Dublin City Council questions

emtroche

Tomorrow we're going to be having a guest speaker from Dublin City Council in the course i'm doing. Was just wondering if theres any questions that anybody thinks i should ask? Particularly about the bike rental scheme. I know there was a big thread about this but cant find it now.

Thanks

Lumen

emtroche wrote: »

I know there was a big thread about this but cant find it now.

Here.

72hundred

Maybe ask is there a way of fixing really bad bits of road surface quickly? Like a priority system - an A&E for roads! This section on Camden Str. is just terrible, going over it on a racer is incredibly uncomfortable. Only 100m's or so - maybe easy to fix quickly!

emtroche

Sound.

Doctor Bob

Bike-specific questions, presumably?

Ask about their bike lane maintenance programme. I varied my route quite considerably this morning due to the rain. The rain doesn't bother me as such, it's what the rain does to existing potholes. Unless you know your route like the back of your hand, who knows if a puddle is millimetres deep or inches deep.

Maintenance of bike lanes - in fact, not just bike lanes, but any surface where cycling takes place - is my number one bugbear about riding in Dublin. Dawson Street, anyone? Nothing less than shameful.

(Re Dawson Street, I suspect that DCC isn't touching it because the Luas works are 'imminent' or some such nonsense. Two years away isn't 'imminent'.)

[/rant]

Maybe it's time to go home... looks like a lovely evening out there!

Edit: x-post with 72hundred. I guess I'm not the only one!

petethedrummer

Will you ask them if they could roughen up the surface on the Emmet Road in Inchicore a bit more? I'm gonna try commuting on my new MTB and I want a bit more of a challenge.

tomasrojo

I'd like to ask whether they have any plans or mechanisms to remove sub-standard facilities so that not a trace of them remains. Substandard facilities are almost always worse than having none at all. Probably always, in fact. I'm just hedging my bets a little.

In particular:

* straight-ahead lanes placed on the left of left-turn traffic lanes (worst offender of all)
* lanes less than 2m in diameter (or 1.5m if this seems too hardline; no narrower than that though)
* lanes that are just painted-off parts of a standard traffic lane (meaning that a car using the the traffic lane has two of its wheels in the supposedly separate cycle lane)
* lanes that place cyclists unsegregated on the right (and therefore overtaking) side of traffic going in the same direction (Inchicore Road is the worst offender I can think of)
* lanes that require cyclists to give way at every side road

(I'm using the phrase "traffic lane" for convenience; I'm aware that bikes are also traffic.)

tomasrojo

Agree on the importance of a better road surface too. Some of the roads are very unpleasant to cycle on. Any chance of requiring utiltities companies to leave the road in the condition they found it once they've finished digging trenches?

flickerx

emtroche wrote: »

Tomorrow we're going to be having a guest speaker from Dublin City Council in the course i'm doing. Was just wondering if theres any questions that anybody thinks i should ask? Particularly about the bike rental scheme. I know there was a big thread about this but cant find it now.

Thanks

who is it, what is the course you're doing, and whats the lecture about?

sorry, just that your original post is a bit vague on specifics. i know its the cycling forum so I'm presuming the speaker will have some relevance to cycling, but is it a planner, an engineer, a politician, an official in charge of funding, etc etc.

emtroche

flickerx wrote: »

who is it, what is the course you're doing, and whats the lecture about?

Dunno who it is. I'm studying tourism management. He's going to be speaking about tourism in dublin, in particular the bike scheme.

cyclopath2001

emtroche wrote: »

Dunno who it is. I'm studying tourism management. He's going to be speaking about tourism in dublin, in particular the bike scheme.

Ask him if Dublin City Council is satisfied that its cycle tracks are in conformance with legal requirements for markings and signage .

Then ask, if cyclist safety if the uppermost consideration when allocating space for cycle tracks.

Roadtoad

What about some proper bike parks? I saw a really neat galavanised iron one in Copenhagen in 2007. Individual cages would be nice.
How about the bike scheme reaching Hueston Station?

petethedrummer

Since you're in Tourism suggest they promote Urban Mountain Biking as a means to attract visitors:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cianginty/3097386979/in/pool-dublincyclelanes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cianginty/3098235882/in/pool-dublincyclelanes/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40919706@N08/3760229080/in/pool-dublincyclelanes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cianginty/2481538932/in/pool-dublincyclelanes

http://www.flickr.com/groups/908348@N25/

Blowfish

One pretty relevant one for the velib scheme is this. Ask them if usage patterns/stats will be taken into account to improve the redistribution of bikes during the day.

Doctor Bob

If you need to put a tourism spin on it (and I suspect your guest won't have much of a clue about the questions we've suggested so far), you could ask if s/he thinks that the cycle infrastructure in Dublin - hell, the whole traffic regime - is tourist-friendly. Any foreigners I've hosted / chaperoned around town by bike are usually pretty frightened by cycling in Dublin- and not just because of the whole wrong-side-of-the-road thing. I'd say this matter is particularly pertinent given the (presumed) intention behind the Dublin Bikes short-term membership options.

mockler007

them kerbs that push you out into traffic, the guy who designed them should be done for murder

tunney

emtroche wrote: »

Tomorrow we're going to be having a guest speaker from Dublin City Council in the course i'm doing. Was just wondering if theres any questions that anybody thinks i should ask? Particularly about the bike rental scheme. I know there was a big thread about this but cant find it now.

Thanks

Ask him does he accept that the cycle lane coverage and quality in Dublin is an utter failure and a disgrace to the council?

blorg

I'd suggest whatever you put to him doing it in a constructive way is more likely to elict a useful response than some of the suggestions here.

tunney

blorg wrote: »

I'd suggest whatever you put to him doing it in a constructive way is more likely to elict a useful response than some of the suggestions here.

"Whats that?"
"A digging implement"
"Really? I thought it was a spade"

blorg

tunney wrote: »

"Whats that?"
"A digging implement"
"Really? I thought it was a spade"

It's all about the way you put it. In general if you start off on the offensive with someone it will just put them naturally in a position opposed to you and less likely to be persuaded of your viewpoint.

You won't get anywhere attacking the guy outright, besides for all we know he may well agree with the points made here, consider the surprise of the National Cycle Policy Framework coming out and admitting that many cycle lanes are a disaster.

Just make the points in a constructive rather than aggressive way and they are more likely to be taken on board. Less "should be done for murder" and more "studies have shown this design to be dangerous and increase accidents, it should be modified to safely merge cyclists back into the traffic flow like this other example."

SerialComplaint

You could ask some interesting questions about the tendering process that resulted in the JC Decaux win, e.g.

Why want the tender not published on the eTenders website?
How many organisations were invited to tender?
How were these organisations selected?
How many tenders were recieved?
How many tenders were scored/evaluated?
How come the draft contract in the tender document states that the tenderer will be responsible for maintaining the advertising stands, but DCC has stated recently that they are responsible for maintenance?
What feedback did DCC get from NCBI about the impacts of the stands on blind/vision-impaired people, and what actions were taken as a result?