Cycling In Irish Cities

bertiebowl

I cycle to work and believe that cyling can make a real contribution to our environment avoiding the polution of cars.

What I want to know is are there other cyclists out there at the end of their teither cycling each day through dangerous, heavily polluted cities?

My local council put in some cycle lanes a while back, but these have all been dug up numerous times since and resemble a bosnian mine field at the moment.

Pollution from cars is terrible and the physical danger from cars etc. is even worse.

photty

yes i commute by bike (40k a day ) and do a lot of cycling at the weekends too. i really wish people would change their attitudes towards bikes. I think that people still regard them as something children use rather than a perfectly good way to get around and stay fit doing it. Perhaps it's the cost of good road bikes that puts people off? Still, an excellent MTB can be had for 500 euro or thereabouts. btw if anyone is thinking about getting a new MTB don't bother with suspension unless you actually intend to ride trails. And even then suspension isn't required. Just a solid make of bike.

Typedef

Originally posted by bertiebowl
My local council put in some cycle lanes a while back, but these have all been dug up numerous times since and resemble a bosnian mine field at the moment.

Something I would like to see our Eurocrat politicians getting legislated would be for the companies who fill in the road after they are finished digging it up, be held accountable for the job they do, such that the state can require said company to fix a refill job that a state inspector considers to be sub standard.

This sort of legislation would improve the standards of Irish roads exponentially as well as reducing the state's bill in resurfacing and upkeep.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Typedef

I think a strong case can be made for completely closing off certainly Cork & Dublin's City Centre's to traffic, bar commercial traffic that is supplying businesses in the exclusion zone.

In Dublin this exclusion zone would operate from Dorset street to Stephen's Green and from the Custom House to Heuston Station.

Then commuters could take bikes or a small tram system could service the immediate city centre. As has been pointed out most traffic that clogs the city centre doesn't really have to go through the city centre.

The same with Cork, I can't comment on street names, having been there recently though, a similar exclusion zone could operate from the Train station to the Park at the top of the mainstreet (who's name escapes me). Again a tram system could service this square area and wardens could ensure only traffic that has business conducting commerce within the traffic exclusion zone is permitted in.

Then people can cycle or walk around the city centre in peace and the city's themselves become bigger tourist attractions.

"It's pie in the sky though" Re Seamus Brennan and the debacle with his flexing his Ministerial muscles with Dublin Corporation and it's traffic signs, because he thought the signs "confusing". I would find it unlikely any such useful measure could be initiated by the utterly confused transportation administration machisma, it is too busy deciding who controls what, playing politics with the transportation infrastructure, to actually get anything useful done.

For sure if the City Centre's of Dublin,Cork,Galway,Limerick and Waterford became city centre commercial traffic only zones, cycling would most certainly increase and investment in infrastructure to facilitate cyclists would be expidited.

Yoda

I would love to cycle, but frankly I think that Irish drivers are so poor, and so incredibly unaware of the concept of "lane", that I am honestly afraid to ride a bike on the streets. I don't trust people not to kill me. Recently I visited Denmark (København and Odense) and the bike facilities there are simply wonderful.

Cycling would be good for my health -- but for the drivers. Where are the dedicated, separated cycle paths?

Yoda

Originally posted by Typedef
"It's pie in the sky though" Re Seamus Brennan and the debacle with his flexing his Ministerial muscles with Dublin Corporation and it's traffic signs, because he thought the signs "confusing".

In fairness to the minister I completely agree with him on this point. The colour scheme was insane! Purple? Has anyone ever seen a purple roadsign in any country in the world? Why might that be? Could it be -- that it doesn't work? That it can't be distinguished by some types of colour blindness? I don't know whether the scheme of the ring routes makes sense or not, but the signage was poorly designed in my view.

Typedef

Most of the one's I've seen have been yellow.

True enough for colour blindness Green is probably the best colour, however I thought that it was so utterly like governance in this country for the left hand not to know what the right hand was doing and Brennan to clash with the Corporation.

How typical public money has 'already' been spent on the signs that are being junked, sort of like the public money that has 'already' been spent in Abbots town with the company that "doesn't" exist.

Sure you'd easilly know the politicians spending the money hadn't made it to begin with.

Kalina

I cycle to college in waterford and it's becoming more dangerous to do so. The traffic is at crawling speed a lot of the distance and these cars all seem to drive inches from the kerb leaving no space for cyclists (and I don't think there are cycling lanes in Waterford- at least not on my route up the Cork Rd). I have to cycle through 2 roundabouts every day and that really is taking your life into your own hands;) ! People think nothing of changing lanes suddenly without using indicators, cutting across other traffic and as for traffic yielding right of way forget it if you're cycling. Even crossing the road pushing a bike is dangerous- a friend of mine and I were crossing the street at the Cork Rd roundabout and a guy came along in a car and ploughed straight into my friends bike, he didn't seem to see us at all. Cyclists, at least in Waterford, would be safer on the footpath but that poses obvious threat to pedestrians but I can't see the city council installing cycle lanes, the cars and other traffic hardly have room to move never mind cyclists!!:rolleyes: