Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

breezy1985

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

For all the flak cyclists have to take about cycling on footpaths in Irish Times letters and on radio shows, how often do we all see the likes of this? And cars have to drive on the footpath in order to park on the footpath, there are 6 cars parked on the double yellow lined footpath outside my house now!

https://twitter.com/AlanDub13/status/1310858616853979137

I see people with buggies have to do it quite often and it must be a nightmare for wheelchair users

Mickiemcfist

breezy1985 wrote: »

I see people with buggies have to do it quite often and it must be a nightmare for wheelchair users

I watched a show a few years ago where Pro rugby players had to use a wheelchair to get from their club to Dublin City centre, Felix Jones had to go from Thomond park in Limerick. Something I hadn't considered was on bin day, he had to move wheelie bins out of his way on narrow foot paths. Ever since i make sure mine leaves room!

tomasrojo

breezy1985 wrote: »

I see people with buggies have to do it quite often and it must be a nightmare for wheelchair users

As someone who pushed kids around in buggies much of the day daily for about three years, I can't remember once having a problem with someone cycling on the footpath, but *every* *single* *day* I had to deal with having to find a way onto the road and then back onto the footpath to get around footpath parkers.

EDIT: Now Mickemcfist mentions it, I remember wheelie bins being a problem on some routes, but at least it was only one day a week on any given street.

EDIT: Now I think about it, it was about six years I was pushing buggies around (I had a big Chariot trailer that doubled as a stroller, and it could accommodate quite a big child, so I'd still use it when were walking more than about 3km). It only really ended when I got the cargo bike for longer journeys. Either way, it was a big sample size of observations!

p15574

"Road tax". Even the national broadcaster doesn't seem to know it doesn't exist.

It is urging the Government to supplement this with increases in Vehicle Registration Tax, Road Tax, and taxes on petrol and diesel vehicles, along with regulations in order to reduce transport emissions.

breezy1985

Mickiemcfist wrote: »

I watched a show a few years ago where Pro rugby players had to use a wheelchair to get from their club to Dublin City centre, Felix Jones had to go from Thomond park in Limerick. Something I hadn't considered was on bin day, he had to move wheelie bins out of his way on narrow foot paths. Ever since i make sure mine leaves room!

There's one stretch of cycle path I use where a few houses put bins in the cycle lane which I found annoying but after reading this I realize it's the much lesser of 2 evils

Thelonious Monk

tomasrojo wrote: »

As someone who pushed kids around in buggies much of the day daily for about three years, I can't remember once having a problem with someone cycling on the footpath, but *every* *single* *day* I had to deal with having to find a way onto the road and then back onto the footpath to get around footpath parkers.

EDIT: Now Mickemcfist mentions it, I remember wheelie bins being a problem on some routes, but at least it was only one day a week on any given street.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone could say these things to Pat Kenny on his stupid radio show? It's all so one sided.

Grassey

breezy1985 wrote:

There's one stretch of cycle path I use where a few houses put bins in the cycle lane which I found annoying but after reading this I realize it's the much lesser of 2 evils

Imagine the uproar if bins were left on the edge of the roads and cars had to chicane around them!

magicbastarder

you need a licence to place a skip on a footpath, but you can park your car there and no-one bats an eyelid.

Thelonious Monk

magicbastarder wrote: »

you need a licence to place a skip on a footpath, but you can park your car there and no-one bats an eyelid.

3 permanently parked outside my place illegally. I couldn't leave a storage container out there, well maybe I could if I attached some wheels to it.

magicbastarder

wonder what response you'd get if you wrote to your local councillors or TDs?

tomasrojo

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

3 permanently parked outside my place illegally. I couldn't leave a storage container out there, well maybe I could if I attached some wheels to it.

I remember Ian Walker making the point that you can't store any other possession in the street and expect indulgence, let alone complete impunity.

Thelonious Monk

magicbastarder wrote: »

wonder what response you'd get if you wrote to your local councillors or TDs?

I've written to the council a couple of times. They just ignore.
TDs wouldn't really understand the complaint, it's not considered poor form to just park your car wherever you like in this country.
My parents live in Spain, in an innocuous housing development in a small enough town. If you even have one wheel on the footpath on their street, people have been ticketed. You just do not see cars parked on the footpaths, in that part of Spain anyway. The town centre has little bollards everywhere to stop this.
I think the problem with Dublin and Ireland is that the country is functioning based on the assumption you can park illegally, if they were to suddenly enforce the rules overnight, I wonder what would happen?

The J Stands for Jay

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

For all the flak cyclists have to take about cycling on footpaths in Irish Times letters and on radio shows, how often do we all see the likes of this? And cars have to drive on the footpath in order to park on the footpath, there are 6 cars parked on the double yellow lined footpath outside my house now!

https://twitter.com/AlanDub13/status/1310858616853979137

I often feel the urge to get those self inflating rafts they have on airplanes, shoving them under cars parked like this and letting them rip. Throw them onto their doors back on the road where they belong.

what_traffic

p15574 wrote: »

"Road tax". Even the national broadcaster doesn't seem to know it doesn't exist.

Could have warned us that was the former FG TD George Lee blog piece, who is now the "Environment and Science Correspondent" for RTE.;)

Tombo2001

magicbastarder wrote: »

wonder what response you'd get if you wrote to your local councillors or TDs?

To be fair - Nessa Hourigan in Cabra (Greens) as been talking about this issue for a long time, and I think this is borne out of her own experience around family members affected.

Having lived in Cabra myself , but this applies to a lot of areas - people have been pavement parking in Cabra for 30 or 40 years. Its routine and its everywhere. The Luas has added to the pressure, as has the increase in clamping in city centre areas. People park drive in from wherever, park in Cabra and take the Luas to town....this has made the parking issue worse, but it was already bad.

Same applies in other similar 1930s estates in Dublin that are close to city centre, free parking, and werent built for mass car ownership - Marino a prime example.

The roads are not wide enough to facilitate parked cars, simple as. So up we go on the pavement - the closer to the wall the better as the last thing we want is that we might discombobulate our fellow drivers going up and down the street.

This does not change the fact however that pavement parking is as illegal here as it is on the footpath by Trinity College.

But people (and by people I mean car owners) have been breaking this law for so long without reprimand, that its very difficult to do change tack on it now.

On a side note - there is not other area of society that the law is broken so frequently, so routinely and with so much impactfor wider society than the driving of cars......there are so many ways that cars are used illegally to mess things up for others, and yet its almost completely unchecked by the justice system.

Thelonious Monk

That's the thing, without illegal parking most of the people around where i live couldn't have a car, they may as well just legalise that kind of parking as they're never going to enforce the rules

magicbastarder

Council set to abandon €20m Liffey bridge plans

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/council-set-to-abandon-20m-liffey-bridge-plans-1.4367774?mode=amp

JMcL

p15574 wrote: »

"Road tax". Even the national broadcaster doesn't seem to know it doesn't exist.

Yep, heard him on several news bulletins yesterday talking about this mythical tax as well

Seaswimmer

Local TD Jennifer O Carroll sent out a standard update letter. However what surprised me is her focus on cycling and all the ongoing works in DLR area. This leads me to believe that despite the negative rantings on social media there is widespread support for the measures.
On a separate note the local residents WhatsApp group linked to the proposed new one way system by Deansgrange cemetery. Everybody around where I live will be affected. The first reply was "cycle lane outside my house, nobody uses it ect ect" Every subsequent reply was positive. good for the kids, good for the family, its the way things are going, better world for my grandkids ect ect.. I was pleasantly surprised.

magicbastarder

Coronavirus: How pandemic sparked European cycling revolution

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54353914

Thelonious Monk

https://www.thejournal.ie/green-party-eamon-ryan-convention-transport-5222970-Oct2020/

Good news here. The comments though, I despair.

Stark

If you look at the actual spend breakdowns a

My 2 year old would argue with more intelligence than most of the cretins there.

Anyway this isn't new is it? If I remember it was part of the programme for government they agreed earlier this year.

JMcL

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

https://www.thejournal.ie/green-party-eamon-ryan-convention-transport-5222970-Oct2020/

Good news here. The comments though, I despair.

My eyes, my eyes....

The limited number that I did read, the Shakespeare monkeys would have made a better stab at the grammar and comprehensibility of a decent proportion of them

p15574

Heads up, they'll be talking about making helmets mandatory on Lunchtime Live on Newstalk around 12:20 today

breezy1985

JMcL wrote: »

My eyes, my eyes....

The limited number that I did read, the Shakespeare monkeys would have made a better stab at the grammar and comprehensibility of a decent proportion of them

Some of them comments were the absolute blurst

Seth Brundle

I believe that the article referred to here is taken from yesterday's Mail on Sunday.
If they actually exist, I'd love to know who the anonymous FG TD is that believes there is a "current culture of cyclist lawlessness" - the dope!
https://twitter.com/ciarancannon/status/1312653594777260032

magicbastarder

someone trawled (not trolled) the twitter feed of the author of that article, john drennan, and found multiple (15 or more, i think) tweets of him giving out about cyclists.

breezy1985

Where are all the "freedom loving" anti mask people when debates like helmets come up ?

De Bhál

breezy1985 wrote: »

Where are all the "freedom loving" anti mask people when debates like helmets come up ?

out doing close passes in passats