Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

There's no way I would have gotten into cycling without the fact that the BTW scheme gives you a bike with no upfront outlay. I had no great interest in cycling and decided to do the BTW scheme purely because I might commute on it on the odd sunny day and because to me at the time it seemed like I was getting a €1000 bike upfront and only having a small amount taken from my pay over a month. Four years later and I'm now riding that bike (with some upgrades) over 150km per week on average and looking seriously at attempting some big endurance rides this year.

So i would say don't underestimate the appeal of a "free" bike upfront for getting people into the sport who might never have considered it otherwise.

I think you've missed a core point of capitalism - those who have the capital benefit most! ;)

My CU stepped up to the plate during lockdown, after some gentle nudging from me. Try nudging yours.

https://pscu.ie/news.asp?id=155

That incident in the Barn was on the 14th, not that it makes any difference to the story.

Traffic in the inbound lanes are extremely dangerous at the lights as there is a bus lane on the inside, and the outer lane turns into a turning lane.

The amount of times cars are driven from the turning lane straight through the junction is phenomenal.

Its a very good point, unless they get representations on it. Ya been writing to them twice a year on it now for past couple of years. I suspect one can probably negotiate as a member to get a lower rate.

The nudge effect can be big here.

The advertising spend locally. The CU's put in ONE Page ads in our local papers; for years it seemed to be ONLY car loan promotions, but of late they are going down the Solar Panels , Insulation. Be nice to see smarter mobility stuff appearing at the lower rates.

Heard this morning that fines are being introduced for 'illegal' parking in an electric vehicle charging bay of €80. Now aside from the use of the term illegal, it'll be interesting to see how much more enforcement of this occurs compared to parking in cycle lanes, an extraordinary common occurrence. Are there specific fines for doing so?

Strikes me it'd be very simple to "fine" somebody that's plugged in and pulling the piss. If they leave their car there for hours on end, give them a bit of a grace period then charge them an increasing hourly rate. Better still, if the charging infra could figure out the make of the car, whack on a BMW surcharge 😁

The ESB chargers add an "overstay fee" after 45mins at a fast charger, or 10hrs at a medium charger. It's only €8, but I'm sure it would be elementary to increase that to make it a proper penalty, or link it to how long you stay after your battery is 80/100%.

FFS indeed. They've objected to the building of cycle lanes by the looks of it. Plus if you're talking about a velodrome, surely the typical user is generally going to be the type of cyclist who can hold their own in traffic - added to which they're not going to rock up on a track bike anyway!

Surely as part of the NDP this could be fast tracked through the planning process sidestepping these muppets - they do it for all sorts of other stuff (I am in favour of due process in general, but this is supposed to be the national center of excellence as far as sport is concerned so it should be treated as such - the national center, not the Fingal center)