Incident at George's St

id imagine emergency drivers are well equipped with the knowledge of the fastest routes around the city, i know a couple, i must ask them what their protocols are, but id also imagine their needs vary greatly compared to most other road users, a bus route doesnt necessarily need to get around the city quickly, it just needs to get around, many buses travel at below speed limits, and of course must regularly stop, an emergency vehicle generally needs to get to a single place, and quickly, these are radically different needs, and not comparable....

Someone mentioned Amsterdam here..so we trying to follow this way ok, but forget about much worse weather for cycling, walking etc to work.. will never take mi bike to work at 6am in rain and wind!! No matter how "green" this council wants me to be! Also ambulances in Netherlands are very often accompanied with 3 motorcycle police chaps to clear the road ahead!!

Loads cycling to get their daily/weekly shopping…..very practical alright

Have you ever actually been to the Netherlands? Practically everyone in the suburbs has a car and can easily drive to a supermarket. But they can also cycle there in safety, whereas you're taking your life in your hands here. Practically the only place they can't drive conveniently is into city centres, and people who live there use cargo bikes or removable bike trailers to get the shopping - or because it's densely populated, they can often just pick up what they need as and when, from a local express supermarket.

And yes, it rains there, and yes, I asked the question... and the answer was "you just wear the clothes for cycling in the rain!" It's surprisingly easy to cycle in the rain when you're not being splashed by cars.

Was on a short city break to a European capital over Christmas. It was ironic as there was so much about improving public transport in Ireland lately. Being there just highlighted to me again that Ireland is a million miles away from European public transport standards. This thing of reducing cars by a quarter or whatever it was may well happen over time but it will be generations from now. This thing of reducing the bridge to one lane each way for example as car use will fall, just seems like a complete fantasy to me. In Waterford’s case they won’t even build a second bridge in the city and remove the toll from the bypass to get cars out of the city or add an orbital bus route, it’s a complete joke. The plan just seems like it does not know what it is about.

Exactly ,safe infrastructure and e-bikes are an absolute game changer. Living in Ferrybank I would sell my car tomorrow and buy an e bike if a safe river crossing and safe segregated infrastructure was built out as far as my workplace in the industrial estate. At the moment I'm driving and stuck in that awful traffic coming off the bypass because it just ain't safe for cycling around Waterford yet.

Yes, I thought it happened over night 🙄

So what has the changes to the Quay achieved? Where is the segregated cycle lane that cyclist like me can use? Do I as a cyclist feel safer cycling on the Quays? I certain do not! What traffic has the changes on the Quays taken out of the city? Seen as you are so knowledgeable why don’t you enlighten me with the things the council has done to make me feel safer cycling around the city?

Depends what you compare, the west of Ireland is generally wetter than the east.

Amsterdam has an average of 133 days of precipitation

Waterford has an average of 141 days of precipitation

Approx 8 more dry days in Amsterdam than Waterford

That is giving you just under 2/3's of the year cycling in dry weather. Obviously you may need to factor in wind etc, it still gives plenty of scope to cycle if you wanted and the infrastructure existed.

Bought motorbike instead..so i can fly through traffic. Will leave the bicycles for you lol

well then the move towards de-private caring our nations simply wont work, we must include rapid wide scale public transport expansion, in order for this to work, there is simply no other way of doing this, if we keep effectively squeezing the general public in regards the only true option they have, i.e. the private car, the more likely this will all fail, again, theres no other way of doing this, none!

its certainly looking better, but the road towards it is gonna be well dodgy, and i some how doubt they ll be popping up in the irish countryside anytime soon, if ever....