Why dont more people use mopeds/scooters?

OK - that makes more sense. How long did it take to get that legislation through, 3 years? I feel sorry for any companies that were planning rolling out rental schemes - I believe DCC were issuing licenses in 2022.

In Australia, I had a coversation with a nurse - a friend of a friend. She described the smug-satisfaction with which nurses scrub road rash wounds clean of embedded dirt, sand gravel, using a very stiff bristled brush, similar to what you might scrub a doorstep with - sterilised of course. I accused her of pulling my leg, but she was adamant that it was true. Had a very straight face so might be true. Apparently the nurses quite liked the blood curdling screams of pain the big tough bikers would make.

She said the medical profession refer to bikers as 'temporary Australians.'

I had a motorbike licence before I had one for a car, and earned the money with which to buy my first car bomb riding a Honda for the aus post. I rode a bike to and from school for 11 years.

Got a few scarpes, bent bike wheels from being run off the road by a bus, minor gravel rash I thankfully never sought reatment for, and bruise,s from my time with two wheeled transport. None such from several decades more driving cars.

I'm not a biker, but I think the dangers are overstated. it's an activity that attracts headcases; if you're not a headcase yourself it's probably a lot safer than the statistics suggest.

25km/h is an EU ruling so won't be changed, that's where you need to get an AM Licence.

As I said before the big question is will this be another ignored law or will the Gardai be stopping and issuing summons for no insurance on Monday morning.

That hasn't really been my experience, I'd say the majority are legal ebikes. There is a significant minority, in particular amongst the food delivery types, I think they just stand out more as they are going so fast and some of those ebikes look more like a moped. Regular ebikes more blend in as they aren't going all that much faster then most fit cyclists and they look more like normal bikes.

I've seen plenty where the riders aren't pedalling from small folding ebikes to ebikes with number plate holders, so they are illegal, and I've also seen escooters doing >60km/h.

Feck all food delivery people use bikes in my area, though plenty of deliveries are done with illegal ebikes.

Reminds me Billy Connolly's wire brush and Dettol treatment of a particular condition.

Anti-moped laws. Since 2006 no free license with your car license

Insurance isnt straightforward

Australia has a desperate record towards vulnerable road users. Some of the fines for not wearing a helmet (they actually made it illegal to cycle without a helmet) on a bike are stiffer than those for speeding motorists.

They were a stepping stone before car buying back then, though there was a core of Honda 50 users (usually older men) who never bought a car.

But yes, lessons and tests, insurance, weather, real and perceived safety fears largely killed them off. I'd like a scooter or a motorbike but the way people drive here, I'd rather be in my steel cage thanks.

Throttle bikes definitely need to be treated the same as fossil fuel bikes, they're as much of a menace as I've seen them being used on public mountain bike trails..but that's another story again.

A weak rebuttal to her research. The idea that case studies are better than population level studies is total nonsense in this case.

A case study tells you that wearing a helmet protects against head injuries (well duh!), what it doesn't tell you is that overall cycling population decreases due to over regulation, that cycling behaviour actually becomes more risky with helmet wearing due to the perception of greater safety than they actually give, as well as other population level psychology findings. None of which will be picked up on by limited case studies. Case studies are what researchers use to come to a predetermined outcome

Didn't notice heaps of two wheeled transport in Lisbon though.

Like others have said, rain is just as prevalent in other Northern European countries.

The actual reason is theft, theft and theft!

eBike/Moped/petrol motorbike theft is rampant in Dublin and other parts of the country and it's out of control in that there's not enough Garda presence to catch thieves and even so the punishment is usually a rap on the knuckles.

I agree the throttle rule is stupid - a lot of eBikes come with a "walk assist" feature that's technically illegal as it's a "throttle". My wife has an eBike and if she has to stop on a hill, finds it difficult to get restarted, a throttle would be useful in those circumstances, but it's not allowed. Similarly the ban on seats on eScooters - why? Why is it ok to sit on an eBike but not on an eScooter? It should just be limit on speed, power and weight.

For what its worth OP, I have two motorcycles (not Scooters/Mopeds obviously)
I used neither for commuting because:

1: Bike will get stolen if left on the street
2a: Again you get all you gear on, get the bike out of the shed, drive into town, park the bike and get changed in work clothes it's nearly as fast to use the DART/Luas
2b: Poor traffic management, road design means it's getting more and more difficult to filter, hence using two wheels is not as fast it should be.
3: Irish people in general are crap drivers (I've driven all over Europe and Irish and Italian are by the far the worst), you're gonna get knocked off.

All in all DCC have done a very poor job with traffic management and road design. They've made them narrower to accommodate cycle lanes (which is fine, I suppose) but it means the most efficient mode of transport (by far) has to take a back seat.