Journalism and cycling

fryup

item on today fm right now

tomasrojo

I think this is the relevant bit. It's old, but I don't think the lighting regulations have changed.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1963/si/189/made/en/print

Down in the bit about rear lamps of mechanically propelled cycles and invalid carriages:

Rear lamps, in the case of a vehicle to which this Part of these Regulations applies, shall consist of one or two lamps fitted to the vehicle and shall comply with the provisions of this article.

(6) (a) No part of the illuminated surface of a lamp shall be less than 15 inches or more than 3 feet from the ground.

So about 38cm, or a little higher than the hub on a road bike, which is a lot higher than you can realistically mount on an e-scooter.

blackwhite

CramCycle wrote: »

They have them in Brussels as well, i found that the descriptions of them being thrown everywhere were blatently untrue. Loads of people using them, bar a few kids acting like maggots, all seemed pretty safe, and even then, those kids were not exactly reaching the levels of stupidity i did on a bike at that age.

When I was in Brussels last month I found them to be a bit of a pain TBH. Abandoned on the street isn't a bad description - when trying to drag a suitcase I was ready to start kicking a few out of my way :P

Seth Brundle

fryup wrote: »

item on today fm right now

What did it say?

Thargor

Duffryman wrote: »

€120 annual tax for an electric car.

Interestingly though, €35 annual tax for an electric motorbike. Don't know how many of those are actually on the road, but it would seem a closer 'fit' for escooters if they're to be taxed too.

Any clue what the insurance is like on electric motorbikes or if you can even get it?

magicbastarder

is car insurance difference between ICE cars and electric cars?

ED E

magicbastarder wrote: »

is car insurance difference between ICE cars and electric cars?

AFAIK Tesla are heavily loaded. Part of that is for fully comp though as they're nigh on unrepairable.

Duffryman

Thargor wrote: »

Any clue what the insurance is like on electric motorbikes or if you can even get it?

Absolutely no idea myself. Just got the tax rates from the motortax.ie site at https://www.motortax.ie/OMT/motortaxinfotype.do


I don't have any in-depth knowledge of the actual running costs of electric vehicles.

fryup

fryup wrote: »

item on today fm right now

Seth Brundle wrote: »

What did it say?

seemingly some bike lane is closed today for the spice girls concert...all a bit petty really, its just for one day

Chiparus

fryup wrote: »

seemingly some bike lane is closed today for the spice girls concert...all a bit petty really, its just for one day

Actually dont think so, there are plenty of bus parking options , but the easiest is to park them on the seperate bike path.
And its not just one day , it is every concert and major sporting event in Croke park.

It reflects the gardai general destain ( as evidenced by one of there twitter managers) for cyclists and pedestrians.

tomasrojo

It's not just for one day. Every time there's a major concert they part buses on that cycle facility. It's not designed for storing buses, or for having buses driven on it. Buses cause enormous damage to normal roads, and this isn't built to even those standards.

There is a largely unused bus parking facility nearby. They could even close the cycle facility very briefly to let concert goers disembark, but instead they treat an important cycling route as dispensable.



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EDIT: What they said

tomasrojo

https://twitter.com/pmonahanjr/status/1131962382266376194

I think the coaches then parked on the grass. I'm just looking around Twitter, so not 100% sure what happened.

Fighting Tao

tomasrojo wrote: »

https://twitter.com/pmonahanjr/status/1131962382266376194

I think the coaches then parked on the grass. I'm just looking around Twitter, so not 100% sure what happened.

Bike track remained open for the most part. The whole coast side was open bar one bus that arrived much earlier than permitted by the road closure notices.

The busses parked on the grass. Traffic chaos in the area as a result of the buses.

The city side had a few busses parked on the cycle track but plenty of people out to prevent any more.

Lots of support from motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

tomasrojo

IrishCycle.com has a report on the Alfie Byrne Road protest:
https://irishcycle.com/2019/05/24/ibikedublin-protesters-keep-cycle-path-free-of-spice-girl-coaches/

This might be true, on past form:
https://twitter.com/jamesgallagher/status/1132017700274937856

tomasrojo

https://twitter.com/CitizenW0lf/status/1132061166845464576

Mickiemcfist

I dont know the road, but this comes across as awfully petty imo. Bikes are free to use roads as we constantly remind people, so for things like this, cycle lanes are the least worst option to park on. If we want to stop being treated with utter contempt by drivers, this is not the way to go about it.

tomasrojo

Mickiemcfist wrote: »

I dont know the road, but this comes across as awfully petty imo. Bikes are free to use roads as we constantly remind people, so for things like this, cycle lanes are the least worst option to park on. If we want to stop being treated with utter contempt by drivers, this is not the way to go about it.

Servile people don't really get treated well either.

By which I mean, tacitly agreeing that your provision is less important than everyone else's provision is a good way to continue getting the lowest priority. And there's a *dedicated* and largely unused bus parking area in the docklands, which was meant for things like this. Closing a major cycle route *during rush hour on a Friday* isn't acceptable.

Seth Brundle

tomasrojo wrote: »

And there's a *dedicated* and largely unused bus parking area in the docklands, which was meant for things like this.

Why is it largely unused?

tomasrojo

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Why is it largely unused?

I've always assumed because it's that bit further away. But Alfie Byrne Road isn't exactly next door either.

The Irish Cycle article mentions traffic disruption, so they probably factored that in. But it looks as if they factored in strongly the condition that the decision must not impinge on "traffic" (implicitly excluding the users of the cycling facility from the definition of traffic). I assume it comes down to a large extent to it being Council property, so it can be used free of charge, rather than paying for private parking in the same area.

The decision-making process is pretty opaque from what's been reported, and it seems to be made by private consulting firms, who haven't made clear what their a priori assumptions and priorities were.

magicbastarder

according to the irishcycle.com link:

The traffic management plan for the concert claimed that the National Transport Authority coach parking unit which cost €1.7 million is not suitable. This is despite part of the calls for such a parking unit to be built related to parking for large events, and that the planning permission for the coach parking includes extra time allowances for events.

“This is a bus storage facility. It has no facility to drop off or load patrons” the management plan claims. However, cycling campaigners have said that they have no issue with passenger drop off or loading on the Alfie Byrne Road as long as the roadway is used rather than the cycle path being blocked.

tomasrojo

The Social Democrats say the Docklands facility wasn't made available:

Carol Deans from the North Inner City ward said:

“It’s frankly unacceptable that the NTA has constructed a dedicated coach parking facility on Sheriff Street and yet declined to make it available for a major Croke Park event. Why build facilities if you are not going to use them when they would be most effective. That they have instead decided to displace cyclists and pedestrians is simply ridiculous.”

“The NTA has chosen to close this parking space at 7pm despite having permission to keep it open until 12 midnight on event nights. We are calling on the NTA to make this coach park available and for An Garda Siochana to direct coaches to this locations instead of Alfie Byrne Road.”

https://www.socialdemocrats.ie/2019/05/22/coaches-for-spice-girls-gig-must-not-cannibalise-city-cycle-lanes/

tomasrojo

It mostly smacks of "What's the problem? We've always done it this way."

magicbastarder

what i'd want them to do most with that stretch of cycle track, is to *not* assume cyclists heading inbound on it are not headed for dublin port or the east link. the lane is designed in such away as to feed cyclists across to the other side of the road (across a pedestrian crossing) at the entrance to east point business park, onto a cycle track which vanishes after less than 200m.
it's why i refuse to use that section (which is on my commute, and which to this day i'm amazed no one has beeped at me for).

tomasrojo

Yeah, I used to work in the Business Park, and I also vaguely remember it wasn't that easy to get through the stationary car traffic in the park out onto the facility to go towards the city centre. There wasn't a dipped kerb when you went straight across the t-junction, for example, rather than crossing the mouth of the junction and waiting with the pedestrians.

But it is a heavily used cycling route, for all its faults whenever it meets a junction.

magicbastarder

and the stupid thing is that there are two lanes of left turning traffic squeezed onto the road there; the left lane is for people who are taking a left onto east wall road and proceeding down towards the port, and the right lane is for people who are pretending they're going to go left onto east wall road and then take the very next right, but are actually also heading towards the port. there's plenty of room for one lane of left turning traffic and a cycle lane there.

magicbastarder

tomasrojo wrote: »

Yeah, I used to work in the Business Park, and I also vaguely remember it wasn't that easy to get through the stationary car traffic

is there any facility or allowance for cyclists coming out of east point who want to swing right onto the cycle path? or is it a case of (from a legal point of view) cycle to the junction, dismount, and wait for a pedestrian light to cross the 'mouth' of the east point exit?

tomasrojo

magicbastarder wrote: »

is there any facility or allowance for cyclists coming out of east point who want to swing right onto the cycle path? or is it a case of (from a legal point of view) cycle to the junction, dismount, and wait for a pedestrian light to cross the 'mouth' of the east point exit?

It's a long time since I worked there. There didn't use to be one, but I'd be interested to hear whether that's changed. I used to cross the road before the mouth of the exit junction and walk to the pedestrian crossing, at least when I had a trailer with me. Can't remember a lot about it though.

tomasrojo

I'm not sure what the consequences of the protest (largely successful in the short term, by the look of it) will be. I assume in future they'll factor in that there might be protesters. This might mean:
1. reconsider the Docklands or temporarily leasing private coach parking
2. make sure the Gardaí are prepared to arrest people

magicbastarder

i suspect that bus park which is mentioned doesn't have insurance to handle passengers.

also, from a publicity point of view it wasn't the best of days to get media attention for the protest.

tomasrojo

They mention, though, that they're fine with ABR being used for a drop-off, provided the coaches go and park somewhere else after. It's true that the NTA coach park isn't designed for passenger disembarkations, but the cycle facility isn't designed to store coaches either.

I think it wasn't a protest to get headlines. It was to discourage them from continuing to sanction closing the cycle facility like this.