Rogue cyclists set to face on-the-spot fines MOD WARNING in first post

RainyDay · 06-10-2015 3:56pm

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

I did — but I wonder how many other cyclists left it for someone else to report. Granted many probably don't care but the RTA is clear on parking on cycle lanes and the Garda don't seem to care about enforcing the act.

Fair play - if the local Gardai are ignoring it, escalate - write to the relevant Chief Supt.

jon1981 · 08-10-2015 11:11am

So it seems they do take possession of your bike if they suspect you are giving false details.

https://twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/649241667229384705

rubadub · 08-10-2015 11:24am

jon1981 wrote: »

So it seems they do take possession of your bike if they suspect you are giving false details.

Someone posted that and someone reckoned it was probably nicked. This would make sense, why else would you not take the fine.

I would like to have seen the conversation. Did he genuinely give a good fake name and was unable to prove it and then its taken. If they discover it is a fake name could he have immediately have said "ok, you got me, my real name is this" and produce ID. Or was he a thief who gave an outlandish fake name and effectively dumped the bike on the garda.

Or did the garda not give him a second chance to give the real name, and go through all this hassle rather than let him own up.

Kaisr Sose · 08-10-2015 11:32am

Is giving a false name to a Garda not an offence in its own right ? and more serious than the offence of passing a red light when lit?

tomasrojo · 08-10-2015 11:37am

I think it probably is a more serious offence. But I doubt they want to go to court over it, since the FCN thing was set up in the first place to avoid having to go to court all the time.

Granolite · 08-10-2015 12:20pm

I'd like to know if the pedestrian areas referred to was at Grand Canal Square.

As a public area that hosts the start and end points of the annual national bike week Dublin bike ride as well as having a Dublin Bike station within its confines it would be an area I would have assumed was OK to cycle through (with proper due care and attention) without fear of being pulled over by a member of the police force? Any one have any idea if cycling along the slabbed area between Pearse Street and Hanover Quay (Grand Canal Quay) is OK since the bringing in of the FCN's??

this is the area I am referring to;

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.3435903,-6.2389171,18z

Macy0161 · 08-10-2015 1:54pm

Granolite wrote: »

I'd like to know if the pedestrian areas referred to was at Grand Canal Square.

As a public area that hosts the start and end points of the annual national bike week Dublin bike ride as well as having a Dublin Bike station within its confines it would be an area I would have assumed was OK to cycle through (with proper due care and attention) without fear of being pulled over by a member of the police force? Any one have any idea if cycling along the slabbed area between Pearse Street and Hanover Quay (Grand Canal Quay) is OK since the bringing in of the FCN's??

this is the area I am referring to;

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.3435903,-6.2389171,18z

My recollection is that the cycle path feeds you down that way to the Dublin Bike station. I haven't been that way in a year or more, but pretty sure there was nothing to indicate pedestrian only.

Granolite · 08-10-2015 2:20pm

Macy0161 wrote: »

My recollection is that the cycle path feeds you down that way to the Dublin Bike station. I haven't been that way in a year or more, but pretty sure there was nothing to indicate pedestrian only.

Yeah, I would have thought it rough justice to be pulled in there and fined whilst cycling through in a mannerly fashion. It even has cyclist specific traffic lights at the end adjoining to Pearce Street. I just cant think of another pedestrian area adjoining Pearce Street that the Guarda twitter feed could be referring to.

Carawaystick · 08-10-2015 2:42pm

Granolite wrote: »

Yeah, I would have thought it rough justice to be pulled in there and fined whilst cycling through in a mannerly fashion. It even has cyclist specific traffic lights at the end adjoining to Pearce Street. I just cant think of another pedestrian area adjoining Pearce Street that the Guarda twitter feed could be referring to.

outside the copshop itself?

Granolite · 08-10-2015 2:48pm

Carawaystick wrote: »

outside the copshop itself?

You would be doing well to find enough space outside the gardai station to even attempt a track-stand!

Type 17 · 08-10-2015 6:53pm

I read the tweet as: the stop was done by a Pearse St. Community Policing Garda, rather than the stop happened in a pedestrian area by Pearse St (I presume that could have been anywhare in the Pearse St Station area).

Granolite · 08-10-2015 7:19pm

Type 17 wrote: »

I read the tweet as: the stop was done by a Pearse St. Community Policing Garda, rather than the stop happened in a pedestrian area by Pearse St (I presume that could have been anywhare in the Pearse St Station area).

Yep I went back and read it again and I think you're right! Mea culpa!

Type 17 · 08-10-2015 7:26pm

Granolite wrote: »

Yep I went back and read it again and I think you're right! Mea culpa!

Well, sometimes it's hard to get all the details and nuances into 140 characters...

traprunner · 08-10-2015 8:04pm

Saw 2 cyclists getting stopped by a bicycle cop on pearse st this afternoon. They were cycling on the footpad. Don't know if they got FCNs.

Qualitymark · 09-10-2015 8:16am

Good to see that the Gardaí are finally tackling the drivers breaking red lights. I remember when this was inconceivable - when driving became a normal thing for much younger people it gradually became the norm to rush through orange lights, and then to follow another driver doing that, and finally to break red lights. Very dangerous, not just in itself, but because it sets up a dangerous habit of thinking.

Years ago, I was in a late-night taxi home from work. The young driver flashed his lights when we were about 50 feet from a local crossroads, and the lights turned green just as we reached it; he sped through. He told me that he'd discovered that you could change the lights this way, so he always did it. I said: "If you do it when my sixteen-year-old is just crossing those lights and hit him, I'll hunt you down and kill you."

stop · 09-10-2015 9:48am

Granolite wrote: »

I'd like to know if the pedestrian areas referred to was at Grand Canal Square.

As a public area that hosts the start and end points of the annual national bike week Dublin bike ride as well as having a Dublin Bike station within its confines it would be an area I would have assumed was OK to cycle through (with proper due care and attention) without fear of being pulled over by a member of the police force? Any one have any idea if cycling along the slabbed area between Pearse Street and Hanover Quay (Grand Canal Quay) is OK since the bringing in of the FCN's??

this is the area I am referring to;

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.3435903,-6.2389171,18z

*I think* that area is private property i.e. not a public footpath (despite being very much open to the public) so maybe can't be fined for cycling there?
Fairly sure I read before about amateur photographers being asked to leave the area by over-zealous security guards for taking photos of the red sticks!

desertcircus · 09-10-2015 10:05am

00sully wrote: »

apologies, it was the Talbot Memorial Bridge at custom house quay which is an illegal right, Samuel Becket is where they should have went to

or alternatively dismounted at Sean O'Casey Bridge but no cyclist every does that despite the clear signage - quite dangerous there actually.

Whoever decided to make the Sean O'Casey bridge pedestrian only - a bridge with a cycle lane at each end and the IFSC's sole Dublinbikes station on the northern side - should be put in the stocks and pelted with rotting fruit. It's an utterly idiotic decision that a second's thought would have shown up as completely unreasonable and completely unworkable.

Kaisr Sose · 09-10-2015 11:10am

desertcircus wrote: »

Whoever decided to make the Sean O'Casey bridge pedestrian only - a bridge with a cycle lane at each end and the IFSC's sole Dublinbikes station on the northern side - should be put in the stocks and pelted with rotting fruit. It's an utterly idiotic decision that a second's thought would have shown up as completely unreasonable and completely unworkable.

Just as idiotic then as;

-cycle lanes on footpaths
-cycle lanes that pass in front of bus stops where passengers alighting may not be aware of a cycle lane on the pavement
-cycle lanes that just end

But sure every metre of cycle lane is added up and used to show what a great cycling infrastructure we have!

tomasrojo · 09-10-2015 11:17am

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

But sure every metre of cycle lane is added up and used to show what a great cycling infrastructure we have!

As my wife said after reading about an author who had "written two million words of fiction" ... "in no particular order."

jon1981 · 16-10-2015 1:49pm

You're probably all tired at this stage of stories of cyclists being fined, anyway i'm going to throw another incident out there that made me chuckle.

Cycling up Ormand quay Wednesday night past the forecourts. I was in the cycling lane while a bus passes me on the right, fast enough but no issues. So the bus passes and right behind there is a guy drafting it, absolutely flying along 40-50kph easily. Looked like a seasoned cyclist too, decent road bike and well kitted out.

Bus decides to pull in up ahead at a stop, the cyclist without looking swings out to the right and straight into the path of a Garda traffic Jeep. Garda jeep blows the horn, cyclist doesn't even bother to look back and is still belting along, Garda jeep doesn't react. Bad enough right? It gets better

Cyclist then comes to a red light at Gratton bridge, what does he do? You guessed it, slows a fraction and then blasts straight through the red light.

Gardai Jeep lights up like a Xmas st and blasts through the traffic lights after him, caught up at the next junction, i was passing by just as the Gardai were tearing him to shreds. Fine book was already in hand...cyclist deserved to have his bike confiscated and crushed imo.

Potentially a couple of fines in there. Cycling unreasonably and running a red.

Rakish Paddy · 16-10-2015 2:22pm

Shortly after the fines came into effect I was walking down O'Connell St. during evening rush hour near the GPO and two total scummers were tearing down the footpath on bicycles, weaving between pedestrians. I see at least 20 people cycling on footpaths most days going to and from work so it's not exactly surprising, but they were definitely on the more reckless end of the scale.

Further along on Westmoreland St. I saw the two scumbags standing with their bikes and a pair of gardaí writing in a book. I was delighted to finally see a bit of justice being handed out to morons who cycle on footpaths and I continued past them with a smile on my face.

A few minutes later, I was outside Brown Thomas on the pedestrian part of Grafton St. and what do I see but the same two scumbags tearing up the pedestrian street weaving between the crowds of people! :eek: :mad:

Since the fines came in, I have still yet to walk the length of either Grafton St. or Henry St. and *not* see at least one reckless eejit cycling there.

Pinch Flat · 16-10-2015 2:38pm

Hats off to the woman cycling on Grafton Street yesterday, tinkling her bell and getting annoyed when people (including myself) wouldn't get out of her way.

I'm in two minds about cycling on the footpath and it's been covered here before - I would prefer, for example, to see kids cycling to school on footpaths - plenty of places around me where, although in a residential area, drivers seem to have an 'omerta' about who can get from one jam to another quickest 0- result is traffic is moving waaaay to fast when it's not jammed in queues.

Agree though the RLJ is getting to ridiculous levels - Park Gate street is particularly comical, cars coming from chapelizod regular break these lights, despite them being set back about 30 or 40 yards from the traffic exiting from the Phoenix Park. Saw a woman this morning breaking a red coming from the Castleknock Gate - around a hair pin turn that's completely blind - TBF, she would have deserved the t-boning from white van man coming the other way.

Rakish Paddy · 16-10-2015 2:49pm

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Hats off to the woman cycling on Grafton Street yesterday, tinkling her bell and getting annoyed when people (including myself) wouldn't get out of her way.

I just cannot fathom how anybody thinks it's OK to cycle in an area that is very clearly pedestrian-only. In certain parts of town you see scumbags cycling (and riding motorbikes!) on the footpaths because they clearly just couldn't give a flying one, but I'm talking about the sort of folks who appear to work for a living or are using Dublin bikes etc. and somehow think it's OK to cycle in pedestrian areas. I just don't understand what goes through their heads.

[Deleted User] · 16-10-2015 2:54pm

Rakish Paddy wrote: »

I just cannot fathom how anybody thinks it's OK to cycle in an area that is very clearly pedestrian-only. In certain parts of town you see scumbags cycling (and riding motorbikes!) on the footpaths because they clearly just couldn't give a flying one, but I'm talking about the sort of folks who appear to work for a living or are using Dublin bikes etc. and somehow think it's OK to cycle in pedestrian areas. I just don't understand what goes through their heads.

As far as I am concerned it is OK to cycle in a pedestrian only area - if you are doing so with due consideration for those around you.

Grafton Street on a busy day is probably not the time to be doing it, but Henry Street in the evening, I can't see any issue with someone cycling in a sensible way along there.

As with all these things, it's a question of civility and manners.

laraghrider · 16-10-2015 3:11pm

Deleted User wrote: »

As far as I am concerned it is OK to cycle in a pedestrian only area - if you are doing so with due consideration for those around you.

Only it's not ok, regardless of what any of us think. If it's a pedestrian area it's a pedestrian area not a cycle area. Get off the bike and walk.

In a slightly different direction how is it that some cyclists don't understand that unless specified that it's both ways if there are cycle lanes on both sides of the road then you cycle in the direction of the traffic. They are not dual ways. I say this as cycling home from work wednesday evening along the grand canal on the grand parade section this one comes darting along at a fair clip contra flow to the traffic and all of us in the cycle lane. It's evening time, there was 1 rider a bit ahead of me and about 4 behind and none of us could quite believe it.

[Deleted User] · 16-10-2015 3:16pm

laraghrider wrote: »

Only it's not ok, regardless of what any of us think. If it's a pedestrian area it's a pedestrian area not a cycle area. Get off the bike and walk.

I think it's OK. It might be illegal, but I think a lot of illegal things are OK. I suspect you do too.

lgk · 16-10-2015 4:18pm

Rakish Paddy wrote: »

I just cannot fathom how anybody thinks it's OK to cycle in an area that is very clearly pedestrian-only.

Maybe they come from areas of Europe where cycling in pedestrian areas is the norm, and they just get on with, and people don't get so worked up about it as if every offence they witness, whether it affects them of not) is an affront to their sense of entitlement.

irishrover99 · 16-10-2015 4:26pm

laraghrider wrote: »

Only it's not ok, regardless of what any of us think. If it's a pedestrian area it's a pedestrian area not a cycle area. Get off the bike and walk.

Why does it seem ok to walk in a cycle lane. I use the Phoenix Park most days
and i wouldn't waste my time trying to use the cycle lanes as they are always been used by people pushing prams,jogging or walking. I can only imagine the response i would get if i told them off about what they were doing

JBokeh · 16-10-2015 4:31pm

I got pulled in an received a bollocking last night about 300M from my house, I had no red light on the bike because I dropped it an hour before hand, But being an industrious sort of chap I have an app on my phone that kept the screen lit up red, and I fired it into my jersey pocket, and it had a vague glow out the back

Gard was fit to kill me when he got out of the car, softened a bit when he recognised me, and I showed him my busted light. Glad to see them out and about tackling this sort of thing, as it is getting to the time of year where you're going to be out and about as the light is fading.

Cheeky Garda then drafted me all the way home without doing a turn on the front

JBokeh · 16-10-2015 4:31pm

I got pulled in an received a bollocking last night about 300M from my house, I had no red light on the bike because I dropped it an hour before hand, But being an industrious sort of chap I have an app on my phone that kept the screen lit up red, and I fired it into my jersey pocket, and it had a vague glow out the back

Gard was fit to kill me when he got out of the car, softened a bit when he recognised me, and I showed him my busted light. Glad to see them out and about tackling this sort of thing, as it is getting to the time of year where you're going to be out and about as the light is fading.

Cheeky Garda then drafted me all the way home without doing a turn on the front

Rogue cyclists set to face on-the-spot fines MOD WARNING in first post

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