Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

Was listening to Imogen Cotter on the Pat Kenny radio show this morning, launching a new safety campaign for vulnerable road users:

https://twitter.com/CotterImogen/status/1654181446645415937?cxt=HHwWgoC8ld7Q6vQtAAAA

My worst experiences with silage contractors have all been off the bike. On bike you can hear them coming and can usually get reasonably well out of the way, but in a bigger vehicle when they come at speed with full load around blind bends and slide towards you it's absolutely no fun.

I have a memory of one lad coming within inches of T-boning a bus, right by where I had been sat on the bus: he was just tearing through every junction without slowing down because everything else was smaller than his tractor (I know this guy, he's in his 50's and this is explicitly his opinion, that "roads are for farmers"). He wasn't expecting the bus and only managed to brake at the last second.

Those would be my "standard" type of experiences of contractor crews: no stopping at junctions, no stopping pulling out of gates onto the road, no braking for corners. Because roads are for farming and everyone will get out of their way and they feel safe on the machine.

Ok last post as its pretty off topic.

I didn't say they were the same as HGV but there is similarities without the controls and regulations around HGVs like

*licences

*Training especially around vulnerable road users, blind spots, high risk locations

*Use of tachographs and control of how long operators can drive without a break.

When you add in that much of the silage crew are young and operate primarily on narrow roads where by nature of their width they will have to very frequently drive to some degree on the wrong side of the road; with the consequently risks to other road users arising from that.

Even if silage contractors complied with the Organisation of Working Time Act it would be a start, but is there any good reason they shouldn't comply with

"EU law regulates the driving time of professional drivers using goods vehicles over 3.5t (including trailers) and passenger vehicles with more than 8 passenger seats.  

The key requirements are that you must not drive: 

• Without a break for more than 4.5 hours. After driving for 4.5 hours, a break of at least 45 minutes is mandatory. You can distribute that break over the 4.5 hours by taking a 15 minute break followed by a 30 minute break. 
• For more than nine hours per day or 56 hours per week. This may be extended to 10 hours no more than twice during a week 
• More than 90 hours in two consecutive weeks"

Silage season would still be ground to a halt if that was in force and hence its not

Disability group condemns ‘aggressive behaviour’ of cyclists during Clontarf incident

I've observed similar inconsiderate behaviour towards pedestrians walking or crossing area marked as cycling paths. Pedestrians do have priority.

To be honest I don't think the incident is made up. I've come across a couple of weirdly aggressive cyclists while cycling that route over the years (I cycle it for transport mostly and I'm very mindful of the shared spaces and broad range of abilities on the route) , a tiny minority but none the less they stick out in my mind. The issue is really that there are a number of complete arseholes in this world and some of them happen to pick up a bike every now and then.

I didn't realise it made the Indo, I agree it's not worthy of inclusion there and is certainly being used as a clickbait article.

Could well be true. I don't see why it's so shocking or newsworthy though. I doubt the woman who rolled through the blatantly red light at the Appian Way/ Leeson St junction yesterday morning rush hour while on reading/ texting on her phone had much concern for any of the pedestrians trying to cross. Or the aul wans on both sides of the road who took a look at me coming up O'Connell St yesterday in the bus/ cycle and decided that they'd just waddle out anyway nearly causing carnage.

Idiots will be idiots. And asshats will be asshats. Crazy that there are 'journalists' in the Indo for whom these is revelatory news.

if a certain GK is involved with this organisation i'd say it's absolutely makebelieve or at least totally exaggerated

I can well believe it too. I've been roared at by some eejit as i approached the crossing of the bull island causeway road. He came around the little bend of the path on the Sutton side far too fast and was highly irritated that i was coming the other way and was not out in the pedestrian part to acccomodate his speed. He swerved out around me using the pedestrian part - luckily nobody was walking there at the time or it could have been an incident. Some people are just d**ks.

If true, what a horrible cúnt.

yeah, it's really bizarre how what is essentially a form of murder or at least manslaughter is just totally ignored by the media and people yet they lose their sh*t over an alleged angry cyclist in clontarf. the population has been well and truly brainwashed by cars and traffic.

Yeah, that's a shed, not bike store. Planning laws are planning laws, and I don't have an issue with monitoring of people lashing up sheds in front of their houses. They can look awful and if allowed to proliferate would really take away from people's enjoyment of their own homes. That said, I think enforcement comes down to a few things;

1. Are you taking the p**s with your 'bike shed' - i.e. is it too big/ clearly a shed, an eyesore, obtrusive when viewed from the street etc? If yes, FAIL.
2. Is it tucked away, close to the house, out of sight as much as possible? If no, FAIL.
3. Do you get on with your neighbours/ are they a bit precious? If no/ yes, FAIL.

Depending on your answers to the above, you can probably get away with sticking something in front of the house. I think local authority enforcement is entirely dependent on getting complaints from neighbours.

Brother in law put in a bike shed, a bit smaller than the one above, to the front/ side of his house. Their back garden was tiny and they had no garage. Couldn't see it from the road. But got an enforcement letter. The fact that it was on a street with very expensive old red brick houses would lead me to conclude that he failed test number 3 above.

EDIT: probably doesn't help her case that (from the photo anyway) she had a garage attached to the house but has converted it to living space.