Journalism and cycling

QueensGael

That's a fierce amount of excitement to encounter, and he only going from George's Street to Stephen's Green. Mon dieu!

check_six

Baron de Charlus wrote: »

After seeing how the other half live by taking the bus last year, our intrepid Transport Minister has once again sallied forth and this time experienced for himself what a rickshaw ride was like. Alas, unlike the bus, the experience seems to have left him rattled.



Imagine. He was lucky he didn't drop his monocle.

I heard the audio of that quote on Friday. I'm not sure what he was expecting.

I'm wondering if this is the new standard for introducing legislation. Send out a minister to do something: eat a burger, fly a kite, go scuba diving, etc. If they don't enjoy their experience then the next logical step is to ban whatever it was that they didn't like that one time.

Sounds good, right?

I'm also thinking that taxi drivers across the state are breathing a sigh of relief that the minister didn't decide to take an alternative form of transport that fateful night because going too fast, being uncomfortable, and breaking rules of the road are not the exclusive reserve of cycle rickshaws.

magicbastarder

he said it confirmed *everything* he had heard about them. it's quite clear the minister was offered some yokes while on stephen street.

Corca Baiscinn

check_six wrote: »

I heard the audio of that quote on Friday. I'm not sure what he was expecting.

I'm wondering if this is the new standard for introducing legislation. Send out a minister to do something: eat a burger, fly a kite, go scuba diving, etc. If they don't enjoy their experience then the next logical step is to ban whatever it was that they didn't like that one time. .

Reminiscent of another rmember of Cabinet who took the nation's temperature whenever he met a man with two pints;)

Thinkingaboutit

Baron de Charlus wrote: »

After seeing how the other half live by taking the bus last year, our intrepid Transport Minister has once again sallied forth and this time experienced for himself what a rickshaw ride was like. Alas, unlike the bus, the experience seems to have left him rattled.



Imagine. He was lucky he didn't drop his monocle.

Yet his Grace, Earl of Spoof, Sir Winston Churchtown must have been somehow convinced to reverse his fleeting thought of perhaps, possibly banning those contraptions.

Anyhow, however rotten some of them might be, banning a pedal machine would be catnip to Joe Duffy-ites and the helmet n bib by law brigade.

Fian

Kind of feel this might merit it's own thread, but I will just put it here.

Do yourself a favour and read this piece about Chris Froome and about mechanical doping.


https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/ewan-mackenna-so-how-is-it-then-that-you-explain-a-freak-like-chris-froome-36968940.html

magicbastarder

not about cycling, but kinda:

Each car in London costs NHS and society £8,000 due to air pollution, report finds

Air pollution from cars and vans racks up health bills of nearly £6bn every year in the UK, according to a new report by researchers at the universities of Oxford and Bath.

The costs to both the NHS and society at large were highest in cities, and diesel vehicles were the worst offenders in terms of harmful pollutants.

In total, the scientists concluded the health cost of an average car in inner London over the vehicle’s lifetime was nearly £8,000. For diesel cars this figure was nearly double.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/cars-air-pollution-cost-nhs-vans-vehicles-health-bills-lung-disease-a8384806.html

there you go - instant retort to the 'road tax' argument. it would take about 30 years worth of road tax for my car to 'repay' the claimed figure above.

rubadub

magicbastarder wrote: »

there you go - instant retort to the 'road tax' argument. it would take about 30 years worth of road tax for my car to 'repay' the claimed figure above.

maybe people should come up with their own incorrect name for motor tax, play them at their own game, see if they get irritated.

“Cars and vans are responsible for 10,000 early deaths each year, and diesel vehicles are the main problem unfortunately.”

Maybe "early death tax", "health cost tax" or something. Seeing as the taxes really all go into a central fund and have to pay for stuff.

If 100% of motorists decided to illegally evade paying motor tax do the people calling it road tax really believe there would be no upkeep of the roads or something?

Rechuchote

Zombie tax?

magicbastarder

there's a yellow ford capri i often meet on newtownpark avenue - which is quite a cool car - but by god, you can smell it when it passes. and it struck me - and not for the first time - 'my god, you're actually able to do that - you're allowed pump proven (burnt and unburnt) carcinogens into the air for the benefit of moving a single person around'.
though that is a *little* hypocritical of me. i own a petrol engined car. and i heat my house using a fossil fuel (gas) and firewood.

one bugbear of mine is the recent demonisation of things like straws and plastic cutlery. people who think they've been good to the environment by eschewing a straw, but think nothing of a 50km round trip to work where they've used a couple of litres of diesel or petrol, and pumped the output into the air.

i've often said it, but i think one of the best things we could do is put transparent fuel tanks in cars. most people never see petrol or diesel, much less quite how much they actually burn in cars, which is quite significant - one fill in a normal car three or four weeks is about one tonne of fuel over the course of the year.. at least with home heating oil, you can see the size of the tank.

magicbastarder

i got this immediately after i posted the above. the irony is sweet.

Grassey

Maybe it's the hot weather and the lack of breeze but this week I've really noticed the stank of fumes while cycling. By the time I'm halfway home. My mouth feels like I've been licking carpet! Bring back the wet months I say!

Grassey

This will put a smile on your face!

AndrewJRenko

Grassey wrote: »

Bring back the wet months I say!

eeeee

Grassey wrote: »

This will put a smile on your face!

Awww now that's just lovely!

mr spuckler

Dublin homes to lose gardens and parking under ‘high speed’ bus route plan

very vague on the details of the "200km of cycle lanes" that are to be provided.

mr spuckler

Woman in her 50s dies after being hit by a car in Co Tipperary
Woman was walking on the hard shoulder with a child on a bicycle beside her

monument

mr spuckler wrote: »

Dublin homes to lose gardens and parking under ‘high speed’ bus route plan

very vague on the details of the "200km of cycle lanes" that are to be provided.

*cough* http://irishcycle.com/2018/06/12/nta-set-to-abandon-key-sections-of-dublin-cycle-network-plan/

magicbastarder

Uber launches electric bike-sharing service in Germany
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/06/uber-launches-electric-bike-sharing-service-germany

Duckjob

R

mr spuckler wrote: »

Woman in her 50s dies after being hit by a car in Co Tipperary
Woman was walking on the hard shoulder with a child on a bicycle beside her

RIP to that poor lady and condolences to her family.

Until the societal culture in Ireland changes so that drivers driving like they don't give a sh*t around vunerable road users is simply not tolerated from a legal standpoint, these incidents will unfortunately continue.

AndrewJRenko

mr spuckler wrote: »

Dublin homes to lose gardens and parking under ‘high speed’ bus route plan

very vague on the details of the "200km of cycle lanes" that are to be provided.

I don't suppose there is any chance that they would try making the existing bus lanes work by clearing out the parked cars, vans and trucks before we go building the next generation?

Rechuchote

Point of the Core Bus Corridors is that they don't stop and start, though, unlike the current ones which run along until they reach a narrower road that has no bus lane.

A bit mad to allow the millions of taxis to use them, though.

Chips Lovell

I think we should be careful what we wish for. If they decide to legislate to ban taxis, they made decide to ban bikes as well.

Borderfox

From listening to Ann Graham (I think) on Newstalk that was on the cards, maybe they will designate the bus lane differently to other ones and only allow buses?

Arcade_Tryer

Baron de Charlus wrote: »

I think we should be careful what we wish for. If they decide to legislate to ban taxis, they made decide to ban bikes as well.

That would make zero sense. It would be an entirely childish reaction and symptomatic of the reasoning skills of a particularly stupid child.

Chips Lovell

Borderfox wrote: »

From listening to Ann Graham (I think) on Newstalk that was on the cards, maybe they will designate the bus lane differently to other ones and only allow buses?

Certainly wasn’t mentioned in the proposal released. As mentioned on the other thread would require legislation change. Be odd if they left out such a significant element.

eeeee

Hoping her recovery continues:
http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/cycling-crash-dublin-thames-tavares/

buffalo

Baron de Charlus wrote: »

Certainly wasn’t mentioned in the proposal released. As mentioned on the other thread would require legislation change. Be odd if they left out such a significant element.

Aye, I've not seen anything that states with any clarity that cyclists are being prohibited from the new lanes. They are bus lanes, and any bus lane is a cycle lane (and not all of them are taxi lanes). Seems to be a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt being spread about.

Grassey

buffalo wrote: »

Seems to be a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt being spread about.

Seems to be the best way to kill any progressive idea in the country!

Rechuchote

Grassey wrote: »

Seems to be the best way to kill any progressive idea in the country!

The pearl-clutching is strong with this country.