One of Enniskillen's most recognisable citizens, 86-year-old retired Portora lecturer, Bill Barbour, who lives on the Sligo Road, last week made the case to his 'road safety' Minister Arlene Foster for cycle paths in and around Enniskillen.
He was part of a three-man delegation who met with the DoE Minister in her offices in Belmore Street, the others being Councillor Frank Britton, Castlecoole, and Keith Boyd, Chanterhill.
Mr Britton explained that the aim was to impress upon the Minister the on-going problems that face cyclists locally in terms of road safety.
"The issue has been brought into sharp focus because there are no facilities for cyclists around Enniskillen. Cycle lanes are very poorly developed. There are two, on the Dublin and the Tempo roads, but they actually end out on these roads, and cyclists have no means of getting safely into the town centre, or through the town from, say, the Sligo Road, the Shore Road or the Cornagrade Roads."
Mr Britton reported that the trio had had a very good discussion with the Minister and she left them in no doubt of her concern for all road users, including cyclists, to have the best possible facilities.
Mr Britton, a senior social worker based in Coleshill, across the town, said he would make use of a cycle lane if one was provided, to get to and from his work.
"There are a lot of people who are leisure cyclists who would use it as well," he added. "We have groups to cycle out on Sunday morning from the town and we have a lot of young people who have bicycles at home and we have children at second-level schools who enjoy cycling. But, they have a genuine fear of taking them out on the road because of the volume of traffic and the speed of traffic.
"If we had these cycle lanes or footpaths that are shared with pedestrians, we believe we would have a lot more people on our roads."
Statistics show that we compare very poorly with other nationalities when it comes to using push bikes. For instance, while only 2.3% of people in the UK cycle to work, the uptake in Germany is 11%, 18% in Denmark and 27% in Holland.
Keith Boyd explained to the 'Herald' that he stopped cycling once he acquired a car. Then, a few years ago, he began to become aware of his weight piling on. He now realises the benefit to his health that can be derived from cycling.
Bill Barbour (86) said that he had always cycled in Enniskillen and, when his family lived on Forthill Road, he took the bike into Portora Royal School.
He went on: "The real flowering of cycling was in the late '50s and the '60s," he recalled. "I remember about 100 bikes came into Portora every morning. The school had a huge, long bike shed at the front gate where you parked your bike."
During his teaching career at Portora, which stretched from 1951-'83, Bill mostly took the bike to school, at other times the car, having bought his first car in 1957.
The Minister Arlene Foster said that the meeting gave her a chance to revisit areas in Enniskillen that were supposed to get cycle routes, and where the delegation felt they should be located.
"There is a lot of development in Enniskillen," she added, "and if we can encourage people up on their bikes, it would be of benefit to people's personal help and, it would help reduce traffic congestion.
"You cannot bring people on to the roads unless you have safe routes," she added. 'So, we're going to look for a meeting with the Minister for Regional Development (Conor Murphy) to see what his view on it is."
