Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

Duckjob

I'm just interested to know how long Ireland can maintain this half-assed lip service to digging ourselves out of the climate hole we're in while many other Europe countries have already started making radical changes to streamline their cities and address their emissions.

Or to put it another way, how far do we have to fall behind the rest of Europe before some level of shame/embarrassment kicks in and gives us a kick up the arse to actually do something instead of talking about doing something.

ARX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118141721#Comment_118141721

Meanwhile Stockholm (a city of comparable size) has a metro with 100 stations, carrying a million people a day. They decided in 1941 to build a metro and the first line opened in 1950. I'd be surprised if we manage to get our first line open by 2041.

Macy0161

Yes, but in most European countries we look enviously at, it was driven by the population not the politicians. Here, everyone wants something done, once it doesn't effect them and their car!

Breezer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118142275#Comment_118142275

I wouldn’t be so quick to hold up Sláintecare as an example!

Edit: I see you weren’t. Mea culpa, I’m tired. How does one delete a post on the new Boards?

Larbre34

Thats exactly what Railway Orders seek to do, fast track (pun intended) heavy and light rail infrastructure in a way that entails robust planning and strong depoliticisation.

They carry as much heft as Motorway Orders and we managed to build 900 odd Kms of those in 20 years.

Yes, the engineering of rail is complex and expensive, but we are talking about relatively short routes here, they should be getting these things up to a shovel ready stage without further hesitation. That at least gives the Government options to prioritise and deliver.

magicbastarder

a rail line to navan is 'planned' for 2042. a 'plan' involving not much more than a couple of lines in a document that none of the authors will have any responsibility to implement, reminds me of the question as to whether trees falling in woods make any sound.

I'll see if I can dig out the piece I read a good while back but they put the cost of the M3 at 650 million vs 90 it would take for the railway I think it was.

magicbastarder

the M3 was built without regard for reopening the old rail line, which i think would make it much more complicated now to try to engineer the crossing points.

edit: the old railway line would have crossed the M3 just north of bective GFC - you can just about make out the old line remnants running SSW from it here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.6118316,-6.669461,1355m/data=!3m1!1e3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118143974#Comment_118143974

Yeah I think the original plan/hope was to have a station on both sides of Navan with a terminus on the north side probably on the old Kingscourt line. It was also put out there some years ago by some campaigners the Drogheda/Navan line be looked at as a possible route to Connolly. That made little sense to me.

Larbre34

The Dunboyne to Navan line is in last months National Development Plan and the feasibility study including route options is due to be released any day.

I think the Government and the NTA need to get their messaging in order. And the fact that the Government is the boss.

Macy0161

Well it was a draft report, to go to Government. Everybody is jumping the gun that Government will agree to that draft, imo.

I think we need an active travel and bus equivalent(s) of Railway Orders. It's the only way to force the change and take the politics out of it.

magicbastarder

i saw some comment recently along the lines of (and this is a very fuzzy memory) 'the DART cost €8bn in today's money, but the economic benefits of the DART have been estimated at €100bn, so even if it cost €20bn to build it'd have been a good investment'.

anyone know if this is an established fact (well, i plucked those figures out of the air) or was this just 'truthy'?

Thelonious Monk

We wont be getting any new rail any time soon, and Busconnects if ever delivered will still be done in a way that no residents are compromised and no cars are inconvenienced.

I want the car traffic to keep getting worse and worse, it's what we deserve at this stage. It seems to me the majority of people in Ireland want to be able to drive wherever they like whenever they like and I can't see it changing any time soon. They want metros etc to be built so there will be less cars on the road and they can drive to places quicker.

Something that could be rolled out in days would be segregated cycling infrastructure that inconveniences motorists by making streets one way and banning cars from certain areas etc, thus shifting people from cars to bikes and walking. But we'll never have politicians with the guts to inconvenience anyone, so it's never going to happen. I'm just glad I can get around by bike because I'd lose my f**king mind sitting in that traffic every day.

Macy0161

It's not just transport though - someone should pay more tax (but not me); we should invest in water infrastructure (but I shouldn't pay); more people should cycle (but my road space shouldn't be taken); more people should get the bus (but it doesn't suit me)....

Like I said earlier in the thread - the likes of copenhagen, it was the population demanding the change away from car focus. We have the exact opposite here.

Larbre34

Thelonious being as positive and constructive as ever I see.

bazermc

Looks good.

https://www.rte.ie/culture/2021/1112/1259487-documentary-on-one-stephen-roche-the-orwell-wheeler/

magicbastarder

that's several years old, dunno why they're promoting it again now.

magicbastarder

This is quite a positive story

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/ireland-has-given-me-my-true-identity-and-transformed-how-i-see-the-world-1.4724744?mode=amp

Wildly Boaring

The comments seem very very familiar.

Man in serious condition after falling from electric scooter in Dublin this morning https://jrnl.ie/5603411

For anyone who wants to know

How did the Dutch get their cycle paths?

https://youtu.be/SYHz93HXJFQ

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118177067#Comment_118177067

it's mad, you get women being killed in hit and runs by cars and they get like 3 comments saying RIP

Seth Brundle

Not really journalism but...

https://twitter.com/phlaimeaux/status/1462715937736511488

tomasrojo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117760390#Comment_117760390

I see this guy has managed to anger even more people with one of his stupid columns today.

(Michael O'Loughlin, not MB. Also. not cycling-related. Something to do with Northern Ireland. I'm not going to read it. I had enough the last time.)

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118206242#Comment_118206242

If he's right things have changed since the mid 90s.

My college friend from Limerick and a good rugby player got a work placement in Dublin for 9 months.

He was a few km from nearest club, not sure if Landsowne or Blackrock, and decided to cycle. A work colleague and club member told him "whatever you do don't cycle, at least if you walk you can say you got a lift".

There certainly would have been a period after we became more prosperous that utility cycling would have been associated with our past and being poor.

Probably not that dissimilar a phenomenon to the building of gigantic one off houses, particularly in the country

tomasrojo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118206573#Comment_118206573

Yeah, I mostly just rolled my eyes at the cycling article. It had a lot of silly arguments in it (Dutch cycling infrastructure is sort of racist and classist, but the public transport system and the roads implicitly aren't?), so it was hard to know where to begin with it.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118204917#Comment_118204917

my wife has been watching it (i was out in the shed) and said it's good - funny and good-natured.

cletus

Watched Along for the Ride (they should really have stuck with The Ride), and thoroughly enjoyed it. As MB's wife said, good natured, funny, easy to watch. I wouldn't mind if Ayoade was the guest every week

kagni

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118209660#Comment_118209660

Was enjoyable enough, drifted by a bit aimlessly, Ayoade was good but I find David O'Doherty a bit annoying.

Seems like they are aiming for a cycling version of the Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse fishing show but I think Mortimer is more suited to this type of programme than O'Doherty. But it's early days so it might find it's feet later (I think there are only 4 episodes though).

cletus

I'm a fan of O'Doherty's general bumbelry, so I wasn't disappointed on the front.

For me, much of the charm lies in the aimlessness

magicbastarder

it was the mortimer and whitehouse show my wife also said it resembled.