Glass purposely thrown on bike paths

tomasrojo

There did use to be a device you could attach to your fork and it would lightly brush your tyre as you cycled. Intended to remove glass before it embedded, I guess. Mentioned in Richard's Bicycle Book. Nothing about brushing the road as you go along though. You're a pioneer!

Chuchote

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was told that the feed from fixyourstreet.ie into DCC (at least to customer services, who despatch them) is sporadic. maybe just better ringing them?
222 2222 is the number for DCC customer services (which is coincidentally the number from de la soul's 'ring ring ring (hey how ya doin')').

The road I'm most exercised about is Leinster Road, from Rathmines Road to Harold's Cross Road. I suspect that they don't bother to mend it because it's fine for fat car wheels, but there are seams that are deadly for bike wheels (and bicyclists' wrists). Perhaps it will take a cyclist coming off and breaking an elbow and suing before they'll do something about the surface.

2RockMountain

Chuchote wrote: »

The road I'm most exercised about is Leinster Road, from Rathmines Road to Harold's Cross Road. I suspect that they don't bother to mend it because it's fine for fat car wheels, but there are seams that are deadly for bike wheels (and bicyclists' wrists). Perhaps it will take a cyclist coming off and breaking an elbow and suing before they'll do something about the surface.

I've reported similar seams on Charleston Road, where I got (literally) caught in a rut, and thought I was coming off. There are similar ones on Anglesea Road as you approach the roundabout at Donnybrook Church, but I didn't bother reporting these when they did nothing about Charleston Road.

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was told that the feed from fixyourstreet.ie into DCC (at least to customer services, who despatch them) is sporadic. maybe just better ringing them?

I normally get the 'we have referred this matter to the Roads Dept' on fixyourstreet, so the issue has been delivered, but follow-up is sporadic. They have filled some potholes roughly, mind you, sometimes very quickly, within a day or two - other issues get ignored. Might be down to the area supervisor or whatever.

NiallBoo

mrcheez wrote: »

Here's a snapshot of a section coming up to Samuel Beckett bridge that suddenly filled up with broken glass a few days ago (where arrow pointing). A lot of it seems to have gone now, evidently travelling around the city via tyre.

It's an example... not a trace of glass on the adjoining kerbs, but it was practically the full width of the bike lane.

Seen this kind of thing on the open bike lanes too with no kerbs (neatly stops at the edge where the pedestrian lane meets)

I think you're assuming malice here for no real reason.

The foot path is clean because they get cleaned by the council and/or businesses.

A street sweeper isn't going to be able to get in there and the guy wouldn't have been bothered getting out to sweet it by hand.

Glass ends up in cycle lanes because people are eejits, and it stays there because it takes a little bit too much effort for the council to clean it properly (often not helped by lane design)

Good enough? No - but not a conspiracy against cyclists.

tomasrojo

I think people do occasionally smash bottle and glasses deliberately in cycle tracks. The roadside ones, it might be a coincidence, but there are cycle tracks on wide footpaths, and only the cycle track has the freshly broken glass on it, and it's not that near a pub.

But it is occasional.

magicbastarder

not that i'm the sort of person who goes around deliberately smashing bottles in public places, but i would guess that there's a difference between 'deliberately smashing a bottle', and it being in a cycle lane, and 'deliberately choosing a cycle lane to smash a bottle in'.
maybe i'm being naive in assuming that the former was the more likely scenario.

NiallBoo

tomasrojo wrote: »

there are cycle tracks on wide footpaths, and only the cycle track has the freshly broken glass on it, and it's not that near a pub.

Councils well clean the footpaths, but do they clean the cycle lanes?

It wouldn't be helped by that red tar stuff they use for cycle lanes (a personal hatred of mine). It's quite rough and holds onto debris, even more so when it inevitably starts to come apart.

People drink anywhere and everywhere. Muppets smash bottles, not for any reason...they're just Muppets.

mrcheez

NiallBoo wrote: »

Good enough? No - but not a conspiracy against cyclists.

Not really. When the lane was full of glass it was clearly deliberately put at that pinch-point. I cycled through there one day it was clear, the next day it was full of glass, not a trace on the pedestrian path. It was quite skillfully done

Similar on other sections of my route, glass liberally smashed across the cycle path and not a single shard on the adjoining pedestrian path.

Samuel Becket bridge and bike lanes around get their fair share of glass shards which seem to be smashed on the bike lane, but obviously make their way over to the pedestrian path.

Pedestrians don't kick glass out of their path especially when they are minute shards so the concentration of glass on the cyclist side of these types of lanes can only lead to one conclusion that the cycle lanes are used as a scumbag glass bank.

NiallBoo

mrcheez wrote: »

glass liberally smashed across the cycle path and not a single shard on the adjoining pedestrian path.

The footpaths in the City get swept by the council very regularly - of course there isn't glass on them.

The cycle lanes not so much. Any kind of awkward spot - never.

I really think you're ignoring the likely answers here. "People aren't trying to make your life hard, they're trying to make their lives easy".

(Ps. You can even tell from that photo that the short stretch between the curbs doesn't get cleaned because it's the only bit of the road with weeds on it. )

mrcheez

NiallBoo wrote: »

The footpaths in the City get swept by the council very regularly - of course there isn't glass on them.

The cycle lanes not so much. Any kind of awkward spot - never.

I really think you're ignoring the likely answers here. "People aren't trying to make your life hard, they're trying to make their lives easy".

I think you're missing the point. This section of path was clear at 7pm, the following day at 8am it was full of glass.

Same at other sections of my route, particularly out along Clontarf coming to Eastpoint where the sweepers *do* sweep both bike and pedestrian lanes.

There were no sweepers dispatched between those hours but glass was clearly on the bike lane and not pedestrian lane.

Regardless, my point is that there is a sudden upsurge in this that I've noticed around the city. I hadn't noticed glass on bike lanes in such frequency before.

tomasrojo

I've seen freshly broken glass splashed across the cycle track, with a little bit on the footpath, where it spilled over. So it's not because the council didn't sweep the cycle track (though they don't); somebody deliberately broke glass on the cycle track.

I don't know why this is so unbelievable. I mean, I might be wrong, but it's the simplest explanation. Drunks do stupid stuff all the time. They vandalise bikes as well.

As I said, it's occasional, but I'm pretty sure it is something that drunks do, presumably to amuse their intoxicated companions.

magicbastarder

hypothesising - if i'm a drunk on a footpath with a beer bottle that is now surplus to requirements - will i lob it onto the path in front of me, or just toss it out into the road?

tomasrojo

I grant you, I can't prove to peer-review standard that there isn't some sort of confirmation bias going on in my head, but I'm satisfied that drunks occasionally break glass on cycle tracks because it causes punctures.

tomasrojo

magicbastarder wrote: »

hypothesising - if i'm a drunk on a footpath with a beer bottle that is now surplus to requirements - will i lob it onto the path in front of me, or just toss it out into the road?

I hope you, magcibastarder, would
(c) take it home, rinse it out and recycle it.

NiallBoo

mrcheez & tomasrojo - fair enough, imo you're over-thinking all of this but I don't think I'm going to change your minds.

(I will grant you that there must be someone out there crazy enough to to do it on purpose, but I think you're grossly over-estimating the number and in any case it must be insignificant compared to the amount of glass that ends up on the roads because of accident or idiocy)

Let's assume you're right for the sake of argument - how would it actually be dealt with differently?

There isn't much practical difference between someone being thoughtless and someone doing it on purpose - you still get glass everywhere.

mrcheez

NiallBoo wrote: »

imo you're over-thinking all of this

I'm certainly thinking a lot more about how to circumvent such incidents on my cycle route where I haven't had to for 4 years previously on the same route.

tomasrojo

I wouldn't say I'm over-thinking it. It's not a subject that exercises me very much. I think if I'm wrong what I'm suffering from is closer to a victim complex (speaking loosely, not using the diagnostic manual). However, given that drunks also key cars, and smash windows, I don't see any reason not to assume drunks of that sort also find it amusing to inconvenience people on bikes.

I don't regard it as a major problem, and there's nothing that can be done about it, except allocate a budget to sweep cycle tracks, as countries that take utility cycling seriously already do.

Doctor Bob

tomasrojo wrote: »

There did use to be a device you could attach to your fork and it would lightly brush your tyre as you cycled. Intended to remove glass before it embedded, I guess. Mentioned in Richard's Bicycle Book.

If I recall correctly, in the twelfth edition (fully revised and expanded), he also mentions that the brush should be detachable so it can, in case of emergency, be used to scrob out the eyes of a menacing terrier (if, say, you're squeamish about dashing its brains out on the pavement).

tomasrojo

Ah, that's hilarious!

Actually, I'm sorry in a small way that I (and others) keep returning to that business (except that it's well worth doing, because it's so funny), I actually do like the various incarnations of the Bicycle Book, despite some over-selling of the H-word and VC. He had a vivid prose style and a passionate one (that also, alas, made his descriptions of murdering dogs unforgettable).

jaqian

buffalo wrote: »

http://fixmystreet.ie/

You can't fix the people, face it Dublin has become a sh1th0le. I had a kid not more than 7yrs of age kick a broken bottle across my path deliberately, I mean wtf?

ThisRegard

Dublin is not a ****hole, just that some people are assholes who are in it. Dublin is far, far from unique with its asshole infestation.

com1

I must say I have also noticed an increase in glass on my travels between Leixlip and Dublin CC (not so much yet from Leixlip to Celbridge)


I find Marathon Plus and regular de-glassing quite good.


My solution would be to charge a very large deposit on beer bottles (I am thinking at least 2 euro each) which might make them more recyclable than smashable. Or encourage beer producers to use less splinterable containers

buffalo

com1 wrote: »

My solution would be to charge a very large deposit on beer bottles (I am thinking at least 2 euro each) which might make them more recyclable than smashable. Or encourage beer producers to use less splinterable containers

Why so large? A 15c levy obliterated the use of plastic bags overnight.

com1

buffalo wrote: »

Why so large? A 15c levy obliterated the use of plastic bags overnight.

It would be a deposit not a levy. It would act as a substantial incentive to return the empties. Though if the proceeds of a levy were used to clean up the debris then fair enough

Chuchote

com1 wrote: »

It would be a deposit not a levy. It would act as a substantial incentive to return the empties. Though if the proceeds of a levy were used to clean up the debris then fair enough

The main reason for not returning glass bottles is that shops don't want the bother of returning them to the wholesalers, and so on up the line, surely?

But I think drunks would still continue to smash bottles on roads even if there were a levy. The problem is not only drunks and fools smashing bottles, it's that the glass isn't swept up.

There's a general lack of house-trainedness in Ireland. I was on a bus yesterday where a half-empty Lucozade bottle was rolling around the floor, ignored by everyone - and this is not uncommon. Often enough there are also chewed sandwiches, packets of chips, etc; things you wouldn't expect to see on the mainland.

magicbastarder

we don't have any glass recycling facilities in ireland anyway.

mrcheez

magicbastarder wrote: »

we don't have any glass recycling facilities in ireland anyway.

They add a bit of shiny bling to my wheel, that's some good recycling

Pepe LeFrits

There's a huge amount of glass on the cycle path (and on the road) on Memorial Road and on the Talbot Memorial bridge at the moment. Was there a multi-vehicle pile-up there overnight or something?

2RockMountain

Someone else seems to think it is deliberate too;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqHoK-ptCwU

mrcheez

2RockMountain wrote: »

Someone else seems to think it is deliberate too;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqHoK-ptCwU

Hmm no that's not thrown into a bike lane, that's just edge of the road

RainyDay

Did anyone else get a puncture on the Grand Canal cycle track today? I picked up this little bugger somewhere around Leeson St or Baggot St, and the tyre was flat within 1km.



I can't be sure exactly where it happened, so perhaps I'm a little paranoid, but just thought I'd check. There have been a few attacks on cycle tracks in the UK with pins in recent weeks.

V-man

RainyDay wrote: »

Did anyone else get a puncture on the Grand Canal cycle track today? I picked up this little bugger somewhere around Leeson St or Baggot St, and the tyre was flat within 1km.



I can't be sure exactly where it happened, so perhaps I'm a little paranoid, but just thought I'd check. There have been a few attacks on cycle tracks in the UK with pins in recent weeks.

One in my front tire this morning.

RainyDay

V-man wrote: »

One in my front tire this morning.

Were you in that area?

Roadhawk

magicbastarder wrote: »

we don't have any glass recycling facilities in ireland anyway.

Ah but we do...
http://www.rehabglassco.ie/

magicbastarder

RainyDay wrote: »

Did anyone else get a puncture on the Grand Canal cycle track today? I picked up this little bugger somewhere around Leeson St or Baggot St, and the tyre was flat within 1km.

maybe it's a hallowe'en thing - i had to replace the full set of tyres on the car last year, on the day after hallowe'en, due to thumbtacks.

magicbastarder

Roadhawk wrote: »

Ah but we do...
http://www.rehabglassco.ie/

from what i can see, the glass is collected and crushed here, but shipped to northern ireland to be actually recycled.

Roadhawk

magicbastarder wrote: »

from what i can see, the glass is collected and crushed here, but shipped to northern ireland to be actually recycled.

Well Rehab Glassco crush the glass into different grades of sand which is bagged, palleted and shipped all over the place. The sand is like a raw material that can be used for many functions. It can be melted down to make more glass but is often used for sand blasting, road construction, landscaping, sport facilities and horse arenas.

Fian

RainyDay wrote: »

Were you in that area?

Also interested to hear, but in the meantime I will avoid the canal cycle track on my way home this evening and stick to the roads. 2 thumb tacks in the same morning sounds like it could be more than a co-incidence, considering the number of posters to this forum.

V-man

RainyDay wrote: »

Were you in that area?

Seville place.
But the result was a nice walk along the grand canal

GreenFolder2

The issue is more likely street sweeping machines being used incorrectly.

They'll tend to pick up only light litter, leaving glass and heavy items behind.

They need to run those vacuum trucks with sweeping rollers tight to the edge of the road and move quite slowly. a lot of issues are caused by stuff being swept by bushes or just by motion of traffic to the sides of the road.

It's not anyone dumping glass and debris to annoy cyclists, rather just rushed maintenance and sweeping.

It's just a big issue for the council to get enough time to do deep cleaning without disrupting lanes.

Chuchote

It's also that Irish people nowadays feel that our responsibility stops at our gate. In th'oul days, people went out with yard brushes and swept the pavement and the roadside outside their houses. Mind you, part of the reason they don't now is that the roads are generally used as storage spaces for other people's private property.

mrcheez

GreenFolder2 wrote: »

It's not anyone dumping glass and debris to annoy cyclists, rather just rushed maintenance and sweeping.

Ah yes, perfectly normal for people to walk along with a box of thumb-tacks, inadvertently dropping them.

Sure everyone does it. Not intentional at all.

I personally can't head out for lunch without my trusty box o' thumb-tacks on hand.. just in case I have some posters to stick up.

jive

mrcheez wrote: »

Ah yes, perfectly normal for people to walk along with a box of thumb-tacks, inadvertently dropping them.

Sure everyone does it. Not intentional at all.

I personally can't head out for lunch without my trusty box o' thumb-tacks on hand.. just in case I have some posters to stick up.

Are you serious?

Nails are way better for posters, especially in winter conditions. Time to upgrade my friend.

RainyDay

V-man wrote: »

Seville place.
But the result was a nice walk along the grand canal

This Seville Place, across the Liffey?

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Seville+Pl,+North+Dock,+Dublin/@53.3523672,-6.2457253,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x48670e8b427e8515:0x331ad81f7f4c8344!8m2!3d53.3523672!4d-6.2435366

It's a good long walk to the Grand Canal from there.

Chuchote

Seville Terrace? No that's the Royal Canal…

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Seville+Terrace,+North+Dock,+Dublin/@53.3545952,-6.2478344,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48670e8aff1f8387:0xac8e1f0a6cbe65fc!8m2!3d53.3545952!4d-6.2456511

V-man

RainyDay wrote: »

This Seville Place, across the Liffey?

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Seville+Pl,+North+Dock,+Dublin/@53.3523672,-6.2457253,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x48670e8b427e8515:0x331ad81f7f4c8344!8m2!3d53.3523672!4d-6.2435366

It's a good long walk to the Grand Canal from there.

Schwalbe Marathon so it was a slow puncture and made it to the Docklands.
Ironically the bike was a replacement from the shop, my own has Marathon Plus which have been faultless over 8000Km

RainyDay

V-man wrote: »

Schwalbe Marathon so it was a slow puncture and made it to the Docklands.
Ironically the bike was a replacement from the shop, my own has Marathon Plus which have been faultless over 8000Km

Sorry, I'm confused now. Did you get the puncture around the canal and walked to the docks? If so, were you on the stretch of the canal cycle way from Charlemont to Baggot?

Chuchote

RainyDay wrote: »

Sorry, I'm confused now. Did you get the puncture around the canal and walked to the docks? If so, were you on the stretch of the canal cycle way from Charlemont to Baggot?

I think you're talking different canals. Seville Place is on the northside, by the Royal Canal, not on the southside by the Grand Canal.

Star Lord

Just started cycling to work a couple of weeks ago, and got my first puncture yesterday evening, in the rain when I wouldn't have been able to see glass on the path. Definitely seen lots of places where glass has been left in the cycle lane, and not due to road sweeping, as it happens in places without a road alongside too.

V-man

Star Lord wrote: »

Just started cycling to work a couple of weeks ago, and got my first puncture yesterday evening, in the rain when I wouldn't have been able to see glass on the path. Definitely seen lots of places where glass has been left in the cycle lane, and not due to road sweeping, as it happens in places without a road alongside too.

Investing in proper tyres like Schwalbe Marathon Plus or solid Tannus tyres is worth it.
Especially when commuting (not that I enjoy punctures on leisure rides).