Dublin City Council Cycling Officer position renewed for 6 months.

greenmat

From ROTHAR Facebook page,

"The cycling officer position in Dublin City Council is being abandoned. This is bad news people.. cycling cannot be relegated to an underground activity, we need this connection to the local authorities to have our interests represented. More on this soon.."

Don't know how true this is, how much of a loss will this be?

teddansonswig

This is a truly awful situation. We have to organise something.
Please phone DCC

http://www.dublincity.ie/YourCouncil/Councillors/YourLocalCouncillors/Pages/FindYourLocalCouncillorsHome.aspx

tunney

I'd have said that this was good rather than bad.

Who ever was in charge of cycle path planning and the like in DCC wasn't worth a sh!te anyways.

Lumen

We have a cycling mayor.

Chips Lovell

What did the Cycling Officer do?

dubmess

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

What did the Cycling Officer do?

He brought the crit to Dublin last year.

RobFowl

dubmess wrote: »

He brought the crit to Dublin last year.

Heard that cost a fortune......

dubmess

RobFowl wrote: »

Heard that cost a fortune......

I spoke to him about it a few months ago and he said it nearly cost him his job, but was worth it to bring racing back to the city. He was pushing for an even bigger one this year but it al got scuppered at the last minute. I believe Dublin Bus wouldn't acquiesce to the road closures... (that could be just hearsay though)...

He's a good man that brought an engineers perspective to cycling infrastructure in Dublin. He helped get the off street parking on Drury St., gave a lot of talks on the subject of cycling in an urban environment, hell I even saw him out in East Wall one morning measuring the width of a bus lane with a tape measure!

He was a respected intermediary between campaigners and 'those upstairs' in DCC, he'll be a big loss.

Chips Lovell

Off-topic, but Orwell was asked to run that crit this year. We had to turn them down.

Diarmuid

It would be nice to see a few more crits in Dublin next year. They are great spectator events and can be run in low-traffic area (housing estates etc)

fat bloke

If Bavaria (beer) can bring Dublin city centre to a halt with a load of F1 cars on parade (a spectacle I'm very much looking forward to myself), why oh why wouldn't there be a similar welcome for an international cycling event, and an actual race to boot? If only for carbon footprint karma rebalancing after the F1 V10's (or are they 4 cylinder turbos next year?.... probably a discussion for another thread...)

Wheely GR8

We should expect more services when this €100 tax kicks in. If the money is for good services ,thats what we get.

Lumen

Wheely GR8 wrote: »

We should expect more services when this €100 tax kicks in

alexanderomahon

Wheely GR8 wrote: »

We should expect more services when this €100 tax kicks in. If the money is for good services ,thats what we get.

:eek::cool::pac::mad:

bellobikes

More about this in today's Irish Times :mad:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1217/1224309215494.html

Bluefoam

Link to the Facebook page please?

Diarmuid

Typical government BS. Instead of cutting some useless guy in DCC, they take the easy option and not renew a contract.

RobertFoster

Bluefoam wrote: »

Link to the Facebook page please?

http://www.facebook.com/RotharDublin

Slideshowbob

I understand he helped the halfords crit happen last year

Sad at the end of the day, it's a real person who has lost a job

Hope his and his family's xmas is ok

Slideshowbob

tunney wrote: »

I'd have said that this was good rather than bad.

Who ever was in charge of cycle path planning and the like in DCC wasn't worth a sh!te anyways.

Were his hands tied? I'm sure you're great at your job - he was in the job only a relatively short while.

There was alot of legacy stuff he had to inherit.

Now the council can save 1 man's salary and still justify paying contractors millions for rubbish cycle lanes

Slideshowbob

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

Off-topic, but Orwell was asked to run that crit this year. We had to turn them down.

Too busy on boards? :-)

greenmat

It's a sign of the times, any job thats not seen as productive is gone. Dublin City Councils BTW scheme is not very user friendly yet they had their own Cycling Officer. Sad to see a man lose his job though. I believe DCC budget is being slashed next year by millions, some say 50%. Many more will lose their jobs in the council.

Lumen

greenmat wrote: »

It's a sign of the times, any job thats not protected by a union seen as productive is gone

Fixed that for you.

It's happening all over the civil service. Can't hire, can't fire, no meritocracy, poor utilisation of staff, let all the experience leak out via early retirement.

Management by numbers. Complete horseshít.

greenmat

Lumen wrote: »

Fixed that for you.

It's happening all over the civil service. Can't hire, can't fire, no meritocracy, poor utilisation of staff, let all the experience leak out via early retirement.

Management by numbers. Complete horseshít.

In a Union myself, waste of time, they were in bed with management all the while lining each others pockets. Next year will be a very bad one I fear.

monument

For what it's worth here's my story on the same: http://cyclingindublin.com/2011/12/17/hogan-criticised-for-axing-key-dublin-cycling-role/

It seems to be only the department blocking it, the council told me funding is not the issue.

As others have said the embargo is hardly an efficient way of reducing numbers in the public service -- and this is hardly the first example of cutting a position is needed.

morana

We had very good relations with him. He was very helpful to CI in his tiime there.

Why are youse ranting about unions and the civil service? Are we(the service), all 40k of us being blamed for this as well?

Go get a job ( in the indo of course!!!)

greenmat

I have to own up, I'm...... I'm...... I'm a public servant. It's all my fault, everything. Mentioned Unions as they are a waste of space in my job.

cyclopath2001

dubmess wrote: »

He brought the crit to Dublin last year.

If that's the case, he really took his eye off the ball. Professional criteriums, and bringing in expensive cycle race organisers from England have nothing to do with making cycling as ordinary a choice, as choosing which shoes to wear.

The cycle track laws are a mess and the city council's implementations are cynical at best and dangerous at worst.

But maybe it's not possible to effect change from the inside. Maybe, the 'system' finally got him?

Jawgap

Lumen wrote: »

Fixed that for you.

It's happening all over the civil service. Can't hire, can't fire, no meritocracy, poor utilisation of staff, let all the experience leak out via early retirement.

Management by numbers. Complete horseshít.

I'm sorry, I work in the public service and I disagree with you 100% (ok, it's more like 23.7%)

First, there is the inherent contradiction in your statement above - if there is no meritocracy, then how can experience leave with early retirement? Time served does not equal experience.

As it is there is no hiring, no firing and definitely no meritocracy - I'd say the time-serving deadbeats who marked time and gained promotion through seniority are the ones leaving in February.

The reforms will see another, slightly smaller, batch of time serving deadbeats promoted to fill the gaps left, based on seniority.

But don't mind me, I'm just cynical.............and grateful to have a job.

morana

Jawgap wrote: »

But don't mind me, I'm just cynical.............and grateful to have a job.

So are the kids making Nike cycling jerseys in India grateful for a job......

I thought we would just try get back on topic of cycling. Maybe we should organise a Cyclist union!

Demand #1. Make the races shorter!
Demand #2. Raise our prize money!
Demand #3. Mileage at €1 per km!!!!:D

And of course we could have the Ryanair race promoter...

Lumen

Jawgap wrote: »

First, there is the inherent contradiction in your statement above - if there is no meritocracy, then how can experience leave with early retirement?

There is no contradiction. The policy of the government is to reduce numbers by "natural wastage". There will be talent and usefulness within the cohort that leaves. The policy is based of fear of confrontation with the unions, who exist to protect positions regardless of the talents or motivations of those who fill them.

In this specific case (to keep it on-topic) we have someone let go because he is on a short-term contract, despite his apparent usefulness and talent. This is the very definition of anti-meritocracy.

BostonB

mediocrity <> meritocracy

Not the same thing. I had to look it up.

Bluefoam

Lumen wrote: »

There is no contradiction. The policy of the government is to reduce numbers by "natural wastage". There will be talent and usefulness within the cohort that leaves. The policy is based of fear of confrontation with the unions, who exist to protect positions regardless of the talents or motivations of those who fill them.

In this specific case (to keep it on-topic) we have someone let go because he is on a short-term contract, despite his apparent usefulness and talent. This is the very definition of anti-meritocracy.

My personal take on this matter is that he causes the engineers to have to put more thought and consideration into their work & hence is seen as a problem. Its better that they get rid of him so that they can go back to their own level of mediocrity and produce infrastructure that remains ill considered, but easier to apply...

BostonB

I would say it would be like climbing Everest trying to change/influence people who can produce such abysmal cycle lanes. There's about 8 roundabouts near me. Each one has an entirely different way of handling cycle lanes. It hard to understand the mindset that can do that.

So personally I would think it would be a very hard job, where progress would be slow.

Jawgap

Lumen wrote: »

There is no contradiction. The policy of the government is to reduce numbers by "natural wastage". There will be talent and usefulness within the cohort that leaves. The policy is based of fear of confrontation with the unions, who exist to protect positions regardless of the talents or motivations of those who fill them.

In this specific case (to keep it on-topic) we have someone let go because he is on a short-term contract, despite his apparent usefulness and talent. This is the very definition of anti-meritocracy.

Again, would tend to disagree with your first point. Using my own experience as a completely unrepresentative sample, we're seeing 4 staff go under early retirement - 3 are no great loss, 1 is a genuine example of a motivated and talented individual walking out the door. In their case, they are taking the early retirement and going on to do some work with another international organisation. The other 3 joined the civil / public service from school and are set to become and even greater drain on the public purse.

In the case of the cycling officer, it sounds from the IT article that he's a victim of politics - the Greens, through their ministers, forced DCC to take him on and Gormless instructed Dept of the Environment to fund the position - with the Greens out of power and Gormless gone, ending the position smells of retribution, and a handy way to have a poke at Cllr Montague.

'Unfortunately' for the person concerned they had the temerity to be good at their job, which probably means the engineers didn't fight too hard to keep them. Pity.

monument

Bluefoam wrote: »

My personal take on this matter is that he causes the engineers to have to put more thought and consideration into their work & hence is seen as a problem. Its better that they get rid of him so that they can go back to their own level of mediocrity and produce infrastructure that remains ill considered, but easier to apply...

The only problem there is that the department of environment are the ones to blame, not the council who want to retain him.

Jawgap wrote: »

In the case of the cycling officer, it sounds from the IT article that he's a victim of politics - the Greens, through their ministers, forced DCC to take him on and Gormless instructed Dept of the Environment to fund the position - with the Greens out of power and Gormless gone, ending the position smells of retribution, and a handy way to have a poke at Cllr Montague.

DCC wrote to the department in the first place looking to get a cycling officer Sure DCC did so with the pushing of Montague but DCC looked for the role, it was not forced on them, and they seem to want to keep it and told me they see it as important, see my link above.

Slideshowbob

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

dubmess wrote: »

He brought the crit to Dublin last year.

If that's the case, he really took his eye off the ball. Professional criteriums, and bringing in expensive cycle race organisers from England have nothing to do with making cycling as ordinary a choice, as choosing which shoes to wear.

The cycle track laws are a mess and the city council's implementations are cynical at best and dangerous at worst.

But maybe it's not possible to effect change from the inside. Maybe, the 'system' finally got him?

Was the race that expensive??? Are costs in the public realm?

What was wrong with that crit? Was it not cycling enough for you?

I thought it was great but thought the road closures could have been shorter and a cat 3/4 race could have been thrown in too.

Cycling races need to integrate more with festivals etc like before now that we are in recession give the public cheap entertainment. Bring the Ras back to the capital for the start and finish, not Lusk and Clonee.

cyclopath2001

Slideshowbob wrote: »

What was wrong with that crit? Was it not cycling enough for you?

What did it do to improve the life of ordinary cyclists using the roads every day?

It was a PR stunt and a circus.

If the city council is serious about promoting cycling, it should scrap its illegal on-footpath cycle tracks and ban cars from driving and parking in cycle lanes. It should put cycle tracks where they are needed, even if this inconveniences space-wasting motorists.

These measures, alas, are more difficult than putting on a brief spectacle and a bit of corporate hospitality..

ED E

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

If the city council is serious about promoting cycling, it should scrap its illegal on-footpath cycle tracks and ban cars from driving and parking in cycle lanes. It should put cycle tracks where they are needed, even if this inconveniences space-wasting motorists.

These measures, alas, are more difficult than putting on a brief spectacle and a bit of corporate hospitality..

Correct me if I'm wrong but would that not fall more under the remit of national government than local councils?

Bluefoam

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Slideshowbob wrote: »

What was wrong with that crit? Was it not cycling enough for you?

What did it do to improve the life of ordinary cyclists using the roads every day?

It was a PR stunt and a circus.

If the city council is serious about promoting cycling, it should scrap its illegal on-footpath cycle tracks and ban cars from driving and parking in cycle lanes. It should put cycle tracks where they are needed, even if this inconveniences space-wasting motorists.

These measures, alas, are more difficult than putting on a brief spectacle and a bit of corporate hospitality..

Your statement is remiss and short sighted. The promotion of cycling as an activity that belongs on our streets and is something the average person can experience and be part of, is very important for the general perception. Events like this help educate non cyclists.... Rather than just adding infrastructure, which car drivers constantly bemoan.

This was a very successful event that was carried by allot of media and was discussed widely among the general populous, hence creating more awareness for cyclists...

Slideshowbob

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

It was a PR stunt and a circus.
.

First and foremost it was a sporting competition.

I note you have not answered the question on the costs.........

monument

Slideshowbob wrote: »

First and foremost it was a sporting competition.

This is a good point -- the council has a remit to promote sports generally in the city as well as promoting cycling as a form of transport. The odd sporting event even if high profile isn't going to do much harm to the latter.

cyclopath2001

ED E wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but would that not fall more under the remit of national government than local councils?

It's a matter of implementation.

The city council is responsible for the 'cycling facilities' it provides. It is responsible for parking law enforcement and it is responsible for deciding if a particular 'facility' is exclusive for cyclists or must be shared with motorists. (i.e by choosing RRM 022 or RRM 023 markings). It is responsible for the routes and the surface quality.

If the single most memorable accomplishment of the cycling officer is facilitating, for a few hours, a bit of entertainment, with no long-term improvement of conditions for cyclists, then, I am not impressed.

Bluefoam

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

If the single most memorable accomplishment of the cycling officer is facilitating, for a few hours, a bit of entertainment, with no long-term improvement of conditions for cyclists, then, I am not impressed.

You don't deserve a courteous response... But I'll give you one anyway. Just because you are too shortsighted to see any benefits he has brought, you don't need to be disrespectful. Ciaran Fallon is well thought of in the international bicycle movement and his contribution is often acknowledged in allot of articles I have read.

cyclopath2001

Bluefoam wrote: »

Just because you are too shortsighted to see any benefits he has brought, you don't need to be disrespectful. Ciaran Fallon is well thought of in the international bicycle movement and his contribution is often acknowledged in allot of articles I have read.

What benefits? Could you detail some? On my route to work, the cycle track through Fairview park is frequently locked, surface matkings have not been replaced, entry and exit junction design is hazardous. The tracks I am obliged to share with motor vehicles, have cars blocking my way. These are both matters directly the responsibility of the city council and have a daily impact on cyclists.

You have an opportunity here to say what improvements have occurred since the appointment of the cycling officer, this would help justify retaining the position.

I suggest you take this opportunity.

Bluefoam

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

You have an opportunity here to say what improvements have occurred since the appointment of the cycling officer, this would help justify retaining the position.

I suggest you take this opportunity.

Thanks for your offer, as patronising as it is.

Some schemes which have had a positive effect include, Drury Street indoor protected cycle parking and lockers, grand canal cycle route, Portobello segregated cycle lane, establishment of Rothar, bike to work scheme, Dublin bikes, Ratoath BMX track...

His role is not to fill in potholes on the cycle lane outside your house. He is there (among other reasons) as a cycling evangelist, to promote and endorse cycling as a positive for Dublin city & he has been largely successful.


Lets not forget all the events that take place during cycling week, which has grown in huge proportion since his involvement...
He has also been involved in the projects to facilitate a protected cycle route through Dublin city centre, the leisure and offroad facility in St Annes park, the extension of the Sutton cycle path to reach Dun Laoghaire - all of which are hugely positive for Dublin

cyclopath2001

Bluefoam wrote: »

His role is not to fill in potholes on the cycle lane outside your house. He is there (among other reasons) as a cycling evangelist, to promote and endorse cycling as a positive for Dublin city & he has been largely

Please keep this factual and please don't misquote me.

Where did I complain about a 'pothole outside my house'? I referred to an important cycle route used by thousands of cyclists and which has numerous defects. It is one of the oldest routes and is a good marker for just how serious the city council is about helping cyclists.

It is so 'celtic tiger' to have grand plans, 'policies', announcements, schemes and PR events but to neglect mundane essentials on the road, once the photographers have left.

The Fairview route is an ongoing policy failure.

Bluefoam

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

It is so 'celtic tiger' to have grand plans, 'policies', announcements, schemes and PR events but to neglect mundane essentials on the road, once the photographers have left.

The Fairview route is an ongoing policy failure.

Like I said, you should contact your council, this is their responsibility. Or do you think the council should be fired for this same reason...

Jawgap

I think a role like that shouldn't be all about kms of cycling lanes, or cleanliness or state of repair - he may have a role in identifying such issues, but I'd say it's important to have someone in there to champion cycling (as opposed to be a champion cyclist:)).

On one level he can make sure cycling gets due consideration when projects are being developed, be it repairs, maintenance or new infrastructure. Just having someone there to say "Actually lads (lassies), you know what if you did a slightly different way........etc.

It also runs to how the city is perceived. Surely a city the size of Dublin should have a cycling officer, if they genuinely see cycling as fitting in with their transport, tourism and sport policies?

This probably shows how cycling is perceived and how the cack-handed way government departments are set up can undermine productive initiatives- maybe Varadkar could find the money to fund the post given the contribution it makes in his policy areas.

manwithaplan

It is very tough on the individual concerned and it is true to say that he is a victim of "management by numbers". The Department are saying that the post can be filled internally through redeployment, re-prioritisation of work or other means. In other words, it's not that cycling is being targeted; rather it's unfortunate that the post was filled by someone on a temporary contract, very much an endangered species these days. I think the conspiracy theorists are wrong on this one - the non-renewal of temporary contracts and non-replacement of those leaving on retirement or resignation has been de riguer in the public service for the last three years.

The shame is that the chips have often been left to fall where they lie. The hit is often taken in the area that happens lose the people rather than resources being managed effectively and with a proper sense of priority. I know of a number of areas very badly affected which, in my view, should have been prioritised and the gaps plugged. Oddly enough, some of these posts were in areas that are essentially self-financing. Ask most public sector managers what their biggest shortage is and they will say "people" before "money" (obviously the two aren't entirely unconnected!).

There can often be skills issues in finding a replacement from a shrinking pool. This is often what led to more recent 'specialist' posts being filled on temporary contracts - there was no-one in-house with the requisite skills.
It's unlikely that internal candidates will have the background Mr. Fallon has and the lack of a proper well-functioning cross-public service redeployment scheme adds to the problem.

p

Email sent.
I hope everyone writing here in support of this position takes the time to send one too.