Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

Type 17

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Until we prioritised the 46A and got people moving.

I can remember the days (late 70’s) before bus lanes were widespread- sitting on the top deck of a bus on the Blackrock road with two static lanes of cars, with mine and other buses stuck in the traffic like islands in a sea (of Cortinas, Hillman Hunters, etc).

AFAIK, the N11 was widened around that time in part to add a bus lane. Anyone wanting to see what it used to look like can see the bypassed sections at Cabinteely village to Cornelscourt, the Galloping Green pub and up the hill and along the front of Stillorgan shopping centre.

A lot done, a lot more to do...

magicbastarder

oh; never realised that. the road past the bank centre in cabinteely, i assume you mean?

Type 17

Yes, that used to be the main road from Dublin city to Bray, Wicklow, Wexford, Rosslare, etc.

Note the remains of yellow and black stripes painted on walls on the outside of bends (60’s road safety)

Hurrache

What's now a short drive into Wexford was bit of an expedition back then. Newtown Mount Kennedy and Ashford were stop off points to take a rest and a bit of grub before continuing.

Type 17

New Street, Malahide to be temporarily(?) pedestrianised:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/seaside-dublin-village-to-be-partly-pedestrianised-1.4277909

Wishbone Ash

Type 17 wrote: »

I can remember the days (late 70’s) before bus lanes were widespread- sitting on the top deck of a bus on the Blackrock road with two static lanes of cars, with mine and other buses stuck in the traffic like islands in a sea (of Cortinas, Hillman Hunters, etc).

AFAIK, the N11 was widened around that time in part to add a bus lane. Anyone wanting to see what it used to look like can see the bypassed sections at Cabinteely village to Cornelscourt, the Galloping Green pub and up the hill and along the front of Stillorgan shopping centre.

A lot done, a lot more to do...

Most of the old road is still extant on the section in Stillorgan along the Orchard pub and where Esmonde Motors used to be (across the road and down a bit from St John of God Hospital).

AndrewJRenko

magicbastarder wrote: »

oh; never realised that. the road past the bank centre in cabinteely, i assume you mean?

I can remember the black/white markings on the wall at the bend in the road just south of Cornelscourt, when that was the main road.

CramCycle

Where if you were going to Wexford you'd go via Enniskerry to skip traffic but then you had the cross the road danger game as you tried to turn right onto what is the old N11. Road safety was a different game back then as most cars had poor acceleration, laden down with 8 people and accessories in what would barely pass for a 5 seater nowadays. You guessed where space would be and accelerated into what you would hope would still be a space by the time you got across the road.

magicbastarder

The Bicycle as a Vehicle of Protest

A week ago, on Wednesday night, the third night of a citywide curfew in New York, police officers were seen confiscating bicycles. Posts on social media described N.Y.P.D. officers violently seizing bikes from peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators, who were continuing to march in defiance of the 8 P.M.. lockdown. In one widely shared video clip, a jittery camera captured a cop wheeling an apparently commandeered bike; a woman can be heard screaming at police, asking why bikes are being taken, and how protesters are supposed to travel home. Another piece of viral footage, retweeted by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others, shows three policemen clubbing a cyclist with batons on a Manhattan street. It’s unclear whether the man was arrested, or what became of his bicycle.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-bicycle-as-a-vehicle-of-protest

Type 17

Not to make direct comparisons, but the last time I heard about bicycles being confiscated, it was in Europe in the early 1940's, in countries around Germany, to keep the resistance from having handy transport...

magicbastarder

that's mentioned in the article.

Type 17

magicbastarder wrote: »

that's mentioned in the article.

Oops, I haven't got as far as that yet...

AndrewJRenko

CramCycle wrote: »

Where if you were going to Wexford you'd go via Enniskerry to skip traffic but then you had the cross the road danger game as you tried to turn right onto what is the old N11. Road safety was a different game back then as most cars had poor acceleration, laden down with 8 people and accessories in what would barely pass for a 5 seater nowadays. You guessed where space would be and accelerated into what you would hope would still be a space by the time you got across the road.

I can well remember the Friday evenings stuck in Shankill for what seemed like eternity, or in Naas waiting to make the right turn for Kilcullen.

In fairness, roads are great, aren't they?

magicbastarder

i used to have to drive around the country installing and fixing computers in 99/2000. before the motorways. fond memories of being stuck in traffic approaching skeheenarinky.

RobertFoster

magicbastarder wrote: »

i used to have to drive around the country installing and fixing computers in 99/2000. before the motorways. fond memories of being stuck in traffic approaching skeheenarinky.

I loved that song as a kid.

magicbastarder

i only recently learned that the town name translates as 'the bush for dancing around'.

magicbastarder

Further policy concessions to the Greens include the banning of further exploration of gas in the waters off Ireland and an annual spend of €360 million on walking and cycling infrastructure. This €360 million spend will be allocated before the 2:1 split in favour of public transport.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/leaders-set-to-sign-off-on-government-deal-as-agreement-reached-on-transport-and-7-target-1.4278782

Curb Your Enthusiasm

https://twitter.com/Alan_Dillon/status/1272114055403024384?s=19

FG's Alan Dillon raised a proposal to introduce mandatory helmet laws for cyclists in Ireland....

magicbastarder

that's being discussed in the helmets thread.

Type 17

In the UK, 1950's - 70's urban design still alive and well today:

Garden Villages locking in car-dependency

Hurrache

May confuse a certain subset of people who were out appluading the very same people they'll complain about having to share the road with.

https://twitter.com/misspollyanna/status/1272791510308794368

magicbastarder

and only three of them wearing helmets, joe.

AndrewJRenko

Hurrache wrote: »

May confuse a certain subset of people who were out appluading the very same people they'll complain about having to share the road with.

And the award for most anti-social use of a small business Twitter account goes to ;

https://twitter.com/CunneenLock/status/1272285561378811906?s=19

tomasrojo

Whatever about the merits of the h-objects, several other people in that photo have one, but put them on the handlebars, because they're posing for a photo. So Mr. Cunneen (Rabbitt?) seems to be objecting to people *standing beside* a bike without having a helmet on their head.

tomasrojo

I'm reminded of a photograph a proud gun owner put on social media of the stock of weaponry in his garage, but there were several comments underneath noting the presence of children's bicycles nearby -- with NO HELMETS ON THE HANDLEBARS!!

Hurrache

magicbastarder wrote: »

and only three of them wearing helmets, joe.

And they're on the footpad! I do hope they pop some wheelies.

p15574

From today's Examiner:
Collisions with cars only account for 30% of cycling injuries in Ireland

I'm very surprised that cars are only responsible for 30% of injuries, but the data collection may also be at fault. I note that "Kerbs, potholes and trees were mentioned by some, while the cause of the crash was unspecified for many" - I suspect that a lot of these may be either directly due to vehicles close-passing, forcing the cyclists into these obstacles, or else cyclist being too afraid of traffic to take primary position and thus avoid them. Can't really take evasive action to avoid a sunken drain if a HGV is thundering past you 50cm away. Proper segregated infrastructure would help, but the lack thereof maybe can't be definitively linked without better data.

Might also provide some ammunition for the "helmet brigade".

DoraDelite

Are they counting sports cyclists in these figures? if they are then it's already skewed as you'd have MTB cyclists who's injuries will never involve a car and road racing cyclists who would pick up injuries in accidents during a race that likely wouldn't involve a car.

Chips Lovell

I suspect they are. Over the past decade, I've been treated four times in A&E for bike related injuries and, in every instance, they don't really seek any detail beyond "I fell off my bike".

Cetyl Palmitate

The framing of the report clouds the fact that urban/suburban utility cycling, given appropriate infrastructure, should be a very low risk activity but is not due to conflict between bicycles and cars.