Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

We Irish have a very weird lack of emotional maturity when it comes to our attitudes towards rules and authority.

When you hear grown adults talking about "snitches" and "grasses" in relation to crimes like speeding/phone driving/drink driving etc it's like the mentality never grew outside of the school classroom.

Yeah its the raging hypocracy that gets me.

I can stand outside my house and watch the 30kph street on the other side of the green. I would say on average 8 or 9 out of 10 cars are above the 30kph limit, 4-5 are doing 50-60kph and 2-3 are 60kph or over. I know well what 30kph looks like on that road because i watch Mrs D doing it leaving for work every morning.

The hyprocisy permeates through the media too - Pat Kenny is an raging hypocrite when it comes to this stuff. He'll bang on at length about "we ALL know cyclists break the lights" , the then comes out with the following which are actual quotes of his when discussing situations where drivers are rule breaking :

"...and the taxis, who are JUST trying to get people home" (context: guards catching taxis speeding at 80kph+ down the quays in Dublin)

"...but sure doesn't that just show how ridiculous the limit is" (context: discussing people disregarding the 30kph speed limit in Pheonix Park AFAIR)

It turns my stomach honestly.

Can we bring this in with a rake of cameras nationally, would do wonders!

This lad has been caught 3 times in the last decade and paid a stupidity tax of combined 250k euro!

Whitehall church, I hope they ran it by Ronnie

I tend to knock off a third off the predicted time - even last week spinning into Fitzwilliam Sq from Marlay Park - GM predicted 35 mins, took me 20 mins on the button. That's including stopping at every bloody red light like a pleb as 2 or 3 of the commuters I passed roll on through just before the lights turn green again!

Nothing but problems in Galway city, there's a big call for a motorway around the city and more roads off that, very little interest in Bus priority and even less interest in cycle lanes.. Should be called "Gal "motor" Way" instead.. nitemare of a place:

A lot of talk is all that's going on, a battle between the Minister for Transport and local councillors over the proposed Ring Road...

But, Galway's issues don't stop at the City, the road out of Galway is particularly lethal, I feel sorry for any tourists to come to Galway and want to cycle out along the coast: https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/listen-meeting-hears-even-hardened-cyclists-afraid-of-r336-in-connemara/

That's close to unfixable.

We saw in Dublin how the Local authority ran into Mannix Flynn fronted legal challenges just trying to build cycle lanes on their OWN road.

Now imagine the ball ache trying to CPO land along below for example, and try to build quality cycling infrastructure, at junctions entrances etc.

A generation of ribbon development has led to "Europe's longest street" is making this a close to unsolvable problem given our current legislative/legal structure for such projects.

R336

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cnTTcd8ToGeuHowF8

Where's his HiViz? WHERE'S HIS HI-VIZ?!?!? I CAN'T SEE HIM AND AM OUTRAGED!!!

Lauren made the point on Twitter that she should really have won because the times didn't include the 5 minutes the motorcyclist took to put his gear on. As one of the responses said, the clock should have started from desks inside the AA offices. Having said that, the video also showed her going through red lights, albeit at the T junction in Drumcondra.

It's hardly surprising that a Motorbike is the fastest way to commute as Motorbikers and the speed limits are complete strangers....

You can be guaranteed that if the speed limit is 30 they are doing 50kph+ and when the speed limit is 50 they are doing 80kph+ and so on... Plus using Bus lanes and cycle lanes to skip ahead of traffic.. and zero law enforcement by Gardai...

https://www.newstalk.com/news/motorbike-is-the-fastest-way-to-commute-in-dublin-study-finds-1472245