Getting around Galway

It's all been discussed ad nauseam here and in other sub forums before. It's all tedious and most people have no interest in what's being said. Just pages of people ranting and vitriol. The old thread about traffic was closed for those kinds of reasons. Think this one is supposed to stay focused on more informative posts

You can always start a new thread. Can't force people to engage with you though.

As an observation, you're coming across to me as trying to bait an argument.

Ya and the space is so small #Winningagain. Can park 3/4 Radwagon or Trek bikes mentioned in one car parking spot.

Doesn't surprise me, they won't be the last.

That's some neck all right if, as the City Tribune reports, this is a public footpath.

A couple of observations:

1) while it's good to see the RSA finally offering some justification for its obsession with hi-vis, the fact that it was until recently claiming to have no such justification (in response to freedom of information requests) suggests this has been a case of deciding on a course of action first and then looking to justify it after the fact.

2) cherry picking certain results from certain studies can provide a distorted picture. For example the US study most often cited to justify mandatory helmet use failed to account for the fact that helmet use is more common in affluent areas with higher quality roads and cycle facilities and failed to distinguish between the impact of lack of helmet use and the impact of the more dangerous infrastructure as causes of head injuries, which were disproportionately occurring in less affluent areas. Similarly, there was the effect seen in Australia where a mandatory helmet law led to a proportional increase in head injuries (contributory factors likely to be a combination of mandatory helmet laws leading to fewer cyclists on the road, making individual cyclists more vulnerable, and the increased risk taking behaviour wearing a helmet/seatbelt/having ABS etc. is known encourage). Lastly, there are the studies by the University of Bath showing the drivers disregard hi-vis, and give the same amount of space to people on bikes, whether or not they are wearing hi-vis, unless (surprise) that hi-vis clothing happens to feature the word POLICE, in which case they allow much more space. For helmets, drivers actually give less space, driving measurably closer to people on bikes than if they weren't wearing helmets.

I'm a strong believer in the maxim that "if your argument was a strong one then you wouldn't need to make sh!t up to support it" and I'm afraid you've just failed miserably on that count. Anyone who moves around Knocknacarra on a school morning and encounters the cycle bus will have seen Alan Curran out on a bike in hi-vis gear and with bright lights, even during daylight. He also responded to similar 'anti-motorist' taunts from Alan Cheevers on Galway Bay FM recently by pointing out that he was actually sitting in his 7 seater while talking on the radio.

As someone who wears multiple pieces of hi-vis and a helmet while on a bike, and who has lights switched on 24/7, I also strongly object to the RSA's myopic focus on hi-vis. You've got a government quango up in Mayo funnelling millions of Euro to a private business also located in Mayo to produce mountains of hi-vis when there are demonstrably so many other efforts they could more effectively focus their resources on. I'm not suggesting there is anything corrupt going on but it is an extremely lazy and cosy arrangement that allows the RSA to be seen to be doing something visible (excuse the pun), even if that 'something' is minimally effective. The RSA should not be measuring it's success on how many baby builder's bibs it distributes, or even mostly on the number of road deaths, it should be judged by the number of people who feel safe enough in doing so that they will travel to school/work/elsewhere on foot and by bike rather than feeling they have to travel by car because it's the only safe method.

As in the Australian example above, the RSA, by its inordinate focus on hi-vis, is actively contributing to the perception that walking and cycling are unsafe and require specialist safety equipment, thereby discouraging people from walking and cycling and encouraging even greater car use. If hi-vis and helmet recommendations were part of a balanced spectrum of messages that focussed the most on those areas that constitute the highest risks then I doubt anyone, including Alan Curran, would have any objection to it. But having such a large spotlight shone on hi-vis, while much more effective but less politically palatable measures go unmentioned, does need to be called out.

Cllr Curran was on Newstalk this morning https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/highlights-from-newstalk-breakfast/why-one-councillor-thinks-the-rsa-are-victim-blaming-with-their-new-awareness-campaign

Pauline O'Reilly won a seat for the Greens on the first count in that ward in 2019 before passing the seat on to Niall Murphy when she got her slot in the Seanad. The way I see it there are two sitting Councillors (both co-opted), Niall Murphy & Alan Curran, vying for O'Reilly's voters in Galway City West next year. And I would say there is a good chance one of them will get in. I believe it's likely going to be similar to the battle between Martina O'Connor (Green) and Sharon Nolan (SD) in Galway City Central last time around, with less than 50 votes between them at the final count. Whichever of Murphy or Curran is a handful of votes ahead at the final elimination will get in under that scenario. I wouldn't put money on which one it will be but I think saying that Curran has less than zero chance of being elected is way off the mark.

When you completed your analysis across other topics, did they also show that 99% of the population were fully aligned with your thinking on those topics too?

😂 basic cop on and arithmetic will get you to the same conclusion. Galway Cyclists are a tiny minority and even then a subset of the 2% tiny minority support that the Greens enjoy. The same cycling “campaigners” debate each other ad nauseum online across all social media platforms. If anyone disagrees with them, they all pile on together against any one who dares contradict them. Witness the diatribe against Cllr. Keane quoted above from X. As one local editor of a Galway paper says, you get less of a reaction from the Taliban when you cross them!

The Green situation in Galway is compounded with O’Reilys vocal opposition to the Ring Road - that won’t be forgotten - and her latest spectacular own goal with her speech in the Seanad on restricting free speech is another nail in the coffin for her political outing.