Local Councillor wants to Ban big bike events from rural Galway roads

topcat77

I hope this lad is just flapping his gums for his local electorate. I live in Galway and you can count on one hand the amount of sportives around Connnamara. Would hate to see this message spreading around the country.

“I have nothing against those who go out individually – or three or four cyclists together".

Looks like he wants to shut down club spins as well.


http://connachttribune.ie/ban-big-bike-events-from-rural-galway-roads-121/

PukkaStukka

topcat77 wrote: »

I hope this lad is just flapping his gums for his local electorate. I live in Galway and you can count on one hand the amount of sportives around Connnamara. Would hate to see this message spreading around the country.

“I have nothing against those who go out individually – or three or four cyclists together".

Looks like he wants to shut down club spins as well.


http://connachttribune.ie/ban-big-bike-events-from-rural-galway-roads-121/

Obviously this good councillor will do well to look at Kerry last weekend where the whole of the Iveragh peninsula was practically closed down by over 10,000 cyclists for the good of charity and the local economy. The locals there "embraced" this inconvenience as they have done stoically for many years now. He might do well to consider emulating this for the sake of the local economy rather than stigmatising it and driving it away.

AstraMonti

“Motorists pay up their road tax and contribute to the upkeep of our infrastructure, bad and all as it is. There is no tax on bicycles”.

mugsymugsy

Never mind the health benefits, money spent by cycling tourists in accomodation/ pubs etc and money spent in local bike shops etc

Also love how he calls it road tax and talks about people with bikes not paying tax. Maybe he forgets that most cyclist are car owners (and therefore pay 'road tax') due to the woeful public transport network that our politicians are in charge of.

Guy is typical parish pump politics at its worst.

Would love to see how he could ban club spins and try and enforce it.

dermabrasion

I suggest that those of you that live in this guys constituency lobby hard to let him know that his views are not of yours, and that his view will have consequences for him and his colleagues at the ballot box

daragh_

Ah leave him alone. He's a rock of sense in a world gone mad (Joe).

buffalo

mugsymugsy wrote: »

Also love how he calls it road tax and talks about people with bikes not paying tax. Maybe he forgets that most cyclist are car owners (and therefore pay 'road tax') due to the woeful public transport network that our politicians are in charge of.

Don't even need to go that far - bikes have VAT on them.

Cee-Jay-Cee

This is just another typical soundbite from a nobody councillor who gets a bugbear and uses public office to vent. You can absolutely guarantee he has had no complaints from anyone with exception to his sister in law who got held up for 5 minutes one sunday on her way to mass and as a result had to sit down the back along with the wasters and those smelling of piss and alcohol. He's an idiot and should be treated accordingly, no one will pay a blind bit of notice to him and his silly little rant will soon be forgotten about.

On a side note, he's an ideal candidate for the Seanad where he and the seagull conspiracy group can form a club that no one else wants to join.

check_six

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

He's an idiot and should be treated accordingly, no one will pay a blind bit of notice to him and his silly little rant will soon be forgotten about.

As much as I can see that what you're saying makes sense, I sometimes feel that making sense nowadays doesn't really cut it with the electorate. The rising popularity of various maniacs and conmen around the country and internationally has led me to conclude that I have no insight into what people see as 'sensible' or a 'positive influence on society'.

From my perspective some of the voting patterns are more akin to a reality TV show where you vote for the mad looper as they're a bit of craic to watch as they rapidly spiral out of control.

I'm probably just wildly out of touch with society and everything will work out in the end, but I'm going to guess that quite a few on here are feeling similarly bewildered. (I'll save a few spots in my fallout bunker for you all just in case!)

kal7

how is it disrupting business, sportives are at weekends.

they bring tourists and athletes in, so that businesses open at weekends will benefit.

Vote grabbing in short sighted way.

07Lapierre

Can we ban councillor's ?

RobFowl

Here's a video of him in the council chamber (may be NSFW)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rY5whysdxo

Beasty

Don't see how they can ban such events on open roads as long as everyone follows the RoTR....




:pac:

Esroh

As someone said above he is just a mouth piece.
Of the events run over here in the last few weeks The Galway Tri, Tour de Connemara and the Great Galway Bike ride are the ones which used South Connemara roads.
The Tri and GGBR were both backed by the City Council.
The Tour de Con is backed by the Galway Sports partner ship( Council backed )
The Croi and Cornamona Charity cycles would use roads that are not South Connemara.
The Bed Night income and the amount of money raised in the 2charity events is all money that the local economy would miss and the Councils know this.

what_traffic

Matt Copper just had a segment about this on the Last Word before 18h00. Cllr rowed back on his Road Tax comments. He must have read mugsymugsy post as he said "that cyclists are car owners as well".

Will be on the play back feature soon:
http://www.todayfm.com/player/listen_back

Unknown Soldier

"Some of these events begin in Galway city and come out the south Connemara road. From there, they angle north to Maam Cross and in along the N59 to Galway again. Where is the economic benefit there?” Councillor Folan asked."

I'm still not sure if he is right or wrong there.

Kind of like if you lived up the back of beyond in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains, and every second weekend it was populated by sportives. Do they get an economic benefit?

Quite a lot of permutations to think about.

fat bloke

Thousands of people attracted to his region for a weekend and all he can think to do is moan about it. Blinkered, short sighted, narrow minded idiocy.

CrowdedHouse

Páraic Quinn - Commentator on TG4 Tour coverage

We also interviewed him on the Tour de France on TG4 yesterday. Clearly he is pandering to some of his constituents who are unable to drive. They struggle to pass tractors and other slow moving vehicles too. He is for cycle paths and an overall improved cycling infrastructure. But there is no money.

Maidhci

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

. You can absolutely guarantee he has had no complaints from anyone with exception to his sister in law who got held up for 5 minutes one sunday on her way to mass and as a result had to sit down the back along with the wasters and those smelling of piss and alcohol.

This statement is as ridiculous as the views expressed by Cllr. Joe Folan.

dr.fuzzenstein

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Páraic Quinn - Commentator on TG4 Tour coverage

We also interviewed him on the Tour de France on TG4 yesterday. Clearly he is pandering to some of his constituents who are unable to drive. They struggle to pass tractors and other slow moving vehicles too. He is for cycle paths and an overall improved cycling infrastructure. But there is no money.

Elderly country folk unable to drive? Surely not!
Or maybe they're teed off that they're being overtaken by bicycles.

JK.BMC

Maidhci wrote: »

This statement is as ridiculous as the views expressed by Cllr. Joe Folan.

No- I think it was an attempt at humour, with some colourful familiar imagery thrown in along with some stock Irish country characters; what is ridiculous is that anybody would take it literally.
And it might not be entirely apocryphal you know....

Bloggsie

topcat77 wrote: »

I hope this lad is just flapping his gums for his local electorate. I live in Galway and you can count on one hand the amount of sportives around Connnamara. Would hate to see this message spreading around the country.

“I have nothing against those who go out individually – or three or four cyclists together".

Looks like he wants to shut down club spins as well.


http://connachttribune.ie/ban-big-bike-events-from-rural-galway-roads-121/

to quote Delboy "shut up you tart"

seamus

what_traffic wrote: »

Matt Copper just had a segment about this on the Last Word before 18h00. Cllr rowed back on his Road Tax comments. He must have read mugsymugsy post as he said "that cyclists are car owners as well".

Will be on the play back feature soon:
http://www.todayfm.com/player/listen_back

In that it seemed like he'd been fielding criticism all day and had rolled back on most of his more "extreme" ideas.

This is just parish pump politics at its finest. A couple of people who were delayed by a few minutes one random weekend had a bit of a whinge at the councillor. Rather than go and find out what lots of people think, he decided to make a song and dance about it.

And then very quickly found that not only was he waffling about things he knew nothing about, but the local business community is massively in favour of these events and not at all inconvenienced.

As agriculture continues to decline as an industry, the West of Ireland is being developed into a tourism destination. Every now and again the, "it's my field" type locals come into conflict with the reality that they're going to have to put up and shut up if they don't want their towns to die.

All along the ROK there are signs saying, "Cycleway YES, CPO NO". In other words, "We want tourism, but we don't want to lose our land". I'm not sure what they want the council to do - put the cycleway on stilts above the main road?

sconhome

seamus wrote: »

put the cycleway on stilts above the main road?

Might be expensive but it keeps cyclists out of the fields and off the roads:

silver campaign

I am midlands based but cycle in Connemara a good bit and have taken part in many of the sportives based in Galway and Clifden. It would be an absolute disaster for cycling in Ireland, both sportives and racing, if this gained a bit of traction and people started protesting against these events. It is allready becoming more and more difficult to stage races and sportives in certain parts of the country. We had thumb tacs thrown across the road in a league race last summer. Ras connemara was allready cancelled this year. (I don't know the specifics as to why though)

There are obviously local people, who don't fully understand cycling and its benefits to their economy and peoples health who are getting really peed off. What this needs very early on is dialogue between cycling groups and those that have concerns. It might even be worth cycling Ireland paying for an economist to do a basic study to be able to tell people, this is worth €X to your economy and €x to your local charity. This is far better than saying, 'Shur Johnny said the pubs and the B&Bs were wedged last weekend.'

A lot of people here are complaining that this is parish pump politics etc. Of course it is, he is a local councillor, not a TD, this is what they do. Obviously I dont agree with his opinions, but if locals aren't happy, I think their opinions should be listened to and counter arguments put to them. Scoffing at them won't achieve anything.

sconhome

silver campaign wrote: »

... this is worth €X to your economy and €x to your local charity. This is far better than saying, 'Shur Johnny said the pubs and the B&Bs were wedged last weekend.' ...

I agree with you but the failing is the ever present "what does it mean to ME?" argument.

We saw it recently with Challenge Galway where Co. Clare opposed road closures because it was a Galway event and brought nothing to Co. Clare.

As many, many cyclists pointed out there have been 1,000's of miles cycled over the past year by training triathletes who visited Clare eating and drinking. We're a terrible nation of people for short sightness. Similar argument exists about Greenways.

"The local economy gains but what's in it for me?"

silver campaign

sconhome wrote: »

As many, many cyclists pointed out there have been 1,000's of miles cycled over the past year by training triathletes who visited Clare eating and drinking.

Thats a perfect counter arguement to some concerns some locals would have. All this kind of information should be put together in a professional way and the events should be marketed correctly to the locals . The reality is most people are short sighted and dont understand simple economics.

Maidhci

silver campaign wrote: »

I am midlands based but cycle in Connemara a good bit and have taken part in many of the sportives based in Galway and Clifden. It would be an absolute disaster for cycling in Ireland, both sportives and racing, if this gained a bit of traction and people started protesting against these events. It is allready becoming more and more difficult to stage races and sportives in certain parts of the country. We had thumb tacs thrown across the road in a league race last summer. Ras connemara was allready cancelled this year. (I don't know the specifics as to why though)

There are obviously local people, who don't fully understand cycling and its benefits to their economy and peoples health who are getting really peed off. What this needs very early on is dialogue between cycling groups and those that have concerns. It might even be worth cycling Ireland paying for an economist to do a basic study to be able to tell people, this is worth €X to your economy and €x to your local charity. This is far better than saying, 'Shur Johnny said the pubs and the B&Bs were wedged last weekend.'

A lot of people here are complaining that this is parish pump politics etc. Of course it is, he is a local councillor, not a TD, this is what they do. Obviously I dont agree with his opinions, but if locals aren't happy, I think their opinions should be listened to and counter arguments put to them. Scoffing at them won't achieve anything.

This is exactly what I am most concerned about - having listened to the full interview on RnaG earlier in the week, it seemed pretty obvious to me that his motive may well have been to raise this matter with a view its gaining traction locally and leave the rest to the imagination. This man can be quite determined and focussed in whatever he sets out to achieve, agree with him or not is rather irrelevant. At the end of the day, we do not wish to see a stand-off with local people etc. etc.

brocbrocach

Maidhci wrote: »

This is exactly what I am most concerned about - having listened to the full interview on RnaG earlier in the week, it seemed pretty obvious to me that his motive may well have been to raise this matter with a view its gaining traction locally and leave the rest to the imagination. This man can be quite determined and focussed in whatever he sets out to achieve, agree with him or not is rather irrelevant. At the end of the day, we do not wish to see a stand-off with local people etc. etc.

The kind of event that really pees people off is the one's that are run by Xfit, Xchallenge, XAdventure race -ones that are purely for someone's profit (sometimes with a paltry charity contribution). They bring very little benefit to most places they pass through and when they're run badly or don't liase with locals they can be a pain in the backside for people who have to deal with 5 hours of slow traffic, dangerous cycling, restrictions on livestock etc. There's no real backlash yet I think but the more 'events' impact on certain areas the more resentment will grow.
A few thousand cyclists going out Bóthar Chois Fharraige over the space of a few hours would wreck anyone's head.

sconhome

brocbrocach wrote: »

The kind of event that really pees people off is the one's that are run by Xfit, Xchallenge, XAdventure race -ones that are purely for someone's profit (sometimes with a paltry charity contribution). They bring very little benefit to most places they pass through and when they're run badly or don't liase with locals they can be a pain in the backside for people who have to deal with 5 hours of slow traffic, dangerous cycling, restrictions on livestock etc.

I kinda get your point but if people are travelling to an event in the back of nowhere, they have costs such as fuel, food, drink there and back that spreads spending in a range of communities.

Events generally have staff and expenses to pay so that also brings money into localities as they to have to be fed and often have over night expenses due to setting up. I don't think it is as simple as all that money going to a pot and not being spent.

It still goes around and benefits people through spending somewhere.

100% with you on communication and lack of organisation though.

Unknown Soldier

seamus wrote: »

In that it seemed like he'd been fielding criticism all day and had rolled back on most of his more "extreme" ideas.

This is just parish pump politics at its finest. A couple of people who were delayed by a few minutes one random weekend had a bit of a whinge at the councillor. Rather than go and find out what lots of people think, he decided to make a song and dance about it.

And then very quickly found that not only was he waffling about things he knew nothing about, but the local business community is massively in favour of these events and not at all inconvenienced.

As agriculture continues to decline as an industry, the West of Ireland is being developed into a tourism destination. Every now and again the, "it's my field" type locals come into conflict with the reality that they're going to have to put up and shut up if they don't want their towns to die.

All along the ROK there are signs saying, "Cycleway YES, CPO NO". In other words, "We want tourism, but we don't want to lose our land". I'm not sure what they want the council to do - put the cycleway on stilts above the main road?

As much as I respect your posts, Seamus, your post is akin to the councillors, if not worse.

You don't have any actual facts in that post, but they do kind of look like facts.

brocbrocach

An opinion piece backing the councillors arguments:
http://tuairisc.ie/but-isnt-it-connemara-is-ea-agus-cead-clamhsain-againn-chomh-maith-le-haon-dream-eile/

FortySeven

brocbrocach wrote: »

An opinion piece backing the councillors arguments:
http://tuairisc.ie/but-isnt-it-connemara-is-ea-agus-cead-clamhsain-againn-chomh-maith-le-haon-dream-eile/

I wouldn't worry too much about that gaining traction. Nobody outside connemara can read it.

brocbrocach

FortySeven wrote: »

I wouldn't worry too much about that gaining traction. Nobody outside connemara can read it.

Ignorance is country-wide unfortunately...

CramCycle

brocbrocach wrote: »

Ignorance is country-wide unfortunately...

Does one sentence there appear to blame cycling for the slow down of Golf?

Roadhawk

brocbrocach wrote: »

Ignorance is country-wide unfortunately...

I agree. Im not from Galway but i definitely support this action.

brocbrocach

CramCycle wrote: »

Does one sentence there appear to blame cycling for the slow down of Golf?

It does! It's kinda left hanging so I presume it's tongue in cheek but ... cycling is the new golf etc!
The article basically admits that it's NINBYism but we don't care, we don't want you on our roads. It's hard to agree with it but you can see how the proliferation of sportive events would raise the ire of locals towards group spins, club spins etc. Cycling is booming but that could be bringing problems of its own.

Maybe CI should use their insurance leverage more to the advantage of the cycling community - try to regulate the charity/adventure spins phenomenon with it. After all, leisure cyclists are their bread and butter in terms of membership. Benefits could be
1) Act as a type of quality mark.
2) Disperse events more.
3) Weed out profiteers
4) Give individual events a unique flavour related to that locality.
5) Put power in hands of the local clubs which could see benefits in fundraising and raising profile + organisational experience (see National Championships finding no love in Munster).

In turn that could help to raise the standards of marshalling and value for money.
Maybe they're doing that on the down-low already, I admit I don't know.

brocbrocach

Roadhawk wrote: »

I agree. Im not from Galway but i definitely support this action.

What action?

CramCycle

brocbrocach wrote: »

What action?

I could be misreading it but Roadhawk seems to be claiming he is ignorant but like I said, I could be misunderstanding his post.

fat bloke

brocbrocach wrote: »

A few thousand cyclists going out Bóthar Chois Fharraige over the space of a few hours would wreck anyone's head.

Well yeah but here's a corollary to that. I took the family to Seapoint / Dún Laoghaire yesterday. Goddamn place was thronged. Long queues of cars on every approach road, no parking, even the footpaths were uncomfortably busy. Cars and people in MY way!

How very dare they!

In all cases it's the people of Ireland using the roads & thoroughfares of Ireland. You can't ban them.

07Lapierre

With this weather we're having, getting out to Howth is a nightmare! If next weekend is as nice as today, the best way to get out there will be by bike!

brocbrocach

fat bloke wrote: »

Well yeah but here's a corollary to that. I took the family to Seapoint / Dún Laoghaire yesterday. Goddamn place was thronged. Long queues of cars on every approach road, no parking, even the footpaths were uncomfortably busy. Cars and people in MY way!

How very dare they!

In all cases it's the people of Ireland using the roads & thoroughfares of Ireland. You can't ban them.

The Queens people wishes to cycle the queens highway?!
Ah of course yeah, I'm not saying the dude is right or that anyone will act on what he says either way. In the great battle between good and evil on the Irish roads though it's going to be the humble cyclist who's the loser.

seamus

07Lapierre wrote: »

With this weather we're having, getting out to Howth is a nightmare! If next weekend is as nice as today, the best way to get out there will be by bike!

It is quite hilarious that you hear of all of these complaints about cyclists "blocking" up the roads on scenic routes. Try to hit anywhere on Wicklow on a weekend like we just had and you have convoys of cars blocking up the road all the way to Sally Gap. And people complaining about the traffic.

It's just straight up narrow-visioned hypocrasy.

07Lapierre

seamus wrote: »

It is quite hilarious that you hear of all of these complaints about cyclists "blocking" up the roads on scenic routes. Try to hit anywhere on Wicklow on a weekend like we just had and you have convoys of cars blocking up the road all the way to Sally Gap. And people complaining about the traffic.

It's just straight up narrow-visioned hypocrasy.

We were cycling in Wicklow a few weeks ago. It was a nice day and the amount of traffic up there was just unreal!...

This location in particular is just crazy on a warm sunny day:

https://goo.gl/maps/4TPcW3esRC82

ted1

seamus wrote: »

It is quite hilarious that you hear of all of these complaints about cyclists "blocking" up the roads on scenic routes. Try to hit anywhere on Wicklow on a weekend like we just had and you have convoys of cars blocking up the road all the way to Sally Gap. And people complaining about the traffic.

It's just straight up narrow-visioned hypocrasy.

Sure they block up the city centre and its arteries every day of the week

check_six

ted1 wrote: »

Sure they block up the city centre and its arteries every day of the week

They sure as sneck don't pull over to the left to make it easier for me to pass them either!

Driving around three abreast without a notion of letting me past!

07Lapierre

Anyone who had to drive into Dublin this morning and has to then drive home this evening has my sympathies! I hope there's no hold ups on the M50!

PaulieC

07Lapierre wrote: »

Anyone who had to drive into Dublin this morning and has to then drive home this evening has my sympathies! I hope there's no hold ups on the M50!

If my workplace is anything to go by, the M50 will be empty. F*ck all people in here today

Green Peter

A few years ago an iron-man event meant a whole section of community was literally blocked in along the n59 for about 8 hours solid, it was far from a charity event and businesses like the local golf club had to close for the day as no one could get to it, cycling is badly served by some of the idiots who can be extremely ignorant to other road users, most are OK I accept. I also question the supervision of some of these races, I saw one last week where the motorcyclist outriders were in jeans with a yellow bib with POLITE on it, it was in my opinion an attempt to make road users think they were police at a glance, that's my rant over!

07Lapierre

Green Peter wrote: »

A few years ago an iron-man event meant a whole section of community was literally blocked in along the n59 for about 8 hours solid, it was far from a charity event and businesses like the local golf club had to close for the day as no one could get to it, cycling is badly served by some of the idiots who can be extremely ignorant to other road users, most are OK I accept. I also question the supervision of some of these races, I saw one last week where the motorcyclist outriders were in jeans with a yellow bib with POLITE on it, it was in my opinion an attempt to make road users think they were police at a glance, that's my rant over!

I hear ya! I meet ignorant idoit's most days of the week! there everywhere!

Not sure what we can do about these idiots. I blame the parents myself!

Green Peter

07Lapierre wrote:

I hear ya! I meet ignorant idoit's most days of the week! there everywhere!

07Lapierre wrote:

Not sure what we can do about these idiots. I blame the parents myself!

Me too, most of the time they are the parents!!