Cycle infrastructure planned for south Dublin

He's as bad as Mannix. He actually infuriates me more, at least Mannix straight up hates cyclists and doesn't pretend otherwise.

On Twatter looking for a single good idea

Not sure it's comprehensive, but I did a search in March to see how often he accuses people of being liars on Twitter, and I counted 37 times in the previous five months. His internet persona is so combative.

Did they go down the list of isms until they found one they could use? "Racist? Not really tbh. Sexist? Hmm, not sure. Ageist? Yeah, ageist, that's a good one, we'll go with ageist."

Ballsbridge is an odd place. It's regarded as a very desirable area, but apart from Herbert Park and the nice houses away from the main road that it's basically a dual carriageway with offices. To me it's about as appealing as an industrial estate. If I had that kind of money to spend on a house I'd be looking elsewhere (apologies to Ballsbridge residents).

Roads there are in very bad condition too.

Ye calling it a Motorway is as bad as them calling it a Village.

It is of course, neither. In planning terms, Ballsbridge is what's known as a Neighbourhood Centre, with a regional traffic route through it.

But that's not important either. Unless people dispense with all the pedantry and start getting around the table with other people to start looking at what's possible to achieve rather than what's ideal, it'll be a constant cycle of proposal, court case, stalemate.

Are you suggesting that they will go to court for moving a few parking spaces?

No, actually it isn't and it won't.

After all we've been through, that's a pretty naive question.

Ballsbridge businesses were quite involved in Strand Road because they didn't want their own, ahem, village to be jammed up as the alternative route. Ruins the ambience don't you know.

So, you might say, they are emboldened. And then the City Council and NTA come along with another fait accompli (you'd think they'd have learned their lesson) so Ballsbridge are all like 'Na-ah, not without talking to us first'. And so it goes.

But to answer your question directly, you bet your ass they'll go to Court.

There is no way some old bloody gammon judge who can't imagine life without 3 cars in his driveway, is going to allow the Strand Rd cycle lane to happen, as soon as it was contested the first time I was 100% sure of it. Still fair play to DCC for trying, but you'd want to have a screw loose to think it's ever going to happen.

This Ballsbridge debacle is just ridiculous though, I mean it's not going to really inconvenience anyone, surely this one can be allowed happen?

As a resident of nearby Shelbourne Road, I am absolutely appalled by the temerity of that awful man Owen Keegan in trying to push this through without consulting with me first. We have been forced to create a local group - SUACLWSTOTC (Shelbourne United Against Cycle Lane Won’t Someone Think of The Children) - in order to counteract the nefarious Big Bicycle lobby that we know and fear is behind this. So far we’ve only managed to collect 12 million euro to fight this through the courts so we could really do your help. We believe that the loss of this parking space (or spaces) will have a disastrous and chilling effect on our quiet neighbourhood as drivers are forced to find parking on nearby residential streets. In particular we are concerned about the effect on old people, children, disabled people, wildlife, local business, the environment in addition to the loss of the aforementioned car parking space. We urge you please to contact your local councillors, TDS, Ministers, judges, priests, rectors and rabbais in order to build a community collation against this aberration. Remember it could be your neighbourhood next that Big Bicycle targets.

Not unless the planning and traffic laws change to reflect that.

I think also, it would be an error for the cycling sector to overestimate its own importance in Ireland's climate change challenge. Some pages ago I demonstrated how far down the priority list for impactful climate measures cycling actually is, behind power generation, passive built environment and agricultural practices to name but a few. A strong organic and policy movement to sustainably fuelled road vehicles further negates that potential impact.