Galway traffic

This is loosing because that 'large quite middle ground' are going no... Actually going hell no... Their actual issues ween't even addressed... It was a bit of a mushroom job...

The 17-1 vote is all grand unless you think how bad are the options the executive put down that this is the backlash... I have said it continually here, our executive are bad, they seem to be a political dept in there own right...

This is a stitch up... If this actually goes ahead it is looking like against the will of the people. That makes a mockery of 'consultation feedback'... By the way, doing something against the will of the people is 'political tricks'.

I don't think so. The Mayor and the Greens did not want one way traffic. That was why they amended the motion between July and September; to try to make one way unnecessary. The Council Executive responded by insisting that one way traffic was still the only option, and that just happened to get fed to the City Tribune to give them a scaremongering front page headline in the autumn. There is a widely held perception that this was all part of the Council Executive's plan to try to scupper the cycleway by making it unnecessarily disruptive and controversial. Option 2 only came on the table after pressure was put on the Council Executive from above to come up with a more sensible variant.

Well, for a start, the timing is appalling. We've had two years of intermittent access to the prom and now they want to turn it upside down again. It's ok for me. I can walk a bit further to park. But for older people and the disabled, it's a huge burden to the extent that many of them won't be able to use the prom anymore. And no, throwing Blue Badges at it won't solve it as the cycling campaigners arrogantly suggest. Most people with limited mobility are not entitled to them, and even those who are, are having their spaces moved further away from the Prom under the proposed rules

Ah come on now. You can't believe that was actually needed. It makes for great PR though when at every occasion the poor cycling victims can say, "look, we needed an escort to protect us". There's a fellow out there as well saying that the reality now in Galway is that children are being run over by SUVs on the way to school. Complete hyperbole and nonsense.

You're right in that it's screams of "a stitch up". The people overwhelmingly showed interest in better cycling facilities on the Prom, the councilors overwhelmingly voted in favor of it and then GCC reluctantly provided two fairly poor options and created a narrative of cyclists trying to force poor designs down everyones throats. The "will of the people" was to improve cycling facilities. GCC seem to have decide to use it as an opportunity to make cyclists out to be the enemy and people like yourself are falling for it hook, line and sinker. Better to sit back and wait for this mythical ring road that'll fix everything than to demand GCC actually do something productive and forward thinking.

By the way, where have you seen the outcomes of the survey that indicate the majority of people don't want it? Do you work in the council or are you just making things up?

Yes, a lot of the cycling campaigners fit that image. There's another even more common type in Galway though. They're middle class with a partner/spouse with a significant income so that only one of the couple has to work. A lot of time on their hands, so they've the time to hang around cycling, campaigning etc. There's one guy who used to post here; his wife is in a senior academic position. One of his favourite tricks is going around taking photographs of cars with his toy speed camera logging their speed. There are also a disproportionate amount of academics involved. Again, they don't have to deal with the time pressure of 9 to 5; they can largely dictate their own diaries to fit around cycling. You'll never see the ordinary Joe Soap, double income, fighting to make ends meet, time poor family, involved in this crusade.

lol do you have anything to back this nonsense up?

Stupid stereotyping about the working class 9 to 5s versus the posh cyclists, you'll find that a lot of those driving chelsea tractors down the prom and almost mowing down children are much more middle class than those who cycle to work or get the bus.

You try to spin it like owning a car is a burden for overworked people and that rich people laugh all the way to work on their bikes when the complete opposite is true.

You're somewhat right. I have no reports, statistics etc. What I do have is personal knowledge of the people involved with this in Galway. I know many of them personally. Some I would once have considered friends. I don't expect that to sway your view, in fact that would be pretty immaterial to me. I do personally know it to be the case though.

Ahhh so it's the sick and downtrodden you're worried about? Fighting the scourge of the upper class snapping up all those fancy city centre places in Galway. Not at all worried about yourself driving in your expensive car from the house you built on the family land to your middle class job in the city? You're too saintly for the rest of us.

You do understand that it's possible to have concerns about other people even if they're not your own concerns? Is this concept completely foreign to bikists and green campaigners?

For instance, I've posted about cycling campaigners in Galway being largely middle class with little financial concern and much time on their hands. I'm at least half of that myself, but that doesn't mean that I have to like a certain narrow demographic dominating the discussion to the exclusion of all others, even if I have to admit that I'm probably a member of that narrow demographic myself.

Your attitude is pretty illustrative of what turns people against those who push for these cycleways. You are incapable of considering other points of view, and incapable of understanding people who consider people other than themselves.