Journalism and cycling

gmacww

Yeah I wasn't sure if it was that or cyclists who are strong no helmet type people.

mcgratheoin

gmacww wrote: »

Yeah I wasn't sure if it was that or cyclists who are strong no helmet type people.

Without derailing the thread, one of the issues with the no helmet media coverage is the conflation of "no helmets!" with "no mandatory helmets!". It's very important to clarify the difference between the two and is something that the media in general have utterly failed to do.

martingriff

Lumen wrote: »

Probable translation:

"No helmet brigade": people who react to stories of fatalities by complaining that cyclists ride without helmets.

Discussion here:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057030568

Not to derail thread but I be in the wear helmet camp only because I have seen on 5 separate occasions where helmets did help in someone not been seriously injured and those cyclist thankful as fork they did wear helmets so it's not all idiots

Lumen

martingriff wrote: »

Not to derail thread but I be in the wear helmet camp only because I have seen on 5 separate occasions where helmets did help in someone not been seriously injured and those cyclist thankful as fork they did wear helmets so it's not all idiots

That might be a point worth debating on the helmet thread.

CramCycle

MOD VOICE: It is a hard line to follow but unless an article is discussing helmets, lets move all the helmet discussion over to the helmet thread. Thanks

Grassey

http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/home/286205/drunk-when-riding-a-bicycle-in-kill-y-y.html

I'm confused as to whether he had to pay because he was drunk on a bike...or stole the bike (as that's only mentioned in passing). But Jack Daniels is clearly a bad whiskey and drive him to the act.

Fighting Tao

LUAS track injuries.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/luas-tracks-causing-rise-in-cycling-injuries-says-hospital-worker-1.3330684?mode=amp

Fian

Positive article in the Guardian - "How cycling saved me".

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/18/anxiety-depression-cycling-cbt

monument

Grassey wrote: »

http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/home/286205/drunk-when-riding-a-bicycle-in-kill-y-y.html

I'm confused as to whether he had to pay because he was drunk on a bike...or stole the bike (as that's only mentioned in passing). But Jack Daniels is clearly a bad whiskey and drive him to the act.

Lol

“He started to drink Jack Daniels whiskey, which is not a good whiskey. I wouldn't drink it, but they did,” said the man’s lawyer!

tomasrojo

I think this is the source of Conor Faughnan's appearance on the radio talking about 30km/h zones raising death rates? Anyway, no surprise, it's statistical baloney.

https://twitter.com/lewis_spurgin/status/942715087244222465
https://t.co/T4bAyEu9W6

Corca Baiscinn

tomasrojo wrote: »

I think this is the source of Conor Faughnan's appearance on the radio talking about 30km/h zones raising death rates? Anyway, no surprise, it's statistical baloney.

Yes it must have been that article but imo the real blame lies with the producers and presenter of Lunchtime Live for bringing Conor F into the studio on this flimsy pretext. It was exactly 3 weeks since he had a lengthy slot on LL on the topic of 30 km speed limits and both times he trotted out the same garbage re it all being based on ideology rather than safety. Re the Telegraph report itself, he was clever and talked about the statistics of small numbers and the time period being to short to be statistically significant.

Oddly enough he also refused to be drawn into cyclist-baiting arising from listener texts. He said, yes, cycists were entitled to cycle on the section of the N 25 that has a 120 limit as they are only banned form actual motorways and "No", cyclists did not need lights as strong as motor bikes have.

I'm not replying to defend the AA, they're well capable of doing that themselves but rather to say that it's Newstalk and Ciara Kelly that I take issue with over this kind of poorly researched offering.

ThisRegard

tomasrojo wrote: »

I think this is the source of Conor Faughnan's appearance on the radio talking about 30km/h zones raising death rates? Anyway, no surprise, it's statistical baloney.

https://twitter.com/lewis_spurgin/status/942715087244222465
https://t.co/T4bAyEu9W6

To be fair to Faughnan he did say from the outset that he thinks that's a statistical anomaly (Bath I think was the city) and it was the radio show who put forward the misleading statement. In fact he stated it move than once throughout his interview.

Re the oddly though statement above, he does believe in cycling in cities and cycles himself.

I think he's often unfairly demonised as he's the head of the AA but he's not a rabid motorist, he's pretty pragmatic.

HivemindXX

ThisRegard wrote: »

I think he's often unfairly demonised as he's the head of the AA but he's not a rabid motorist, he's pretty pragmatic.

I think he is very fairly criticised for coming out with utter nonsense like claiming that cars don't pollute any more than a family of four simply breathing.

I think he is pragmatic in that he see the advantage in appearing to be even handed.

ThisRegard

Seems odd of him to a family breathing pollutes more than a car. What was the context and the quote in which he made that claim?

Grassey

ThisRegard wrote:

Seems odd of him to a family breathing pollutes more than a car. What was the context and the quote in which he made that claim?

http://irishcycle.com/2017/01/30/epa-data-shows-aa-underplayed-impact-of-cars-on-climate-change-to-oireachtas-committee/


Faughnan continued: “To put this in context, if we can imagine a family of four using a band B car that is bought now, a 162 D registered car which would be a decent sized family car, that car would have to clock up more 16,000 km per year before CO2 emissions from its tailpipe would match what the family produce through breathing in a year, yet we continually hear the private car being mentioned as if it was the only thing in the country that was contributing to emissions.”

Skrynesaver

Just finishing off my bowl of diesel before heading out...
I doubt he doesn't understand the nature of the carbon cycle and how burning dinosaurs effects total CO2 levels, that's thrown out to discredit the notion of ACC and sow confusion in the minds of the more easily led.

fat bloke

Grassey wrote: »

http://irishcycle.com/2017/01/30/epa-data-shows-aa-underplayed-impact-of-cars-on-climate-change-to-oireachtas-committee/


Faughnan continued: “To put this in context, if we can imagine a family of four using a band B car that is bought now, a 162 D registered car which would be a decent sized family car, that car would have to clock up more 16,000 km per year before CO2 emissions from its tailpipe would match what the family produce through breathing in a year, yet we continually hear the private car being mentioned as if it was the only thing in the country that was contributing to emissions.”

I'd love to put Mr Faughnan in a room with an idling diesel Kia for an hour. And then repeat the experiment with a breathing family of four, and see which one he prefers...

randomname2005

Skrynesaver wrote: »

Just finishing off my bowl of diesel before heading out...
I doubt he doesn't understand the nature of the carbon cycle and how burning dinosaurs effects total CO2 levels, that's thrown out to discredit the notion of ACC and sow confusion in the minds of the more easily led.

Isn't the carbon cycle something that only effected dirty old diesels?

magicbastarder

randomname2005 wrote: »

Isn't the carbon cycle something that only effected dirty old diesels?

i thought cyclists *like* carbon cycles?

tomasrojo

Has he made the family-of-four point recently? I remember the time reported on in the IrishCycle link.

monument

ThisRegard wrote: »

To be fair to Faughnan he did say from the outset that he thinks that's a statistical anomaly (Bath I think was the city) and it was the radio show who put forward the misleading statement. In fact he stated it move than once throughout his interview.

He went onto dish the schemes in Bath, and Dublin and the general roll out of 30km/h.

His sensible nuggets are mirrored by pure nonsense, often factually incorrect — ie claims like none of the Dublin zones have traffic calming when much of the 30km/h is now old residential areas with ramps and traffic calming was retro-fitted to smaller streets after 30km/h was expanded in the city centre, or claims that there’s no more calming planned when the city council has said they will put in more.

ThisRegard wrote: »

Re the oddly though statement above, he does believe in cycling in cities and cycles himself.

But opposes giving space to cycling (ie the Liffey Cycle Routes) and even opposes secure bicycle parking (bike hangers) because some of it may replace car parking.

I’m not sure what him cycling has to do with it — people who cycle have diverse views and we really should look at what the AA says and what they lobby for, not the personal mode of transport used by some of its employees.

ThisRegard wrote: »

I think he's often unfairly demonised as he's the head of the AA but he's not a rabid motorist, he's pretty pragmatic.

Can you give a few examples of where he has been unfairly demonised?

average_runner

Two good clips of idiots on the roads.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/watch-dramatic-moment-food-delivery-cyclist-breaks-red-light-and-collides-with-a-taxi-in-dublin-36424406.html

One a cyclist breaking a red light, hopefully he pays for the damage to the car.


https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/caught-on-camera-moment-driver-swerves-his-car-into-a-cyclist-36424563.html

Second one where a driver should be up on attempted murder charge!!

CramCycle

average_runner wrote: »

Two good clips of idiots on the roads.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/watch-dramatic-moment-food-delivery-cyclist-breaks-red-light-and-collides-with-a-taxi-in-dublin-36424406.html

One a cyclist breaking a red light, hopefully he pays for the damage to the car.

I suspect the brakes are not great in the first clip as he has his foot down to aid in the stopping, cyclist probably got done twice, once for hitting the car and again by Deliveroo for not being on time.

amcalester

Another clip from the Indo, this time it shows the importance of proper signaling and road position.

LINK

magicbastarder

i think it shows the importance of not giving the indo the oxygen of publicity.
they wouldn't have shown a minor prang between two cars.

amcalester

That's a fair point, and I did think something similar but it's a slow day in work.

I love how the second video has nothing to do with failing to signal.

Anyway, person on the bike didn't even look over their shoulder let alone signal :eek:

amcalester

Deleted User wrote: »

I love how the second video has nothing to do with failing to signal.

Anyway, person on the bike didn't even look over their shoulder let alone signal :eek:

Yeah, it looks like the cyclists assumed all traffic was going right.

average_runner

magicbastarder wrote: »

i think it shows the importance of not giving the indo the oxygen of publicity.
they wouldn't have shown a minor prang between two cars.

Really so what about this yesterday in the indo
https://www.independent.ie/world-new...-36424563.html

average_runner

amcalester wrote: »

Yeah, it looks like the cyclists assumed all traffic was going right.

The cyclists obviously didn't look where the cycle lane was going then!!!