Galway traffic

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442416#Comment_118442416

If you build decent cycling facilities, they'll get used in droves. At Leeson St bridge in Dublin, with the fairly poorly designed and managed cycle track, the last traffic survey showed way more cyclists than motorists.

If you paint a white line on the road or the path, it may not get used.

fergiesfolly

When you see how easy and how often motorists impinnge on cycle lanes, it's clear a painted line isn't going to cut it. A raised curb and lots of signage to let the driver know they shouldn't be there could suffice.

Also someone mentioned faster ebikes that don't need peddling. I've never been on one and my own peddle bike doesn't have a speedo, so I don't know what 32kph feels like on a bike ( or if I've even done it😄), but surely we don't need more speed. We just want usable, comfortable, affordable alternatives to cars.

I say this as someone who's seen uncontrolled speed from electric scooters and had a very near miss with one.

"The main reason I say the law has to change is it means the bike to work scheme would be paying for half the bike, this means up to 750 euro off an e-bike."

This is already the case if you're on the higher tax rate.

fergiesfolly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442933#Comment_118442933

Which is unfair to people on the lower rate.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443014#Comment_118443014

Yeah that is a bizarre one, that the folks who should get the most benefit actually get the lowest benefit. I know they are looking at overhauling the scheme though. I know at an EU level they just signed off on removing VAT from bikes and other active travel options. How long that will take to filter through on the ground here or even if it will, remains to be seen.

Anything which removes the need to go through an employer and balances the benefits would be definitely welcomed.

Like if you are working for a place that has zero interest in managing the scheme, you are out of luck. Participants are reliant on employers devoting some resources to the management of it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443014#Comment_118443014

Yeah agreed

I was in that frustrating position for my first few years out of college. I was commuting by bike daily and didn't own a car. Got small saving on bike-to-work.

Lot of mid-senior managers that were driving to work every day were getting big savings on high end bikes they'd take for a weekly weekend spin and use for triathlons in the summer. You'd have people getting ride-on lawnmowers through the scheme too!

Has to be a fairer way to deliver the scheme.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443863#Comment_118443863

In fairness, the scheme was capped at €1000 up to recently, now up to €1250, which wouldn't go far on a triathlon bike.

If people are buying lawnmowers, report them and report the shop that allows them.

Well they were road bikes which were used for triathlons and Sunday morning club spins, not specifically tri bikes.

Not sure of the details of the scheme but it's common practice to get an invoice for the scheme limit and pay any remaining balance directly. Many multi-thousand carbon fiber bikes are bought partially through the bike to work scheme.

It definitely needs an overhaul to route the funding to those that need it and those that'll reduce cars on roads. Anyway, not a Galway-specific issue so best left for the cycling/benefits forums.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444471#Comment_118444471

They only get tax relief up to the level of the cap, regardless of the bike. The €1k or now €1250 limit wouldn't go to far against a serious road bike either.

Crazy that higher earners get more tax relief under the scheme.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444509#Comment_118444509

I know yeah, they pay the balance beyond the scheme limit but they do get to max out the scheme with a saving of around 52% on the first €1250 of a bike that'll probably do more miles on the rack of a BMW.

Raises the question, is there net benefit subsiding a bike that'll be used for purely recreational use. They'll likely be healthier and less of a strain on the health service... so maybe.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444602#Comment_118444602

The people doing this very likely have private health insurance anyway, so the saving for the state would be minimal.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444753#Comment_118444753

If private health services provided comprehensive lifetime care and didn't cherry pick profitable services, you might have a point.

And I wouldn't be assuming that anyone will have private insurance for their lifetime.

CowboyTed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442803#Comment_118442803

It is not as much the speed but the extra power and no need to peddle... This mean the bikes ca be bought more for comfort and safety rather than be economical on power.. i.e. fatter wheels, larger saddle, seat lower to handlebars, handlebars that are easier to steer...

This reduces the barrier to cycling... It doesn't mean they don't cycle but they have the option if a gust of wind or big incline happens... Just makes more sense...

In Netherland EBikes are half the sales of bikes

https://electrek.co/2021/03/18/the-country-where-half-of-all-bicycles-sold-are-electric-bikes-and-what-it-can-tell-us/#:~:text=In%20the%20Netherlands%2C%20e%2Dbikes,in%202020%20were%20electric%20bicycles.

They are are also experimenting with higher powered bikes in certain areas...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/dutch-government-pilots-technology-to-cut-e-bike-road-deaths

If you want lower density cities like Galway to increase adoption then these are measures that would have to be looked at... At the moment adoptions rates are pretty poor.. More use more cycle lanes, they go hand in hand...

fergiesfolly

Does anyone know the route Burke's bus from Tuam takes through the city?

And will they stop at regular bus stops if requested?

Thanks

zell12

Just call them and ask, they do stop at some regular stops - Bohermore adj cemetery is one. Normally via Castlegar-Tuam Rd-Bohermore-Eyre Square

xckjoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118447328#Comment_118447328

Are you not just describing an electric moped? They already exist and can be bought in Ireland. But they're a moped so you need tax and insurance to use on the road

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118457221#Comment_118457221

Exactly

And I think for 750 kW you may also need a licence.

CowboyTed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118457284#Comment_118457284

Anything above 250w/25kph needs a licence... This is taken from a EU directive, this is because EU cities are generally more compact and flatter...

As with all EU directives, individual member countries of the EU are left to implement the requirements in national legislation.

So if we adopted the US law instead, bikes would be very easily got just as cheap and the bike to work scheme (or an upgrade) could help pay for it...

These stronger bikes could allow for bikes to be more comfortable and safer as I shown before...

The end game is to increase participation, higher participation gives a stronger hand for more cycle lanes... Participation rates at the moment wouldn't make economical sense to build more cycle lanes, something has got to change and 'Build it and they will come' involves a lot of faith... From the Galway transport plan only 2.5% of home to work journeys were done on bike... That is with a full cycle lane from Knocknacarra to Ballybrit passing by the Hospital and University..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118465095#Comment_118465095

Yeah, it's one piece of segregated infrastructure. You want to see significant modal shift, you need a network of protected infrastructure.

This comes up in every single study, without safe infrastructure, nothing else matters

xckjoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118465095#Comment_118465095

The power output limit is kinda meaningless and not really measurable. Any bike I've seen ignores that part and will output more power to get you up to speed. It's the 25kmph limit that matters and IMO that's a reasonable speed for a bike. A steady 25kmph gets you around quite quickly.

There's already ebikes that look more like converted lazy boy chairs. They're no more difficulty to cycle than the regular ones because the motor does all the heavy lifting.

The thing that puts people that would like to cycle off doing it is the lack of safe infrastructure. It's hairy out there in the traffic.

Unrealistic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118465095#Comment_118465095

"That is with a full cycle lane from Knocknacarra to Ballybrit passing by the Hospital and University.."

That's what it looks like from the outside but the reality is that is a cycleway for 95% of the distance with the other 5% involving absolutely lethal mixing with drivers. Some of this is on roundabouts, the exact time when drivers have to try to process other vehicles interacting with them from multiple different directions, and are even more likely to not spot someone on a bike among them. There are only two roundabouts left on this route now but they are still frightening and enough to put many people off. Then there's Kingston Road, which is narrow and where close passing of cyclists is rampant, at one end of the route if you're starting from the southern half of Knocknacarra. And at the other end you have to use the hard shoulder of a 100km dual carriageway, with a dangerous slip road half way along, for the many whose destination is accessed from the Parkmore side rather than the Ballybrit side.

If you built a quality road that covered 95% of the route but it disappeared abruptly for 5% of the route, and turned into a mountain track with no barriers or a river fjord, you'd get many drivers thinking twice about travelling that way. It's the same with cycling where weekly near death experiences on the exposed parts of a route can completely negate the benefit of having usable facilities on the rest of the route.

Unrealistic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118343756#Comment_118343756

I thought this was a very odd post at the time and couldn't figure out what it was about. I don't normally cycle this road but I was dropping my car off at Motorpark this morning and cycling from there so I had a chance to use the cycle lane and observe the bus lane.

The cycle lane isn't perfectly functional, there are a couple of severe jolts where the level changes have been botched, but I guess it's not the worst. But I'm still struggling to understand the comment about people cycling in the bus lane. The bus lane there is only 60m long to start with so a bus is only going to take 5.4 seconds longer to travel the length of it if they normally travel at 40km/h but have a bicycle in front of them travelling at 20km/h. Is that really what you view as the biggest problem on the roads?

Even beyond that insignificant effect I'd have to question why someone on a bike would even do that. The cycle path is raised at foot path level for the full length of the bus lane and only comes down to road level after the bus lane ends. To even get into the bus lane someone on a bike would either have to join the road way at the exit of Dunnes Stores, and mix in with slow moving traffic for a short stretch, or else come thudding down off a high curb into the bus lane from the footpath side. Neither variant makes a whole lot of sense. Both would make your journey slower than staying on the cycleway.

There is only one reason I can see why it would make sense to actually be in that short stretch of bus lane and that is if you were valuing safety over speed. The bus lane ends where traffic is allowed to enter what was the bus lane to turn left onto Sean Mulvoy Road. Most drivers understand that they must yield to buses travelling straight ahead before entering that lane. However many drivers either don't know or don't care that they should also be yielding to cyclists travelling straight ahead before turning left across the cycle lane. Bitter experience with that could encourage people to cycle in the bus lane as they approach that conflict point as it will reduce the chance of drivers cutting across them.

So if this really is a daily occurrence, which I still seriously doubt, it can only logically be happening not because "cyclists think they own the road" as you suggest but because drivers think they own the road, even the cycle lanes, and people on bicycles have to modify their behaviour as an act of self preservation.

It's also worth noting that cycling in a bus lane is completely legal but driving across a cycle lane without yielding to road users in that lane is an offence.

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118467818#Comment_118467818

Well done for going to trouble of destroying such a weird post - technically speaking as its so short; can one even call it a bus lane?

It is not just a bus traffic light priority measure?

Unrealistic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118468086#Comment_118468086

For what it's worth I think that short 60m stretch technically is a bus lane. There are another two stubby stretches marked as bus lanes either side of the junction to enable traffic light priority but each of those is barely longer than the average bus.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118468197#Comment_118468197

Those bits were put in place during the reconfiguration, same on the Tuam Rd junction, but won't be properly used until bus connects gets seriously implemented. The idea being, buses will get a green light ahead of car traffic so will always the the first vehicle through a junction after a light change.

They are a good idea and work very well, we are just not using it yet.

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118468387#Comment_118468387

This already happens here. The traffic lights to the left of the bus lane at the lights have an "extra" traffic light which is below the green arrow, which will activate "BUS" in green for about 3/4 seconds before the green arrow is activated. One will only see this occur when a Bus is at the traffic light.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118469067#Comment_118469067

Oh cool, didn't realise it was already in use

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118468197#Comment_118468197

True I guess, but its function is just to give the bus a head start. If a bit of CPO was done here when converting the roundabout junctions (and adding the traffic light junction at Dun na Coirbe), we could have got an outbound/inbound bus lane to and from the Kirwin junction. This section of N6 road has highest traffic figures for the whole City. A good example of disjointed planning from our Council.

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118469103#Comment_118469103

I could be wrong on the second timings of the bus green, might even be shorter; probably only enough time for 1 bus.