Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121694873#Comment_121694873

Make it FREE if one collects a year of Irish Times Weekly Motoring supplement tokens?

tomasrojo

Good article about people taking it on themselves to teach perfect strangers a lesson:

https://irishcycle.com/2024/01/31/run-off-the-road-dublin-cyclists-tell-of-how-they-face-aggression-from-motorists/

buffalo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701731#Comment_121701731

Great to see the cross-pollination - Claudia Dalby also writes (wrote?) for Dublin Inquirer.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701731#Comment_121701731

Excellent article in fairness.

Not in Ireland, but good for a chuckle... Millionaire's playground Sandbanks is hit by traffic gridlock as cars are stopped from taking shortcut in favour of cyclists (msn.com)

Thelonious Monk

https://twitter.com/copenhenken/status/1752965454891467187

not really journalism but wow

ARX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121706665#Comment_121706665

I've cycled in a good few of those countries. Warsaw has a great cycle lane network - far better than anything we will ever have - but it's near the bottom of the table for money spent. Denmark, which has very good facilities, is in the middle, as is Germany, where cycle lanes are usually crap. Swedish cycle lanes are ok, nothing special, but far better than here. In fact every one of the countries listed that I've cycled in has cycle lanes ranging from "not that much better than Ireland" to "dream on, Ireland". Whatever they are doing with the money here, it certainly isn't building good cycle lanes.

Thelonious Monk

Yes I was surprised by how bad the ones in Berlin were

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121706794#Comment_121706794

Ya good points here, now instead of 1yr snapshot - lets do last 50 years; we will get crushed on that by many of our neighbours.

The German rural networks are pretty impressive but the Germany Citys themselves can be hit and miss

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121706794#Comment_121706794

They label a building project active travel, then they widen some footpaths and resurface the road and spent some of the cycling money on it.

I've seen it locally, not one meter of actual marked/sign posted cycle lanes but the council claim two streets have provisions for cyclists.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707678#Comment_121707678

at the start of brookwood avenue in artane they widened the footpaths at the corners and put pedestrian crossing lights there, i wonder if the council call this kind of thing active travel given it does actually make walking easier?

Stark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707740#Comment_121707740

I believe so.

I've seen quite a few councils cynically spend the active travel budget on road resurfacing.

what_traffic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121708317#Comment_121708317

This is true, will Minister start holding Councils to the stats or CSO data, if they are spending all this money on active travel - where are the results. Make them start to fail up rather than down. Need to get rid of Council Executive teams who are not delivering on it.

Dr_Colossus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121708317#Comment_121708317

I wouldn't necessarily be against that, the worst aspect of cycling for me are the road surfaces (interaction/altercations with drivers and weather a distance 2nd and 3rd respectively). I've generally quite a nice 14km commute but there are poor sections and when I have to take alternate routes it's the shockingly poor maintenance and repairs which get to me since I don't have 4" tyres or dual suspension.

There's no point laying poor and disjointed cycle tracks just for the sake of added meters, better to have better road infrastructure for all over general inaction.

Paddigol

The big difference for me, cycling in Germany, is driver behaviour. That's not a quick fix, or something local councils can change by throwing money at... but I'd take more tolerant driver behaviour over a fancy new cycle lane every day of the week. So while cycling in certain areas in Dublin might be better than, eg Berlin, from an infrastructure/ quality perspective, from an actual road user perspective I find Berlin far easier.

Worrying points above, about budget spend by local authorities, if true. If we were serious about improving things there would be much tighter oversight on spend -v- results. A lot of the time it seems to be a box ticking exercise with very little thought put into what is being proposed and why.

Paddigol

Also not in Ireland, but reflects a similar mindset to many people I know...

‘It’s unfathomable’: speed hump saboteurs join Italy’s pro-car vandals | Italy | The Guardian

traco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709410#Comment_121709410

I agree on the road surface, Georges Quay out to Heuston is terrible with holes, ruts, manholes, access covers etc. Not at all pleasnt on a Brompton with 16" wheels at 100psi

Cetyl Palmitate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709620#Comment_121709620

Box ticking is very much a part of the process unfortunately.

There was a case in Limerick where 3 or 4 Kms of cycle lane were placed on a long, straight, 80kmh road which did not connect any significant volume of potential users to any place those people might have to go. It was broadly useless in a practical sense but allowed the council to report they had created X Kms of new cycle lanes over the year.

In reality, the most important piece of cycle infrastructure is in junction design. This is also where engineers seem to get the most complaints, resulting in lovely segregated lanes being interrupted by dangerous junction crossings.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121710367#Comment_121710367

In reality, the most important piece of cycle infrastructure is in junction design. This is also where engineers seem to get the most complaints, resulting in lovely segregated lanes being interrupted by dangerous junction crossings.

This in my opinion is purely down to the design being done by people who are completely inexperienced in proper cycling infrastructure. Our road infrastructure engineers need to be made spend time on a bike and walking to get a proper user's experience. If you drive everywhere then this is how you will approach designing infrastructure.

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709620#Comment_121709620

Behaviour can be influanced by councils through spending money too though, making roads less like race tracks for example.

If you build a race track, you get people racing..its really that simple.

Building in narrower sections of road which force people to slow, installing zebra crossings with raised crossing areas rather then lights can not only be cheaper but it can change driver behaviour. I was critical of the council above, but locally they recently installed two crossings with solar powered belisha beacons which significantly lowered the installation cost (would have been circa 40k each I believe if mains powered).

These two crossings have forced cars to slow and make the area far safer then it used to be.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709410#Comment_121709410

Doesnt really matter if you are for it or against it - if its spent on roads that are primarily used by cars then its not prioritising active travel.

Counterpoint would then be that all investment roads that bikes are allowed use would then become active travel

One caveat would be if the improved the surface at the margin of roads - all over Dublin at least, when contractors need to dig up for whatever - they do so at the edge of the road, and its never left right again - so the middle of the road has a nice smooth surface and the edge of the road is topsy turvey. Good example is Griffith Avenues cycle lane btn Marino and Drumcondra.

Stark

Just feeds the narrative that we're spending way over the odds on cycle infrastructure when most of the money is going towards projects that actually benefit the people shouting the loudest about how we're spending too much. Like how we're supposedly spending 62 million on a "cycle lane" through Fairview when most of that money is going on digging up the road to relay water mains.

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121710684#Comment_121710684

If you had the time and knew the details of paperwork needed to apply for funding you would probably have a bit of fun with FOI requested to the right public body.

Local school and county council were looking for site for school car park; both department of education and county councils say school car parks are not their concern. When I asked local engineer where he was getting funding (circa 250k for car park construction) he said active travel.

Sure enough the drawing had 10 bicycle had stands; the odd child walks to school, a good proportion by bus but i have never seen anybody cycle to it. Bike stands are not the deterrent to cycling

Seth Brundle

Lightly humorous pro-cycling article in the Indo (use archive.ph if you've no paywall account!)

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/wexford/opinion/justine-omahony-im-willing-to-be-humiliated-on-my-electric-bike-if-it-means-i-dont-have-to-sweat/a1305314077.html

Macy0161

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707740#Comment_121707740

Walking is "active travel". I'd actually suggest that around many towns and villages footpaths would reduce car journeys more than cyclepaths. I've said before, I'd also have concerns about some of the greenways that are down as active travel when they're more about tourism.

Paddigol

"consultation" seems to be the go-to soundbite of the day at the moment...

Traffic congestion on Bray Main Street blamed on bollards as TD calls for a review (msn.com)

Although he does make a valid point regarding lack of fully thought out plans when reconfiguring road layout to tick the 'cycling infrastructure' box.

Cyclists are done no favours at all with wishy-washy 'upgrades'. They end up being infrastructure of no use to us, but at the same time another stick to beat the 'woke Greens' / 'cycling mafia' etc. with.

Macy0161

Well he's talking bollocks about them on Bray Main Street anyway, unless by adding to congestion he actually means inability to stick hazards on, drive up on the pavement, 2 wheels on pavement 2 wheels on road, blocking the cycle lane while someone nips into a shop... I drive a van, and the only issue on main street is when a bus stops - and that hasn't changed pre or post wands!

Duckjob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121710593#Comment_121710593

Folks on one of the local Lusk groups going apesh*t over the current R132 works. Lots of faux concern that farmers can't pass each other on their machinery.

Also lots of protestations that the narrowed road is "dangerous" and its only a matter of time before there's a serious accident. Whats really happening is that people are used to tearing up there at 80-90kph like they're in Mad Max and are feeling put out that the new layout makes them feel too uncomfortable doing that. Sounds like job done to me!

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728968#Comment_121728968

100%, the only thing those wands annoyed anyone over was those who used to park illegally for takeaways at night, and it barely managed that. The wands added nothing to traffic in Bray and any moron who genuinely believes they do, is just that. Bray was a mess long before those wands but actual solutions are not tolerated becasue some people might need to drive a bit further or walk a bit further.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121731159#Comment_121731159

In recent years Bray main street has been chronic for people dumping their cars half on the footpath/ in cycle lane/ on double yellows. Particularly up towards the McDonalds. I haven't cycled through it for about a year (the N11 is now my friend) but I was struggling to visualise how it could have been made as bad as is being made out. The only potential pinch spot is at the hotel junction near the bottom

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728884#Comment_121728884

Potential to be a Salthill cycleway debacle 😃