Journalism and cycling

tomasrojo

Grassey wrote: »

Caught a rerun of the last word this morning on the radio. Copper is a twat.
They were discussing how unenforceable 1.5m passing law is because 'How could a driver know if its 1m or 1.7m that they are passing someone at', then went onto how lorries are the lifeblood of the country, and integral to being in a city to deliver goods, if the lorry is the exact width of the lane in our 'medieval streets' then how is he meant to make progress when a cyclist 'swings out onto the road in front of him'.

Lorries are fine for delivering to the outskirts of town, and they're highly inefficient after that. Have they looked at traffic at peak travel times lately? NOTHING is moving except bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians. The "lifeblood" is pooling up in sclerotic arteries.

The rest is nonsense as well. "How can I judge 1m?" is the new "My car's engine can't cope with speeds as low as 30km/h".

I do think though that when you reach a certain number of cyclists (and Dublin city centre does have a respectable amount of cyclists, even by normal European standards) infrastructure does usually end up being part of the solution to manage contention, and to encourage others.

AndrewJRenko

Grassey wrote: »

They were discussing how unenforceable 1.5m passing law is because 'How could a driver know if its 1m or 1.7m that they are passing someone at',

I've a great solution to this.


A) Leave more room
If you're still not sure, goto A.

Grassey

AndrewJRenko wrote:

I've a great solution to this.
A) Leave more room If you're still not sure, goto A.

It's almost like they switch off their brains and realise its distance and speed. You see plenty of cars squeezing into gaps between kerbs, other vehicles, walls, obstructions etc with cm to spare... At low speed.

You wouldn't attempt to thread the needle of a gap marginally bigger than the car at speed unless you are a lunatic... (or that gap is bounded by a a cyclist apparently)

AndrewJRenko

zell12 wrote: »

Today's Independent opinion piece

It must be great to be able to 'trump' all the Twitter back and forth nonsense by just publishing a one-sided polemic in your nearest friendly newspaper where no-one can respond back.


Unless of course, they find your Twitter account;


https://twitter.com/fmcomment/status/1189077176437612545

magicbastarder

https://twitter.com/OConnorOisin/status/1190548687807766528

tomasrojo

https://twitter.com/thomasbibby/status/1189836613955784704

plodder

Today's Independent opinion piece

The old trick of saying something provocative, then back away from it with the 'where's yer sense of humour' excuse.

donvito99

Cora Sherlock and David Quinn also weighed in.

The coincidence of anti-cyclist, anti-choice, anti-immigrant/welfare/etc etc is astonishing... basically Newstalk in a nutshell

beauf

tomasrojo wrote: »

...Lorries are fine for delivering to the outskirts of town, and they're highly inefficient after that. Have they looked at traffic at peak travel times lately? NOTHING is moving except bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians. The "lifeblood" is pooling up in sclerotic arteries.
..

People don't want to get out of their cars. I know people who prefer to spend over an hour in a car than walk 30 mins, or cycle 15 mins.

I know people who if shown a faster route in their car will still take the slow route because they can't change their habits.

They simply are entrenched in not changing.

Hurrache

donvito99 wrote: »

Cora Sherlock and David Quinn also weighed in.

The coincidence of anti-cyclist, anti-choice, anti-immigrant/welfare/etc etc is astonishing... basically Newstalk in a nutshell

I actual had to check it was 'the' David Quinn getting involved in that thread. It attracts all sorts.

tomasrojo

beauf wrote: »

People don't want to get out of their cars. I know people who prefer to spend over an hour in a car than walk 30 mins, or cycle 15 mins.

I know people who if shown a faster route in their car will still take the slow route because they can't change their habits.

They simply are entrenched in not changing.

Sure, there are plenty of people like that. But the argument on the radio seemed to be along the lines of cyclists are slowing down lorries on Dublin's narrow streets, and a 1-m passing law will make this worse. Which is clearly not true. Cyclists aren't really slowing anyone down at peak travel times (they're going faster than all the other traffic at those times) and at off-peak times there aren't that many streets where lorries can't get past cyclists if the adjoining lane is clear.

Only 30% or so of people arrive in Dublin city centre by car, so there are a lot of people willing at least to walk the modest distance associated with the use of mass transit.

beauf

Yes but the reason they are arguing that is they don't want their cars to lose priority.

tomasrojo

beauf wrote: »

Yes but the reason they are arguing that is they don't want their cars to lose priority.

Yeah, but probably also: why should THEY tell me what to do? They don't even ... [tax/helmet/something]!

Breezer

Not exactly cycling-related, but relevant all the same:

Council rejects Taoiseach’s proposal for electric cars in bus lanes - The Irish Times

The council in question is Dublin City Council. The article is paywalled but the headline basically sums it up. I'm delighted to hear the council say this: electric cars, while they have a role to play in meeting climate change targets, do nothing for congestion, and this would further discourage modal shift, which is what is really needed.

I found this interesting though:

However, a spokesman for the local authority’s environment and transport department said it did not believe privately owned EVs should be allowed to use bus lanes, adding that it would be “opposed to any changes in regulations to allow this to happen”.

“The bus lanes are currently at capacity and the current legal presence of small public service vehicles is causing delays and disruptions to bus services, adding any more vehicles in the bus lanes would not facilitate public transport and bus operations,” the spokesman added.

"Current legal presence" of what I can only assume is taxis. Is there a bit of debate going on in the corridors of power as to whether this should continue?

tomasrojo

Taxis are definitely clogging up bus lanes in the city centre, especially around College Green. They are going to have to go, at least in some areas. They could I suppose create a new category of bus lane that excludes taxis but not bikes, but I know that allowing non-mass transit to use bus lanes is regarded as a bad idea in other jurisdictions.

tomasrojo

Fine Gael do seem to be running out of actions that let them off the hook of taking meaningful action on climate change. There was a report in the media, which to be honest I haven't read, that the lack of action is starting to cause reputational damage, which may have knock-on effects on Foreign Direct Investment and willingness of other countries to help us, should we need it.

(I will read it the next time it crosses my path!)

EDIT: That must be it:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/failure-on-climate-targets-will-damage-ireland-s-fdi-reputation-ministers-told-1.4067248

Nothing about countries helping us. I must have imagined that. But cycling is mentioned there: as in: people will ask why you haven't invested more in mass transit and cycling, which is indeed a very good question.

rubadub

Breezer wrote: »

Not exactly cycling-related, but relevant all the same:

Council rejects Taoiseach’s proposal for electric cars in bus lanes - The Irish Times

It is certainly cycling related, seeing as the name for those lanes should really be "bus, taxi, pedal cycle, gardai, emergency vehicle lanes". You might get less punishment passes from drivers ignorant of the fact pedal cycles are legally entitled to use them.

It was a crazy suggestion, what if they got the results they seemingly want, and all cars on the roads changed to electric, then they would be just renamed to "lanes"!

recedite

rubadub wrote: »

It was a crazy suggestion, what if they got the results they seemingly want, and all cars on the roads changed to electric, then they would be just renamed to "lanes"!

They are clutching at straws now, because the year 2020 has come around faster than they expected

Climate and energy experts estimate Ireland will face fines from Europe of up to €600 million a year after 2020 until it meets the targets, but the Government has insisted the penalties will not be this large.

They expected electric cars to be widespread by now, but it hasn't happened. They expected ESB could start charging for public fast charge points, because we would already be hooked on EV. The metering will still happen (next week) but it will now start to act as a disincentive to EV car buyers.
So they are desperately looking around for some new EV incentive.


Taxi drivers should be fecked out of the bus lanes. I often see them cruising around, one driver and no passengers in the taxi.
The simple answer is allow any high occupancy car to use the lanes; taxi, private car pooling, or whatever. set the number of passengers according to the location and traffic severity. So start off with 5 car occupants in city centre, and see how that works. If no disruption to the buses, set it to 4 instead, then 3.
Out further, there are bus lanes with few buses using them. Set it to 3 there.

tomasrojo

Essentially, we do Business As Usual, and the boffins will decarbonise BAU. Except it isn't working out like that.

Rechuchote

Taxis were allowed in bus lanes originally when there was a severely limited number of taxi licences. That's no longer the situation, and it's time to get them out.

Stark

recedite wrote: »

They expected electric cars to be widespread by now, but it hasn't happened. They expected ESB could start charging for public fast charge points, because we would already be hooked on EV. The metering will still happen (next week) but it will now start to act as a disincentive to EV car buyers.
So they are desperately looking around for some new EV incentive.

I wonder how impact is measured.

Not sure the exact numbers, but I believe the environmental cost of producing a new car is equal to years worth of carbon emissions from day to day running. ie: you're better off holding onto an older car for as long as you can, rather than scrapping it and buying a shiny new model even if the new model is more environmentally friendly.

Ireland is probably one of the worst places for people changing cars regularly to do various policies: year clearly visible on reg plate, abundance of finance deals that encourage replacing car every year, heavy insurance premium penalties on older cars.

recedite

Stark wrote: »

I wonder how impact is measured.

AFAIK this is through fossil fuel imports + whatever we are producing ourselves (offshore natural gas, mostly). So not that difficult to measure.
Remember the Irish govt. is not interested in saving the world, this is just about the EU potentially fining Ireland large sums of money for not reaching national CO2 targets.
The carbon cost involved in manufacturing the new car (say in Germany) is already accounted to the Germans.

Seth Brundle

donvito99 wrote: »

Cora Sherlock and David Quinn also weighed in.

...and here's me thinking that David Quinn was into the protection of life and all that!
https://twitter.com/DavQuinn/status/1189289172063916034?s=19

Miklos

Pardon my french but that man is such a f****** awful **** of a b*******. I see him wandering around town sometimes and it puts me in a bad mood. Now he's after cyclists as well as women in crisis!

Stark

They perform the same function as the DUP down here. If you're ever confused on what stance to take on an issue, just look at what they do and assume the opposite.

Now, I wonder do they drink Barry's or Lyon's? :pac:

CramCycle

Stark wrote: »

The frustrating thing with the hi-viz is the moving of the goalposts. People complain about cyclists not wearing hi-viz after dark. Majority of cyclists start wearing hi-viz after dark. Goalposts move so now the rants are about cyclists not wearing hi-viz in the middle of the day. Par for the course when dealing with people who love to complain though. Appeasement simply doesn't work.

It worked for Chamberlain and France...........


Also David Quinn weighing in on any debate is normally a good indication that the purest form of evil supports the same point of view he decides to push.

CramCycle

Stark wrote: »

Now, I wonder do they drink Barry's or Lyon's? :pac:

If only life was so black and white that you could judge people by their preferred brand. Alas we must accept everyone is entitled to their opinion,

and that anyone who chooses Lyons over Barrys is wrong. I would side against them without further contemplation.

jon1981

We really need to see the details of the inquests in the form of graphic tv adverts, similar to the drink driving adverts. Shock and awe stuff.

The current RSA adverts for cyclists is just too soft and not hitting home.

micar

jon1981 wrote: »

We really need to see the details of the inquests in the form of graphic tv adverts, similar to the drink driving adverts. Shock and awe stuff.

The current RSA adverts for cyclists is just too soft and not hitting home.

Totally agree

In the last few months I know of 3 cyclists

1) collision with a car who was pulling out of petrol station. Cyclist were over bonnet but luckily no injuries but bike was damaged. Driver went to local bike shop and bought him a new bike.

2) pedestrian on their phone stepped out into cycle lane, cyclist swerved to avoid them and came off his bike and fractured his wrist

And worst of all

3) cyclist over taking van parked in cycle lane, car came from road immediately after from the left and hit her. Multiple broken bones including a fracture to a bone in her neck. She's currently laid up in bed and w be out of work for the next few months.

There have been ads about motorcyclists and their death resulting from speeding

The same also is needed for motorits and the impacts their actions can have on a cyclist.

AndrewJRenko

micar wrote: »

And worst of all

3) cyclist over taking van parked in cycle lane, car came from road immediately after from the left and hit her. Multiple broken bones including a fracture to a bone in her neck. She's currently laid up in bed and w be out of work for the next few months.

Do you mean that the cyclist couldn't see the car coming from the left because of the van parked in the bike lane?