Journalism and cycling

Hopefully this man isn't too badly hurt https://www.lmfm.ie/news/lmfm-news/male-cyclist-taken-to-hospital-with-a-head-injury-following-incident-on-the-north-road-in-drogheda/

It's a roundabout I'm familiar with heading north south on the home leg of a spin now and then but can't say I've had any issues with it. Conditions yesterday in the wet or the wind and maybe some diesel on the road?

Seth Brundle

Not sure what paper this is from but it's good nonetheless

Pinch Flat

https://www.facebook.com/45441411157/posts/10157154950821158/

Irish times article on the new speed cameras. From the comments it appears a lot of drivers will struggle

magicbastarder

no matter how many times someone tries to explain it to me, i just cannot get my head around the wisdom of publishing the list of places where the controls are. not just publishing a list, creating an online map of it.

in what other area of law enforcement do they publish a list which is basically 'here's where you'll be caught if you're breaking the law'?

Grassey

magicbastarder wrote:

in what other area of law enforcement do they publish a list which is basically 'here's where you'll be caught if you're breaking the law'?

And yet they they still catch 1 per hour with 4% Road coverage...

hesker

On a positive note is it a welcome sign that they are investing a bit more in speed detection. I regularly drive through an intersection that is a notorious black spot. There used to be regular speed checks on it. For the last few years there have been none and the number of motorists who pass me at 20-40kph above the speed limit is hardly believable. I was delighted to see two guards with a speed camera there on the way home from work this evening.

Hurrache

magicbastarder wrote: »

no matter how many times someone tries to explain it to me, i just cannot get my head around the wisdom of publishing the list of places where the controls are. not just publishing a list, creating an online map of it.

in what other area of law enforcement do they publish a list which is basically 'here's where you'll be caught if you're breaking the law'?

The idea that you may be caught, without the need for the presence of enforcement, is enough to slow most people down and is safer than actually catching people inappropriately speeding.

magicbastarder

however - publishing a list of speed van locations is functionally identical to publishing a list of where speed vans are *not* located.
so the 'idea that you may be caught' is not a deterrent, as it will just result in 'i know i can drive like a demon till i come to murphy's junction on the R763, and then floor it after that'.

tomasrojo

The same logic doesn't seem to apply to drink-driving checkpoints. You don't get any forewarning of those, as far as I know.

Idleater

tomasrojo wrote: »

The same logic doesn't seem to apply to drink-driving checkpoints. You don't get any forewarning of those, as far as I know.

Drink driving checkpoints are carried out by the Gardaí, not a third party. The published list is the go-safe designated areas, Gardaí can and do not up speed checks everywhere.

The idea of the publication of the areas is to "encourage" behavior change, checked by the third-party. The second aspect is to have a designated contract for the public service contract, a carte-blanch set up where you like wouldn't be convincing to the public.

magicbastarder

Idleater wrote: »

The idea of the publication of the areas is to "encourage" behavior change

this is the argument i just find counterproductive. you would encourage behaviour change more effectively if people *didn't* know where the speed vans were and decided to drive as if there was one around every corner.

Seth Brundle

Dublin council official calls for ban on parents driving children to school
Conference hears of how Dublin might reach ambitious air quality targets by 2030

Parents should be legally prohibited from driving their children to school, a senior Dublin City Council official has told a clean air conference.

The Climate Brave event drew a panel of experts to discuss how the capital might reach ambitious air quality targets by 2030, often by way of “difficult and potentially unpopular decisions”.

Brendan O’Brien, head of technical services for traffic, said that if given the power “what I would do in the morning is actually make it illegal for anybody to drive their kids to school”.

“That’s the most critical thing we could do because it would then force us, I suppose, to provide public transport and walking and cycling [facilities],” he said in response to a hypothetical policy question.

“It would also eliminate the reason a lot of people say they need to drive: they’re dropping their kids off. It’s not that we don’t understand that people have to do this, it’s just that in order of us sometimes to provide all the alternatives quickly enough we have to have this massive pressure.”

Continues...

Pinch Flat

But but but Dublin is too wet / cold.....

Idleater

magicbastarder wrote: »

this is the argument i just find counterproductive.

For every you, there's a person who can't remember where each of those 903 locations are and will adjust (or not) their speed accordingly.

I'm not saying that i disagree with you but from my time on the continent, areas with speed camera signs and or hi-viz (:pac:) boxes at the side of the road have better public support acceptance and compliance than the "sneaky" hidden "money grabbing" etc and so forth.

What should be of more concern is the strike rate despite the publication.

Chips Lovell

Proper order. Pretty tepid support from the NTA though.

Large bottle small glass

magicbastarder wrote: »

this is the argument i just find counterproductive. you would encourage behaviour change more effectively if people *didn't* know where the speed vans were and decided to drive as if there was one around every corner.

There was an issue, don't know if it still is, with the evidence provided by Go Safe staff to district courts.

Lots of cases thrown out en masse by district judges.

In July 2014 Kearns in the High Court ruled against them also; I don't know if there is ongoing implications for this or not.

While I've never done it or needed to, I'd imagine I'd successfully challenge most speeding convictions in an Irish district court where the prosecution was being brought by a Garda.

If Go Safe vans were given a carte blanche of where they could set up, I'd imagine it would be a free for all in terms of prosecutions. It shouldn't be but I could easily see issues with townsland name, border/jurisdiction issues/public place etc.

I think you are also over estimating the average drivers navigation ability/awareness.

https://www.bandonsolicitors.com/illegal-defence/

buffalo

Chips Lovell wrote: »

Proper order. Pretty tepid support from the NTA though.

aye, they don't seem to realise they have the power to change behaviour:

the NTA already funds programmes to encourage children to walk or use bikes but that they often travel significant distances.

“Maybe parents should think about trying to ensure that their children go to school locally . . . and then it’s more accessible by walking and cycling,” she said.

Reads as "children should attend school locally, then they don't have to drive", instead of the ambitious "if we ban driving children, they'll attend school locally (or at least take public transport)".

Chips Lovell

Idleater wrote: »

For every you, there's a person who can't remember where each of those 903 locations are and will adjust (or not) their speed accordingly.

Fortunately I don't have to remember. My car will tell me where they are:

Moyagh Murdock, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, said: “The locations are also being shared with satellite navigation companies."

tomasrojo

magicbastarder wrote: »

this is the argument i just find counterproductive. you would encourage behaviour change more effectively if people *didn't* know where the speed vans were and decided to drive as if there was one around every corner.

Yeah, it still doesn't make sense to me. Random checks are better. I don't know what difference third-parties or whatever make, apart from maybe a look at how to remove whatever obstacles exist legally. But I'll re-read this later and try to figure it out.

tomasrojo

Idleater wrote: »

Drink driving checkpoints are carried out by the Gardaí, not a third party. The published list is the go-safe designated areas, Gardaí can and do not up speed checks everywhere.

I think your text got garbled there. Was it "Gardaí can do and do speed checks everywhere", or something like that?

CramCycle

Chips Lovell wrote: »

Fortunately I don't have to remember. My car will tell me where they are:

My friends car does that, notifies you with a big long line on the cars map saying this is a speed van area. There are still Garda speed checks here and there but they are so under resourced that they seem few and far between.

Schrodingercat

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Dublin council official calls for ban on parents driving children to school
Conference hears of how Dublin might reach ambitious air quality targets by 2030

The Article takes the comment out of context


https://twitter.com/Pidge/status/1229514610132340737

"I asked each of the panel of speakers if they were a benevolent dictator for a day, what would they do to improve climate change. It was a jokey context, with a serious point about offering alternatives behind."

rubadub

Schrodingercat wrote: »

The Article takes the comment out of context


https://twitter.com/Pidge/status/1229514610132340737

Jaysus, "if anybody eats that twix I'll kill yiz"

-"Council offical threatened to murder his family"

Don't Chute!

Pinch Flat wrote: »

https://www.facebook.com/45441411157/posts/10157154950821158/

Irish times article on the new speed cameras. From the comments it appears a lot of drivers will struggle

It’s incredible how many stupid people there are on Facebook. My personal favorite?
“This is the E.U making up for loosing the U.K......”

CramCycle

I have always thought of stupidity as a disease that needed close contact to pass along, but also required sufficient number of people with the ability to catch it for it to become a major worry. In the past, this was handled because those who suffered from it where generally in a population where many people were immune, so herd immunity kept it in check. Unfortunately the internet has become a disease vector for this illness and herd immunity no longer applies.

Seth Brundle

Letter in today's Irish Times - prepare for the usual negative responses...
Deplorable state of cycle-lanes

Sir, – I have the privilege of having cycle-lanes for most of my cycle to and from work in Dublin. However, cycle-lanes are only useful if they are respected and the stretch through Ranelagh is something of a joke. Rather than make spurious claims, I have photographed and counted the parked vehicles in the cycle lane as I passed through over the past few months – 50 mornings and 50 evenings. The results are stark: an average of 4.6 vehicles blocking the lane, a maximum of 19 in one pass and, most striking of all, only nine times out of 100 when the lane was clear! – Yours, etc,

Prof EUGENE O’BRIEN,
School of Civil Engineering,
University College Dublin,
Dublin 4.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/deplorable-state-of-cycle-lanes-1.4177685

AndrewJRenko

Schrodingercat wrote: »

The Article takes the comment out of context

You're not suggesting that the Irish Times misrepresented something relating to cycling, surely? That could never happen for the paper of record. Absolutely never.

Hurrache

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Letter in today's Irish Times - prepare for the usual negative responses...
Deplorable state of cycle-lanes


https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/deplorable-state-of-cycle-lanes-1.4177685

Discussed on Drivetime this evening.

Seth Brundle

Hurrache wrote: »

Discussed on Drivetime this evening.

Did the usual topics of road tax, insurance, three abreast and so on get a mention?

Hurrache

Nope, not one of them! The letter writer was on and towards the end he was asked if he's ever been hit, which he wasn't, so a relatively sensible chat.