Journalism and cycling

MightyMandarin wrote: »

Imagine your life being so miserable you feel compelled to make a fb page about cyclists breaking the rules of the road.

Poor fella should take up a more exciting hobby like watching the grass grow or something.

Most of his videos are made on a mobile phone while driving.

Coming up on Pat Kenny, ignoring the rules of the road is a matter of life and death in London, he finds out why. Sigh.

I heard them discussing this segment at the end of the breakfast show, Paul Williams had quite the take on it:

We have to do something about these cyclists breaking the law as there were "36 cyclists killed on our roads over ...er... the last number of periods".

Kav0777 wrote: »

I heard them discussing this segment at the end of the breakfast show, Paul Williams had quite the take on it:
We have to do something about these cyclists breaking the law as there were "36 cyclists killed on our roads over ...er... the last number of periods".

Paul Williams, known cyclist hater, not as bad as Hook of course, he wishes he was that controversial!

William's solution would most likely be to make cycling on roads illegal!

Yeah but if we brought in “road tax” for cyclists, all these problems would magically go away

rodneyTrotter. wrote: »

Why is it always thought that cyclists don’t drive or pay tax . Why are we all pigeonholed as red light breaking city centre cyclists .

I drive all day and all I see is cars breaking lights , crash’s on the m50 daily, traffic jams and people on phones driving .

At the end of the day ireland is still overwhelmingly a car dominated and car dependent country. The mighty car has been engrained so much I irish group think that people can’t inagine life without it. And generally drivers can do no wrong - it’s always the cyclists or pedestrians fault. I had a driver le tyre me about how I should be more responsible for my own road safety when he overtook me and left hooked me across a cycling lane a few months ago. That’s the general attitude out there.

As noted by me an others here on other threads, follow the comments in social media when cycling comes up. Mass hysteria. Helmets, insurance, hi vis, “road tax”, etc. Very little commentary on slowing down, leave earlier, stop putting people needlessly at risk.

Theres been two hit and runs this week reported in the media - one in west Dublin, 3 people critically injured when a car mounted a path. A young boy also hurt in a hit and run in Kerry. Neither of these stories raised barely a comment in the media. Says it all, it’s like it’s just accepted these days.

rodneyTrotter. wrote: »

Don’t Newstalk love just bringing up “drivers v cyclists “ . I listened to most of it today . Feels like every couple of days they bring it up .
Ciara Kelly was told by her guest that dayglow and Helmets wouldn’t save you from getting crushed by a truck . Delighted she made that point . Not that she seemed to take on the guests point of view .
She couldn’t wait to read out the usual guff about red light breaking etc to finish up.

Why is it always thought that cyclists don’t drive or pay tax . Why are we all pigeonholed as red light breaking city centre cyclists .

I drive all day and all I see is cars breaking lights , crash’s on the m50 daily, traffic jams and people on phones driving .

Doc Ciara was on today about the obesity crisis and sugar tax. And her own station plays a significant role in attacking cycling - probably the single biggest missed opportunity to address our obesity and other health crisis's.

https://twitter.com/Byclemore/status/991472271926611968

Being kind, you could say that they are simply serving their target market - the frazzled commuter-rat motorist.

I just would appreciate their honesty if they acknowledged that due to their obvious bias, they're not going to be in a position to add anything useful to the cyclist safety discussion. That would be somewhat refreshing.

However, instead of honesty we get the regular "debates" where free reign is given to all the same ridiculous old chestnuts - red light breaking, hi-viz, helmets, "road tax" (tm), compulsory licencing and insurance etc. Its like a worn-old record going around and around.....

magicbastarder wrote: »

i would bet my bottom dollar that 95%+ of gardai get to work in cars and their sympathy would be skewed in that direction.

Right: Rathfarnham Station
Left: Personal cars of Rathfarnham Gardai



Footpath is in bits from being torn up by them.

“Never cycle in Ireland”

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/the-cycling-fatalities-never-cycle-in-ireland-1.3488223?mode=amp

Story is repeated on the IT Facebook page. Comments so far put the blame on the cyclists. A car dominated country with a very low sense of personal responsibility, dangerous mix.

The Irish Times's editorial on the need to build a safe cycling infrastructure network immediately https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-cycling-infrastructure-time-to-get-moving-1.3492024

Given that the number of cyclists in Dublin city has more than doubled over the past six years, with an estimated 95,000 people using bikes every day, there is a moral onus on the Government to invest in protecting them – and, by doing so, encourage even more to take up cycling. It is not as if there is no money available. For example, €550 million was spent on a full-scale motorway between Gort and Tuam in Co Galway that is anticipated to reach a mere quarter of its design capacity in 2030. By prioritising road investment, the Department of Transport has obviously forgotten about its own Smarter Travel strategy, unveiled in 2009, which promised to support more sustainable modes, including cycling. Bureaucratic inertia, misguided notions that we must go on catering for motorised traffic and the absence of a strong political commitment to make this happen are all standing in the way of progress.

and

Seville, in the south of Spain, where hardly anyone used bikes, invested €32 million in an extensive network of cycleways between 2006 and 2010 that now caters for 70,000 trips per day. “Build it and they will come” was the motto. And they did, in great numbers. Perhaps [Minister for Transport Shane] Ross should take a trip there to see what can be done.