Near misses - mod warning 22/04 - see OP/post 822

average_runner

Rechuchote wrote: »

That's not how enforcement works. You can't have a garda in every house in case someone breaks in either. Enforcement works if a decent proportion of criminals are busted for a particular crime, and people hear about it.

This is why bicycle theft is a recurrent problem: police - and not just in Ireland - rarely bother enforcing the law, and almost never prosecute people for receiving stolen goods, if those goods are bicycles.

There's also a need for technology to be developed and used. If insurance companies offered a much cheaper rate for people who linked their phone to their handbrake so it would switch off when you're in the car and the handbrake not engaged, this would effectively stop one crime. (Of course there would be people gaming the system by having a second phone, but a few well-publicised fraud convictions for doing so would stop this.) When a cheap electronic tracker is finally invented that's small enough to hide in a bicycle and track it, bicycle theft will disappear.

Even the tracker method won't work, as someone will figure it out and upload on google how to remove it

Rechuchote

average_runner wrote: »

Even the tracker method won't work, as someone will figure it out and upload on google how to remove it

Maybe, maybe not.

My impression is that there are relatively few bike thieves who each steal a lot of bikes.

Tombo2001

Rechuchote wrote: »

Maybe, maybe not.

My impression is that there are relatively few bike thieves who each steal a lot of bikes.

Probably right.

I had two bikes taken from the garage last month, broke through the door and broke the bike locks. They knew what they were at to some degree, but the funny thing is that one of the bikes they took had little or no value.

Anyway, I've been looking online to buy a new bike - if you know anything about bikes at all, then one of the things you want to know is the frame size.

I'm quite struck by the number of 'vendors' with 5-10 bikes on sale on these sites, but who seem to know very little about bikes. Like they'll have a nice Felt or Cube with good spec and parts, and the ad will just say 'good bike for sale' and they cant answer questions about any of the components or the size, wont know what model it is.

Tombo2001

Rechuchote wrote: »

That's not how enforcement works. You can't have a garda in every house in case someone breaks in either. Enforcement works if a decent proportion of criminals are busted for a particular crime, and people hear about it.

This is why bicycle theft is a recurrent problem: police - and not just in Ireland - rarely bother enforcing the law, and almost never prosecute people for receiving stolen goods, if those goods are bicycles.

There's also a need for technology to be developed and used. If insurance companies offered a much cheaper rate for people who linked their phone to their handbrake so it would switch off when you're in the car and the handbrake not engaged, this would effectively stop one crime. (Of course there would be people gaming the system by having a second phone, but a few well-publicised fraud convictions for doing so would stop this.) When a cheap electronic tracker is finally invented that's small enough to hide in a bicycle and track it, bicycle theft will disappear.

Thats a prevalent view, but when I had two bikes stolen from the last month, the guards were outstanding, gave me a considerable amount of time, came out to the house and I would say spent an hour there talking about it.

I couldnt fault them in any way. The issue is, they can have photos, id numbers and all that stuff - but the bike either shows up or it doesnt. Stolen bikes are not easily traceable; and thats not the guards fault.

average_runner

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Thats a prevalent view, but when I had two bikes stolen from the last month, the guards were outstanding, gave me a considerable amount of time, came out to the house and I would say spent an hour there talking about it.

I couldnt fault them in any way. The issue is, they can have photos, id numbers and all that stuff - but the bike either shows up or it doesnt. Stolen bikes are not easily traceable; and thats not the guards fault.

There was festival where we lived and the garda spent plenty of time explaining about getting your bike tag and record the number but also take a selfie with it to prove its yours if they find it. Unless you can prove its yours you can't get it back.

Rechuchote

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Thats a prevalent view, but when I had two bikes stolen from the last month, the guards were outstanding, gave me a considerable amount of time, came out to the house and I would say spent an hour there talking about it.

I couldnt fault them in any way. The issue is, they can have photos, id numbers and all that stuff - but the bike either shows up or it doesnt. Stolen bikes are not easily traceable; and thats not the guards fault.

Maybe the Gardaí should be looking for bikes at the ports (and setting out trackable bait bikes that can identify a whole artic full of stolen bikes).

I've also quite often seen people posting here "I went to buy a bike online and saw my stolen bike advertised" but I've never seen "Garda squad finds stolen bikes online".

Weepsie

Rechuchote wrote: »

When a cheap electronic tracker is finally invented that's small enough to hide in a bicycle and track it, bicycle theft will disappear.

It won't. Modern phones are quite easy to track if you know how, particularly some of the high end ones. They are the ones that are routinely targeted.

average_runner

Rechuchote wrote: »

Maybe the Gardaí should be looking for bikes at the ports (and setting out trackable bait bikes that can identify a whole artic full of stolen bikes).

I've also quite often seen people posting here "I went to buy a bike online and saw my stolen bike advertised" but I've never seen "Garda squad finds stolen bikes online".

Considering the have a web page dedicated to all the stolen bikes they found and its the second thing on a google search!!!

And here is a link to bikes they recovered from thieves in Lusk
https://extra.ie/2018/06/15/news/irish-news/gardai-lusk-stolen-bikes-recovered

Mc Love

DanDublin1982 wrote: »

Not so much a near miss as a direct hit... cycling home yesterday a dead seagull fell from the sky and hit me square on the head (well, helmet). Was like someone had chucked a brick at me but managed to stay upright thankfully.

I was cycling home Monday and narrowly avoided swallowing a fly/wasp! Note to self, try and keep mouth closed when cycling

Duckjob

Not so much a near miss as a depressingly pointless confrontation with a taxi driver at Dublin Airport roundabout this morning.

I was coming from the Swords side heading for town. There were a couple of cars waiting at the red light so I filtered up the left side of them. As I was filtering the light went green and it wasn't safe to try to filter further as the traffic was starting to move and move too much space on the left. So I pulled just ahead of mr taxi driver behind the car which started moving, and looked to take my position within the lane. Mr Taxi driver seemed to be affronted by this and tried to push his way through on my right going through the roundabout.

When I gestured and shouted "What are you doing?" this cultured gentleman rolled down his passenger window and offered to "breeaakkkkk youuurrrrr fuuuuuuucckkkkin earrrrrmmmmm for yeh!"

I went straight through the roundabout for town, and he turned around to the right and stopped at next red light on the roundabout to go to the airport

As I said, utterly, utterly, pointless confrontation. He could have easily given up 5 seconds sitting at a red light, and instead let me get around the roundabout safely, and everyone could have gone on their way happy.

Oh and this all took place with a garda car right beside him in the other lane.

Seth Brundle

Duckjob wrote: »

Oh and this all took place with a garda car right beside him in the other lane.

I'm reminded of my post yesterday...

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Enforcement of existing road traffic laws would be a quick win.

...and the follow up reaction...

Autochange wrote: »

Unfortunately i dont think wholesale enforcement is possible. Gardai cant be everywhere etc.

AndrewJRenko

average_runner wrote: »

So narrow minded. There is more to the problem that just motorists

It's not cyclists or pedestrians who are killing 3 or 4 people each week on the roads and maiming many more.

average_runner wrote: »

its all road users that are the problem and all road users need to open their small minds to encourage cycling, because the behavior on the road by all is gone beyond stupidity now.

What's the connection between encouraging cycling and cyclists' behaviour on the roads?

magicbastarder

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

It's not cyclists or pedestrians who are killing 3 or 4 people each week on the roads and maiming many more.

i think you'll find that nearly all murders in ireland are committed by people on foot.

RobertFoster

magicbastarder wrote: »

i think you'll find that nearly all murders in ireland are committed by people on foot.

Time to licence and tax shoes.

AndrewJRenko

magicbastarder wrote: »

i think you'll find that nearly all murders in ireland are committed by people on foot.

Now that you mention it, I think one or two of recent murders were done by people on bikes, including one mistaken identity shooting in Dublin 1 - but that's not the kind of killing I was talking about here.

ganmo

RobertFoster wrote: »

Time to licence and tax shoes.

Only child sizes don’t have tax

Type 17

ganmo wrote: »

Only child sizes don’t have tax

Don't mention the war...

https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/1333-memorable-budgets/1338-budget-1982/

rubadub

ganmo wrote: »

Only child sizes don’t have tax

I guess he meant a yearly tax for using footpaths.


While cycling on a cycletrack I had some gobsh!te call out his window to "get off the path and stay on the road ye prick". Then he swerves in at me while passing me a few minutes later. Would love to be an expert stuntman and throw myself off the bike to let him think he did it. Think there was some video of guys doing just that or similar.

AndrewJRenko

Some scary stories in response to this tweet

https://twitter.com/dublincycling/status/1040552259384487937

https://twitter.com/dublincycling/status/1040549446935879680

The van in that tweet was scary.

coward

Not a near miss, sorry if it doesn't suit this thread. Sometimes it is scary what we share the road with. What you see on the van's front windscreen is not a reflection of the sky but the glass is completely and utterly smashed. No visibility through it at all - apart from the two little holes you see in the middle. Maybe one for each eye !? :pac:

I can imagine it is awful to have to deal with a broken window during a journey, but I don't think you should try to drive under such conditions afterwards.

P.S On the bi-directional cycle track on the Newcastle Road and thankful for the high road kerb here!

i-see-you.jpg

Rechuchote

coward wrote: »

Not a near miss, sorry if it doesn't suit this thread. Sometimes it is scary what we share the road with. What you see on the van's front windscreen is not a reflection of the sky but the glass is completely and utterly smashed. No visibility through it at all - apart from the two little holes you see in the middle. Maybe one for each eye !? :pac:

I can imagine it is awful to have to deal with a broken window during a journey, but I don't think you should try to drive under such conditions afterwards.

P.S On the bi-directional cycle track on the Newcastle Road and thankful for the high road kerb here!

i-see-you.jpg

Bleedin' eck. Where was it? And did it have a licence plate?

magicbastarder

somewhere near hollywood today, we had an overtaking car having to come to a complete hard stop in the road beside us. they tried the overtake on a spot with obviously not great visibility ahead, and met a car coming the other direction, who also had to come to a hard stop.

coward

Rechuchote wrote: »

Bleedin' eck. Where was it? And did it have a licence plate?

Just past Adamstown, heading away from Lucan, Co. Dublin. It did have plates - a 2005 vehicle.

CramCycle

coward wrote: »

Just past Adamstown, heading away from Lucan, Co. Dublin. It did have plates - a 2005 vehicle.

To the local station with the pic, date, time and your happy to make a statement. Absolutely crazy.

magicbastarder

that looks like someone repeatedly smashed the windscreen; standing on the bonnet kicking it maybe?
though i dunno whether that would be easy to do, i've never tried it.

CramCycle

magicbastarder wrote: »

that looks like someone repeatedly smashed the windscreen; standing on the bonnet kicking it maybe?
though i dunno whether that would be easy to do, i've never tried it.

Its doable but not easy, Life in the country, doubt it was kicking though. Crowbar possibly, impact points are too focused.

Ray Bloody Purchase

Some utter twat roared out the passenger window of a flat bed truck as it was going by me today. Gave me a bit of a shock. I got the reg, no camera or anything though.

Is there any point reporting something like that? Caused me a bit of a speed wobble.

CramCycle

Overtook by a guy moving across to a filter lane, tipped my front wheel as he pulled across mid overtake. Lucky to stay upright. I let a roar but he ignored me. I got the plate but no camera today. I really wanted to take my lock and throw it like a tomahawk at his car but took the better path and just went on to do the school run.

Ray Bloody Purchase

Just past Harolds Cross Bridge on the town side, this very intellectual person in an audi decided it would be a good idea to just indicate left into the bus lane and pick up their mate on the side of the road. Nearly ran me up onto the footpath.