Jan and Klodi's Party Bus - part II **off topic discussion**

magicbastarder wrote: »

it was claimed on the commuting & transport forum that one way in which they would help - even with people breaching the speed limit - is that someone willing to do 60 in a current 50 zone might be willing to do only 45 in a 30 zone, so (if true) would reduce speeds.

There was a drop in average speed on the relevant bit of the quays in Dublin after introduction of the 30 zone, IIRC, but it remained quite a bit above 30km/h.

I'm in favour, though I take the point about lack of enforcement. Some arguments are bogus though; it's not a blanket zone, doesn't include arterial routes, cars don't explode when driven for protracted periods at 30km/h, and it's not hard to drive at 30km/h without staring fixedly at the speedometer.

magicbastarder wrote: »

yep, a switch which would turn the lights on five seconds before i hit the pedal.

Exactly. Manual override. Just make sure to explain it to the NCT people too.

Jep Gambardella wrote: »

Yet another law to go on the heap of them that are already unenforced. It's just tokenism, wanting to be seen to do something rather than actually do something.

True, it is unlikely that speeds will actually reduce to sub 30km/h. The hope would be that they reduce from the 60km/h people are comfortable travelling at in a 50km/h zone to around 40km/h. Speed limits do influence people even if they don't adhere to them, not least because there will always be some people who actually comply with them and others who are willing to risk a fine in the unlikely event they get caught but who will nevertheless be reluctant to be caught at 60km/h "twice the speed limit".

So the chnage in speed limit probably won't reduce speeds to 30km/h but it will reduce speeds.

On the motorway I set my cruise control at a little bit over the speed limit, if the speed limit were higher I would fix my speed higher. Of course I also do have regard to what is safe - i don't travel at even half the speed limit that applies on the little single lane boreen in connemara with blind turns I grew up on - 100km/h!

Eamonnator wrote: »

I see that the french for derailleur is also derailleur, but with one of those fadas over the first e.

This (almost) wholesale adoption used to bother Sheldon Brown:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/derailer.html

tomasrojo wrote: »

This (almost) wholesale adoption used to bother Sheldon Brown:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/derailer.html

I love the G. B. Shaw quotation at the end.

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Are they not bottles in English?

As I said, I'm no expert on sports lingo (to say the least), but I've heard people refer to the water bottles you carry on bikes as "bidons" many times. The recent interview with Chris Boardman on The Bike Show podcast has him referring to filling bidons, without elaborating on the term in any way.

Reminds me a little of my Swiss colleague who was disappointed to hear the English translation of Rucksack.

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was wondering - while reading the usual threads about bike lanes, hi vis, etc., what the situation may be like in ten years time, if the glorious utopia of self-driving cars is reached.
might there be a kind of IFF device on a bike which uses GPS and bluetooth v14 to broadcast for a 10m radius that there is a bike there, and what speed and direction it's travelling, or will the cars be clever enough to detect that themselves? so the cars would react to the bikes, rather than vice versa?

i.e. how much safer would it make cycling, and would that have an impact on cycling levels as it became much easier to cycle?

I imagine that if self-driving cars function to the standards that are currently imagined, it can only make it a lot safer. I hope, though, that there's no tendency for cyclists to take advantage of that by breaking more red lights or whatever. Here's a video a friend showed me that is food for thought on self-driving cars:

Went in to renew my driving licence this morning for another 10 years (or so I thought!). The girl processed everything, I paid the €55 and she said it would be sent to me in a few days.

Then she reminded me that I will need to re-submit a Medical Fitness Certificate in 5 years. So I assumed that they would just adjust the dates on the Group 2 categories for another 5 years. No - I'd have to buy another 10 year licence.

I suggested to her that it was effectively a 5 year licence as the 10 year licence would have to be renewed every 5 years. Not at all she replied. The Group 1 categories (which don't require a Medical Fitness Certificate) are valid for 10 years. But it's the same document - you can have Group 1 without Group 2 but it doesn't work the other way around, so it's a bit pointless giving me a 10 year licence for Group 1 when it's of no use to me. Seems a bit unfair to me.

(Incidently, she removed the Eircode from my address saying the don't use them. What hope is there of getting the general public to use them when Government Departments won't?)