Cycling on paths and other cycling issues (updated title)

kenmm

Truthvader wrote: »

The car is the most civilised, comfortable and safest mode of transport. Endy story. That is why, given a choice, people will prefer it. It is delusional to think otherwise. The bicycle agenda is a step backwards in time

That's certainly the perception. In my experience, I know a few people that made the switch. Pattern is generally, try it a few times, first few times feel sh!t (how much depends on fitness) then things start to get better. Better health, quicker commutes, freedom to leave work when they can (not to beat 'traffic').

07Lapierre

Truthvader wrote: »

The car is the most civilised, comfortable and safest mode of transport. Endy story. That is why, given a choice, people will prefer it. It is delusional to think otherwise. The bicycle agenda is a step backwards in time

I thought Air travel was (statistically) the safest form of travel? Surely a Lear jet is more comfortable that a fiat 500?

AndrewJRenko

Truthvader wrote: »

Don't accept most of the above is true. It is certainly the case that people are being forced onto bicycles. Plus just reading the posts here reveals the hostility of cyclists - and the sense of vengeance and entitlement

Were people forced onto the Luas when we built the Luas?

Meanwhile, courtesy of the best drivers in the world who don't need any more pesky regulations
https://twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/1301452996249780224?s=19

breezy1985

kenmm wrote: »

That's certainly the perception. In my experience, I know a few people that made the switch. Pattern is generally, try it a few times, first few times feel sh!t (how much depends on fitness) then things start to get better. Better health, quicker commutes, freedom to leave work when they can (not to beat 'traffic').

up until the commutes bit this reminded me of a different experience

Pinch Flat

Truthvader wrote: »

The car is the most civilised, comfortable and safest mode of transport. Endy story. That is why, given a choice, people will prefer it. It is delusional to think otherwise. The bicycle agenda is a step backwards in time

Yeah that was me - drove a car to work up to about 10 years ago. 90 minutes (sometimes more) to cover 10 odd km and the daily hassle and expense of finding parking stopped making sense. Now it's a 30 minute bike commute and 2 hours back on my day. No one forced me either.

Idleater

Truthvader wrote: »

The car is the most civilised, comfortable and safest mode of transport.

Actually thinking about this and at the risk of being off topic, I've found splurging on first class express rail to be one of the most civilised, comfortable and safest mode of transport. TGV, Eurostar, ICE, etc.

magicbastarder

isn't the hovercraft the safest form of transport yet invented?

and aren't cars one of the least efficient forms of transport ever invented?

Pinch Flat

magicbastarder wrote: »

isn't the hovercraft the safest form of transport yet invented?

and aren't cars one of the least efficient forms of transport ever invented?

Bloody hovercraftists.

Tea drinker

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Do you think it's the right thing for pedestrians to be insured, given that they can cause collisions by walking out in front of vehicles or cyclists?

Maybe? I'm not convinced they have the same exposure as cyclists and vehicular traffic. I've said before all road users should be forced into a classroom to do a few hours course every 5 years, on learning the road with other users perspective, and that includes pedestrians. But then I was laughed at because boardsies. Nevermind saving lives or from an economic perspective huge lost revenue due to early death of a person.

TaurenDruid

Duckjob wrote: »

The comments on people being forced onto a bike are gas considering for the past 50 years people in Ireland have been forced into a car as the only means (PT excepted) of getting safely around from A to B without risking their lives.

Yeah. Apart from the DART, the suburban light rail, the intercity trains, the LUAS, the Dublin Bus, the Bus Éireann, and the private bus operators - what did the Romans ever do for us?

07Lapierre

TaurenDruid wrote: »

Yeah. Apart from the DART, the suburban light rail, the intercity trains, the LUAS, the Dublin Bus, the Bus reann, and the private bus operators - what did the Romans ever do for us?

Viaducts, don’t forget the viaducts.

TaurenDruid

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Were people forced onto the Luas when we built the Luas?

Meanwhile, courtesy of the best drivers in the world who don't need any more pesky regulations
https://twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/1301452996249780224?s=19

Is this the bit in the cycle where I go "That's one motorist breaking the law - #notallmotorists!" and then someone posts something about a cyclist doing something stupid and/or illegal, and you go "You can't equate all of us cycling through red lights to that guy doing something really stupid #notallcyclists look at my link from a Kerry blog from 6 years ago that selectively quotes from an even older study!"?

Cos I get confused sometimes.

kenmm

07Lapierre wrote: »

Viaducts, don’t forget the viaducts.

Bloody viaducts. With all their arches. They don't even pay arch tax.

07Lapierre

magicbastarder wrote: »

isn't the hovercraft the safest form of transport yet invented?

and aren't cars one of the least efficient forms of transport ever invented?

Petrol/Diesle IC engines are only 20% (could be less) efficient. EV’s on the other hand are over 80% efficient. Mind you A bicycle is over 90%

AndrewJRenko

Tea drinker wrote: »

Maybe? I'm not convinced they have the same exposure as cyclists and vehicular traffic. I've said before all road users should be forced into a classroom to do a few hours course every 5 years, on learning the road with other users perspective, and that includes pedestrians. But then I was laughed at because boardsies. Nevermind saving lives or from an economic perspective huge lost revenue due to early death of a person.

Certainly a lot more pedestrians killed each year than cyclists - how are you measuring exposure?

TaurenDruid wrote: »

Is this the bit in the cycle where I go "That's one motorist breaking the law - #notallmotorists!" and then someone posts something about a cyclist doing something stupid and/or illegal, and you go "You can't equate all of us cycling through red lights to that guy doing something really stupid #notallcyclists look at my link from a Kerry blog from 6 years ago that selectively quotes from an even older study!"?

Cos I get confused sometimes.

No-one said it was all motorists. The RSA Speed Survey only shows 98% of motorists breaking urban speed limits, so there are 2% of decent ones out there somewhere.

[Cue X-Files music....]

07Lapierre wrote: »

Petrol/Diesle IC engines are only 20% (could be less) efficient. EV’s on the other hand are over 80% efficient. Mind you A bicycle is over 90%

Are EVs really 80% efficient? A tonne of metal to move 100kgs of flesh seems fairly inefficient.

Tea drinker

07Lapierre wrote: »

Petrol/Diesle IC engines are only 20% (could be less) efficient. EV’s on the other hand are over 80% efficient. Mind you A bicycle is over 90%

EV are 80% efficient at using the electric power that was produced at "X" ?efficiency. Public transport is also quite efficient if you like guys waving their d1ck at your wife. For me the car (or bike) is beucoup efficient at getting you from A - B in a timely manner.

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Certainly a lot more pedestrians killed each year than cyclists - how are you measuring exposure?

Fair point, am thinking more the urban setting with footpaths, I seem to notice rural dwellers dying on poorly lit roads with no footpath

07Lapierre

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Are EVs really 80% efficient? A tonne of metal to move 100kgs of flesh seems fairly inefficient.

Less than 20% of the heat energy generated by a petrol/Diesel engine is converted into forward movement of the car. Whereas an electric motor converts over 80% of the electrical energy into forward movement.

But having said that, any car, regardless of its power source is a very inefficient way of moving people around.

07Lapierre

Tea drinker wrote: »

EV are 80% efficient at using the electric power that was produced at "X" ?efficiency. Public transport is also quite efficient if you like guys waving their d1ck at your wife. For me the car (or bike) is beucoup efficient at getting you from A - B in a timely manner.

A timely manner? Ah so the goalposts are movable?
If you lived in The centre of Tokyo or maybe Manhatton in New York, a bicycle would be a much more efficient mode of transport for getting you to your destination "in a timely manner" no?

kenmm

07Lapierre wrote: »

A timely manner? Ah so the goalposts are movable?
If you lived in The centre of Tokyo or maybe Manhatton in New York, a bicycle would be a much more efficient mode of transport for getting you to your destination "in a timely manner" no?

I'm pretty sure that if you pick any two points within the m50 that involve inner city Dublin at any point (i.e. not Rathfarnham to Sandyford), I can beat the commute on a bike.

And that's with my extra COVID belly (but not using any paths)!

Driving in Dublin just sucks. You need to be using all the tricks to get ahead (stealing those 20m of lane before they turn into bus lane, keeping an eye on changing light sequence and overtaking drivers with their heads stuck finishing the text message they started on the red light and whatever other sneaky rat runs etc).

magicbastarder

07Lapierre wrote: »

But having said that, any car, regardless of its power source is a very inefficient way of moving people around.

this. a nissan leaf has a kerb weight of 1.5 tons. so if transporting say, two people around, you're using a one and a half ton vehicle to move maybe 150kg of people. so maybe 10% efficient before you take drivetrain efficiency into account.

magicbastarder

Tea drinker wrote: »

Public transport is also quite efficient if you like guys waving their d1ck at your wife. For me the car (or bike) is beucoup efficient at getting you from A - B in a timely manner.

public transport is efficient, but a car wins for flexibility.

magicbastarder

kenmm wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that if you pick any two points within the m50 that involve inner city Dublin at any point (i.e. not Rathfarnham to Sandyford), I can beat the commute on a bike.

during the summer two years ago - which meant light traffic, especially because i left the house before 7am, i ended up swapping places with a car from east wall road to leopardstown racecourse. 13km or thereabouts.

and that was in very light traffic, probably about as fast as that motorist could expect a commute to be, unless they'd done it at 3am.

i know it was the same car because it was an audi with a custom paintjob, which if it hadn't been called 'turd brown', would have been guilty of fraud under the trade descriptions act.

Tea drinker

07Lapierre wrote: »

A timely manner? Ah so the goalposts are movable?
If you lived in The centre of Tokyo or maybe Manhatton in New York, a bicycle would be a much more efficient mode of transport for getting you to your destination "in a timely manner" no?

like you said, no

AndrewJRenko

Tea drinker wrote: »

Public transport is also quite efficient if you like guys waving their d1ck at your wife.

This really doesn't happen, or if it does, it is a very rare event. It's just as likely to happen in the park or at the beach or outside your local at closing time as on the bus.

TaurenDruid

magicbastarder wrote: »

this. a nissan leaf has a kerb weight of 1.5 tons. so if transporting say, two people around, you're using a one and a half ton vehicle to move maybe 150kg of people. so maybe 10% efficient before you take drivetrain efficiency into account.

It's amazing how magicbastard's "people" are 75kg (80kg including bike in a recent post?) and a car is 1.5 tonnes, while Andy's "people" are 100kg, and his cars are 2.5 tonne, what was it, "death machines".

magicbastarder

AJR is not aware of the existence of children i think.

Tea drinker

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

This really doesn't happen, or if it does, it is a very rare event. It's just as likely to happen in the park or at the beach or outside your local at closing time as on the bus.

Well wifey rarely uses the LUAS, so it must have been cataclysmic bad timing she happened to be there that time? Middle of the day BTW. Maybe she imagined it or I'm lying again :-)
TBH Andrew just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen, and this is so typical boards response.

Pinch Flat

TaurenDruid wrote: »

It's amazing how magicbastard's "people" are 75kg (80kg including bike in a recent post?) and a car is 1.5 tonnes, while Andy's "people" are 100kg, and his cars are 2.5 tonne, what was it, "death machines".

Whoever knew. Cyclists come in all shapes and sizes. I'm of the 100kg variety, if this helps.

magicbastarder

magicbastard?
pshaw. i should be insulted.

Idleater

magicbastarder wrote: »

magicbastard?
pshaw. i should be insulted.

Take your 5kg bike and autocrocodile