.

Put simply, the L2S benefits everyone and is the most important climate mitigation measure in Cork.

By transforming transport and quality of life, the L2S could also raise Cork’s competitiveness.

The urban regeneration schemes proposed in the Docklands and Tivoli will have attractive, zero-carbon transport options for residents and workers. So, too, will the thousands of workers in Cork’s big new office developments which have minimal parking but are near the L2S.

The transformation to 15-minute cities, where most everyday trips are within a 15-minute walk or cycle, is already underway in Paris, London, and other major cities. The L2S could be a key enabler of 15-minute neighbourhoods here.

City competitiveness or how attractive a city is to foreign investment and high paying jobs is all about quality of life. That’s why American cities advertise their greenways, like New York’s Highline. L2S would likewise boost the region’s international competitiveness.

The L2S must be built to a world-class standard. But what exactly does this mean?

It means that adults and children of all ages and abilities must be able to use it with confidence. It must be comfortable for leisure users and efficient for those using it for transport. Wherever possible, people on bikes should be separated from those walking, as is standard in most European cities. The route should be protected from motorised traffic, with careful design to make the facility attractive, safe and comfortable.

To facilitate more zero-carbon commuting, it’s also vital that the city section is treated primarily as a form of transport. It must be continuous and direct, with good connections to neighbourhoods and businesses on the north and south sides of the river.

Can we afford not to build the L2S?

Calculations using the World Health Organisation Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) indicate that, even for a low use scenario, the L2S would produce an annual economic benefit from improved public health of about €21m per year.

That means, the L2S could largely pay for itself in a single year.

Higher use scenarios could deliver savings upwards of €50m every single year. This doesn’t even factor in the economic value from increased numbers of visitors.

There is no doubt that the L2S represents outstanding value for money for Irish society. The Lee to Sea will be a life-enhancing, carbon-reducing, and money-saving asset for the region and country. It ticks all the boxes of national and regional priorities strategies: it’s sustainable, it supports public health and physical activity, it provides a safe school run, it boosts tourism, it’s accessible to all ages and abilities, and it raises our economic competitiveness. It’s a compelling project.

That’s why we’re calling for the L2S to be a top priority in both city and county development plans.

Much of the route already exists; it’s just a matter of joining the dots.

So, get behind L2S: whether you walk, scoot, cycle, wheelchair, rollerblade or run; whether you use it for leisure or transport; whether you cycle, drive, or take the bus. Just imagine how it could enhance our lives.

Three years from now you might spend your Easter weekend walking, running, cycling or rolling along the L2S.

Dr Dean Venables is an atmospheric scientist in the School of Chemistry and the Environmental Research Institute at University College Cork with interests in air quality and sustainable travel. He is also a member of the Cork Cycling Campaign.