Journalism and cycling

Kop Idol

Piece in the Indo today...

Liam Collins - Lack of understanding between two tribes sharing-the road is leading to casualties

Generalising a bit on the BMW/Taxi/WW plates (however accurate) but the "busy housewives with blonde hair and glasses on top of their heads" made me smirk

magicbastarder

for an experienced cyclist, he makes a lot of errors, based mainly around this statement made early in the article:
"Dangerous and inconsiderate drivers or cyclists are equally as bad"

no, no they're not.

PaulieC

magicbastarder wrote: »

for an experienced cyclist, he makes a lot of errors, based mainly around this statement made early in the article:
"Dangerous and inconsiderate drivers or cyclists are equally as bad"

no, no they're not.

even the grammar is an error. Terrible article, sweeping generalisations abound.

shootermacg

PaulieC wrote: »

even the grammar is an error. Terrible article, sweeping generalisations abound.

In Summary, wear high-viz and maybe you might make it out the other end OK, but no guarantees because at the end of the day, you have to make way to 2 tons of car.

Large bottle small glass

magicbastarder wrote: »

for an experienced cyclist, he makes a lot of errors, based mainly around this statement made early in the article:
"Dangerous and inconsiderate drivers or cyclists are equally as bad"

no, no they're not.

"The rising toll of casualties among cyclists"
40 years ago total deaths on our roads was 614. It's less than 150 now. 40 cyclist died in 1989 and numbers are consistently and considerably lower for last 2 decades and hasn't been above 20 in 20 years

I stopped reading there. The roads now are way safer than when he started cycling and he presents the opposite as a fact.

Maybe it is me living in a time warp expecting a journalist to check basic facts

Ray Bloody Purchase

I'll be sure to watch out for those lunatics from Wicklow. :cool:

AndrewJRenko

magicbastarder wrote: »

for an experienced cyclist, he makes a lot of errors, based mainly around this statement made early in the article:
"Dangerous and inconsiderate drivers or cyclists are equally as bad"

no, no they're not.

You're so picky. Killing more than 3,500 people over the last 15 years is very nearly 'equally as bad' as killing zero people.

magicbastarder

i note you're being picky with the origin point of your stat there; 15 years, handily excising the fatality from 2003 or 2003.
once you include that, it *completely* changes the picture.

Rechuchote

magicbastarder wrote: »

i note you're being picky with the origin point of your stat there; 15 years, handily excising the fatality from 2003 or 2003.
once you include that, it *completely* changes the picture.

What was special about 2003?

magicbastarder

that was meant to be '2002 or 2003'. i can't remember the exact date, but there was a pedestrian fatality in the city centre caused by a bicycle courier.

CramCycle

Just in case your sarcasm is missed, that makes it 1 to well over 3500. I cannot remember the year it happened. This was a cyclist who was going the wrong way down a one way street, the pedestrian stepped off in front of him and they skimmed each other. Guy bumped his head off the kerb if I remember correctly. I worked only a minute down the road at the time and a few witnesses never even copped it was so serious, as it looked so slow a fall. I have probably walked away from a hundred falls that were just as bad after tripping myself up. It does not exonerate the cyclist in anyway, he himself admitted guilt and fell apart afterwards.

Lumen

There was a vaguely similar case recently in the UK with a drink driver (Katie Allan) who committed suicide in prison after seriously injuring a pedestrian.

magicbastarder

Number of cyclists commuting in Dublin city drops for first time in a decade
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/number-of-cyclists-commuting-in-dublin-city-drops-for-first-time-in-a-decade-38003302.html

Pinch Flat

magicbastarder wrote: »

Number of cyclists commuting in Dublin city drops for first time in a decade
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/number-of-cyclists-commuting-in-dublin-city-drops-for-first-time-in-a-decade-38003302.html

Interesting reading. I’ve been commuting 10 years and I’d say there’s more than ever. Nothing scientific of course, but the Phoenix park and quays are definitely much busier with bikes.

CramCycle

Bloody queues at traffic lights, I wish as many cyclists ran red lights as the media would have you believe, it would mean I am not queuing up behind so many of them :pac:

magicbastarder

interesting to note the comments about the survey being done during a period of poor weather.
random aside, it reminds me of the time dublin bus decided to pull one of the routes which served UCD (the 3? memory is not so good on that, only time i ever got it was going from UCD to the coombe) because there were very few UCD students on it on the day they did a passenger survey.
which was in july.

tampopo

magicbastarder wrote: »

interesting to note the comments about the survey being done during a period of poor weather.
random aside, it reminds me of the time dublin bus decided to pull one of the routes which served UCD (the 3? memory is not so good on that, only time i ever got it was going from UCD to the coombe) because there were very few UCD students on it on the day they did a passenger survey.
which was in july.

Hahaha, really!?

magicbastarder

a friend who used to work in the university observer told me about it.

magicbastarder

unintended pedestrianisation and cyclisation (dunno what the correct word is) of hammersmith bridge in london:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-47891838

Pinch Flat

magicbastarder wrote: »

unintended pedestrianisation and cyclisation (dunno what the correct word is) of hammersmith bridge in london:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-47891838

Every cloud, as they say.

CramCycle

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Every cloud, as they say.

The great thing is they can't upgrade sufficiently for at least three years. Hopefully by that time, it will be an established amenity and simply remain.

expectationlost

No helmet, no chance if you come a cropper on your bike https://dublingazette.com/dublinlife/cycle-wetwo-28219/ says Dublin Gazette call this a campaign in their paper edition you can see here https://issuu.com/robheigh/docs/fingal_42dbd9a92cea3f?utm_source=2019W15_subscribers&utm_campaign=Digest&utm_medium=email

previous articles https://issuu.com/robheigh/docs/fingal_145a7764dfae2b

Qrt

expectationlost wrote: »

No helmet, no chance if you come a cropper on your bike https://dublingazette.com/dublinlife/cycle-wetwo-28219/ says Dublin Gazette call this a campaign in their paper edition you can see here https://issuu.com/robheigh/docs/fingal_42dbd9a92cea3f?utm_source=2019W15_subscribers&utm_campaign=Digest&utm_medium=email

previous articles https://issuu.com/robheigh/docs/fingal_145a7764dfae2b

Yer man Neale Richmond was banging on about it on twitter too. If I’m wedged between two buses, a helmet is not going to help me feel safer.

Duckjob

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-47896472?fbclid=IwAR1x85FHKVNYjHAUzZteiQcz3JFfo7ajP1yXqbXz14dW8PYdBt4c9fl7aX4

Badly, badly, needed here, along with stiff penalties.

De Bhál

expectationlost wrote: »

No helmet, no chance if you come a cropper on your bike https://dublingazette.com/dublinlife/cycle-wetwo-28219/ says Dublin Gazette call this a campaign in their paper edition you can see here https://issuu.com/robheigh/docs/fingal_42dbd9a92cea3f?utm_source=2019W15_subscribers&utm_campaign=Digest&utm_medium=email

previous articles https://issuu.com/robheigh/docs/fingal_145a7764dfae2b

one of the opinions from Joe Public on it at the end of the article...

"yes, the roads are getting a lot more violent, the deaths caused on them are pretty serious"

blackwhite

https://twitter.com/gardatraffic/status/1116596376895287301?s=21

Rechuchote

Duckjob wrote: »

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-47896472?fbclid=IwAR1x85FHKVNYjHAUzZteiQcz3JFfo7ajP1yXqbXz14dW8PYdBt4c9fl7aX4

Badly, badly, needed here, along with stiff penalties.

Really, police detectors shouldn't be necessary; insurance companies should be requiring people to keep mobile phones on silent and in the glove compartment when they're driving, and using an engine- or handbrake-linked technology to enforce this. If it took a big slice off your insurance, it would be a popular choice.

Duckjob

Rechuchote wrote: »

Really, police detectors shouldn't be necessary; insurance companies should be requiring people to keep mobile phones on silent and in the glove compartment when they're driving, and using an engine- or handbrake-linked technology to enforce this. If it took a big slice off your insurance, it would be a popular choice.

Trouble with that IMO is that it's all carrot where at this point, with the situation as it is on our roads, some serious stick is first required before carrot can be offered.


People have forgotten, and need to be reminded that the pink slip of card in their pocket represents a contract. When they were granted the privilege to drive, it came with T&Cs and which are that they give drive to the best of their ability and give the highest priority to the safety of themselves and everyone else on the road. If that privilege starts to be instantly revoked for dangerous behaviour like phone use, then people will quickly start to sit up and pay attention.

It's like if you were a schoolteacher and had a classroom of pupils shouting, fighting and climbing over the desks, you wouldnt try to shush them to tell them there's no homework for anyone that sits down in their desk. It's too low a bar to set, according to the behaviour level. Instead, you address the serious misbehaviour with serious consequences. When that misbehaviour has been weeded out by all means raise the bar with incentives for specific achievements.

Right now, our road users (collectively, all groups) are that class of out-of-control children.

Aside from that, although that dogs in the street can see that rise in phone use behind the wheel has led to an lack of attention and increase in collisions, I doubt the insurance companies have much actual statistical data to go on which to offer discounts (probably in a lot of cases the phone use goes undetected). So I doubt if they will be willing to take a slice off their premiums for something if they dont have statistics to back it up.

AndrewJRenko

Duckjob wrote: »

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-47896472?fbclid=IwAR1x85FHKVNYjHAUzZteiQcz3JFfo7ajP1yXqbXz14dW8PYdBt4c9fl7aX4

Badly, badly, needed here, along with stiff penalties.

Badly needed but I have major doubts about the technology. How can it distinguish between an app doing a background update - say FB checking for new notifications - and the driver manually operating the app.

And I doubt their Bluetooth exclusion will be reliable either.

A bit like the old TV detector van of old. It's a scare tactic.

mollser

Every day this week I've missed lights cos of dimwits on the phone and not paying attention. Just put the feckin things away when you're in the car ffs, or even more generally really. They're a curse!