Cyclists deaths

Metrobest

robfitz wrote:

Investment in cycling infrastructure is promoted by the government and government body's as a good (the best?) way to provide a safe and comfortable route for cyclists to use.

This investment should help increase the numbers of cyclists.

As most cyclists would tell you, the standard of the cycling infrastructure provided is very poor. The (optional) guidelines that are set by the DTO and DOT are ignored on a regular basis. Worse then
this even the current laws are being ignored.

Yet cyclist are required by law to use cycle tracks where provided.

This cycling infrastructure isn't cheap. I believe the red dash marking costs about 20 Euro a square meter to be laid down, add on the cost of road space, ramps, white lines, traffic signs, design and construction time.

This use of public money is not in the best interests of cyclists and should be reported to the Committee of Public Accounts. http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=182

There should be no need to have a "Strategic Cycle Network". Like all vehicles a bicycle should be able to safely use the existing "Road Network".

Cycling is a safe and enjoyable activity even on the road with motorized vehicles, when practiced with care and attention.

Oh gosh. There's a huge difference between cars and bikes. They cannot co-exist on city streets; the multitude of deaths prove this.

Not a penny should be spared in constucting a decent cycle lane network. I'm talking about cycle lanes sealed off from the road, with enough space to cycle two abreast. You can't put a price on cyclists' lives.

But let's not rely on the DTO for this. The DTO are too busy dreaming up pie-in-the-sky plans of radial metros extending to Portarlington. The DTO couldn't organise a pissup in a vineyard. The DTO's office stands on Stephen's Green, a key city centre hub, where there are multiple lanes devoted to vehicular traffic, but not a single cycle lane. How can the DTO preside over such a farce?

Oh wait... I forgot. There IS one cycle lane at St Stephen's Green. At the corner of the Green beside Earlsfort Tce... Which just happens to be right outside the DTO's office. What a coincidence.

DubTony

The topic of visibility from the cab of a truck is an interesting one and reminds me of a story told to me by a truck driver.

He was driving the cab in stop-start traffic, and had a newspaper on the steering wheel. He waved out a Fiat Cinquecento into the traffic ahead. After a few more yards of stop-start driving, he got engrossed in whatever he was reading and when he looked up there was a gap in front of about 6 car lengths. He let out the clutch and accelerated and ran into the back of the Fiat.

The car was so small that he didn't see it from the cab.

No excuses for reading a newspaper in traffic, but it does show how easily this kind of thing can happen.

Tony

Zaph0d

BrianD wrote:

Zaphod - in fairness we talking about cyclists and not pedestrians.

I don't believe that visibility forward is an issue.

Forward visibility became an issue for Tanya Holst in October 2001 when she was run over on her bicycle by a truck from behind.

cyclopath2001

Metrobest wrote:

Not a penny should be spared in constucting a decent cycle lane network. I'm talking about cycle lanes sealed off from the road, with enough space to cycle two abreast. You can't put a price on cyclists' lives.

It's very unlikely that motorists are going to reduce the size of their amply-proportioned cars to make more room for other road users. But, I suspect you were being a bit 'tongue-in-cheek' here. Seriously speaking, there is less chance of this coming to pass than there is of successfully educating everyone to be better road users.

Today, the traffic lights were not working the major junction in Raheny. It was dark, traffic was flowing safely, people were giving way to each other & nobody was speeding through the junction. I even got to cross on foot as motorists slowed down and checked very carefully as they crossed the junction. It might be worth arguing sometime if traffic-light controlled junctions promote more accidents than they avert.

C:\

Victor

BrianD wrote:

Only recently I noticed two girls step out onto Nassau St. into a bus bay where a bus was reversing.

During the evening rush hour, fire trucks sometimes use Grafton Street to get to St. Stephen's Green in a hurry (less of an issue these days, with changes on St. Stephen's Green). I saw this once, as soon as flashing blue lights and large red truck were seen, almost biblicly, the crowd spreads to both sides, except for two wans having a grand natter as they wander up the centre of the street.

After trailling these two for about 20 seconds, the driver gets impatient and turns on the siren....

BrianD

Zaph0d wrote:

Forward visibility became an issue for Tanya Holst in October 2001 when she was run over on her bicycle by a truck from behind.

But its not the key issue and you're missing the point. The majority of accidents involving HGV's are not like the case you cite. Therefore making a truck cab like that of a bus if not going to have much effect.

Bee

BrianD

The road is too narrow for trucks and cyclists at that point. Any bump in the road that upsets the forward motion of the bike and diverts it sideways turns out to be lethal with trucks.

Bikes should be banned from Dublin

I have come to believe that cyclists should be chained to lamp-posts, and not their bikes.

Continously I have seen idiots on bicycles drive up one-way streets the wrong way, weave their way through densely populated pavements, scream abuse at innocent motorists, gesture violently at terrified pedestrians and - above and beyond all of these crimes - completely ignore red lights.

Red traffic lights mean nothing to cyclists, the psycho cyclist, the berk on a bike.

In Dublin every day a cyclist will endanger your safety. The idea of the cyclist as an eco-friendly wayfarer is cobblers - he/she/it is far more likely to be a belligerent yob who was a Panzer tank commander in a previous lifetime.
The bicycle-clip boys act like the roads belong to them and road traffic laws doesn't apply to them.

The psycho cyclists run red lights, ignore road signs and speed limits.
He can treat small children on zebra crossings and pensioners on pavements as though they are there for target practice.

And they can throw himself under your wheels by virtue of their own recklessness and negligence

The next time you see a cyclist ignore a red light, or steam down a crowded pavement or disregard a traffic sign, please remember - he/she is very vulnerable, the poor little thing.

You are obeying the traffic signs. The cyclist is not. He gets killed

If we cared anything at all about road safety, then we would tear up all the bicycle lanes today. The Gardai should arrest any cyclist who jumps a red light - all of them, in other words.

They are all an affront to civilised society, whether you move around on four wheels or foot. Bicycles are for children. They are for little boys doing their paper round. They are for little girls going round their friend's house to play with their Barbie dolls. Bikes teach kids the joy of mobility, speed and freedom.

They are not for men who think they are somehow better than everybody else because they don't have to stop for a tank of unleaded. Bicycles are like masturbation - something you should grow out of.

Bee

cyclopath2001

Bee wrote:

BrianD
Bikes should be banned from Dublin
......Bicycles are like masturbation - something you should grow out of.
Bee

Hmm, this isn't "An Irishman's Diary", try the Irish Times........

Victor

Bee wrote:

Bicycles are like masturbation - something you should grow out of.

Sounds like denial or something there ...

RicardoSmith

Victor wrote:

Sounds like denial or something there ...

Never been to de Nile myself...

DubTony

Bee wrote:

Bicycles are like masturbation - something you should grow out of.

Bee

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Grow Out Of ????? :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

DubTony

Bee wrote:

Bikes should be banned from Dublin

...cyclists should be chained to lamp-posts, and not their bikes.

... idiots on bicycles drive up one-way streets the wrong way,
weave their way through densely populated pavements,
scream abuse at innocent motorists,
gesture violently at terrified pedestrians

...the psycho cyclist, the berk on a bike.

The idea of the cyclist as an eco-friendly wayfarer is cobblers -
... is far more likely to be a belligerent yob who was a Panzer tank commander in a previous lifetime.
...bicycle-clip boys act like the roads belong to them ...
...psycho cyclists run red lights,
ignore road signs and speed limits.
...can treat small children on zebra crossings and pensioners on pavements as though they are there for target practice.

...throw himself under your wheels by virtue of their own recklessness and negligence


...we would tear up all the bicycle lanes today.

They are all an affront to civilised society, .... Bicycles are for children. ...for little boys doing their paper round ... for little girls going round their friend's house to play with their Barbie dolls.
Bikes teach kids the joy of mobility, speed and freedom.

They are not for men who think they are somehow better than everybody else because they don't have to stop for a tank of unleaded.
Bicycles are like masturbation - something you should grow out of.

Bee

Bee, you should be in politics. :rolleyes:

Tony

jman0

Bee is obviously just a troll.
But really when u get right down to it, what are the concerns?
For cyclists, they are concerned with their personal safetly, injury and death.
For motorists, what are they concerned about? Cutting a couple seconds off their journey time, or at worst denting or scratching their precious fricking car.

Motorists like Bee should be careful what they wish for, if cycling continues to decline, those cyclists will become....motorists. :eek:

Metrobest

Bee - buzz off.

I hope you get to visit Amsterdam sometime and you can observe how proper cycling infrastructure makes the bike a pleasure for everyone, young and old. Even the Dutch Queen rides a bike. Bikes are for everybody. Stop being a snob.