Journalism and cycling

JMcL wrote: »

Well, one ray of hope is that it's likely the Greens will be an element of the new Government. I'd have to believe there'll be a strong focus on tipping the balance towards active travel - as a means to an end in pushing towards the aggresive CO2 reduction targets if not explicitly - especially in light of the stated intent of other hard hit cities such as Paris, Milan, and London

Although FF and FG talk in soothing tones about encouraging walking and cycling, both seem vehemently opposed to doing anything to rock the status quo of car dominance in Irish towns and cities. Their actions (of lack thereof) paint a very clear picture of where their priorities lie.

It was notable in their reply letter to the Greens that the answer to the question about committing 20% of travel budget to walking and cycling was a complete fudge answer. This would surely be an easy way for them to nail their colours to the mast if they were genuinely committed to change.

So, as much as I would love to believe that the Greens will get to have a meaningful influence, I think they'll ending up having to make do with a bare minimum of scraps to keep them happy.

Greens wrote:

Will you commit to rebalancing our transport infrastructure spend, dedicating at least 20% of infrastructure expenditure in transport to cycling and walking and ensuring that other public transport infrastructure investment is allocated at least two-thirds of the remaining infrastructure budget?

FF FG wrote:

As is set out in the Framework Document we are committed to increasing the number of daily journeys by foot and bicycle, as well as investing more in public transport.
We do commit to increasing capital expenditure in walking and cycling areas and we want to discuss the best way that this should be done taking into consideration the pipeline and quality of projects.
We can commit to ensuring that in terms of new transport infrastructure, a 2:1 ratio of expenditure for public transport to roads is achieved. However, we believe it is important not to include within this ratio expenditure spending on required maintenance and upkeep of the existing transport network which is require for safety and connectivity.

Cork City Council continues to take the p1ss.

From a recent article:

"In France, the environment minister Elisabeth Borne has appointed an experienced transport ecologist, Pierre Serne, to develop a plan for tactical urbanism, or urban rearrangement, to prevent an increase in car usage once lockdown restrictions ease.

In Brussels, there are plans to declare the inner city centre, known as the Pentagon, a pedestrian and cyclist priority zone, with cars, trams and buses limited to 20 kph.

Berlin has created new cycle routes, in the US, Boston, Minneapolis and Oakland are banning cars from certain streets and in Colombia’’s capital, Bogota, an additional 76km of cycle lanes have been created to help social distancing."


......

Meanwhile in our local government:

Quote:
" Councillors have been told that physical distancing requirements have drastically reduced the capacity on the city’’s bus fleet to just 30% of its normal passenger-carrying capacity.

Cycling isn’t for everyone and City Hall expects more people to use the private car to access the city - at least over the coming months."

I think cars are up there with the other sacred cows the powers that be never want to touch. It's cars, farming, one off housing, anything that requires that lot to change is political suicide in Ireland.

eeeee wrote: »

I go between hope and despair. It's absolutely fantastic to see how many families, women, young and old people out on their bikes right now. I see loads of family flotillas out every single day. They weather is good, the traffic is light...but if everyone jumps back into their cars they'll put themselves (I would say most are PT and then car commuters) off the road. that would be pure shyte. On the upside maybe they'll have a new appreciation for cyclists having been one of late, but then with the traffic so light it's hard to understand what it's like to commute in normal city traffic right now.

Absolutely love "family flotillas" & how true! Lots of comment on SM re how fab the car-free Phoenix Park is atm but as u say once cars back, its different world. Lots of people don't have car option though & with distancing requirement on P/T powers that be have to make safe space for walking/cycling

Seth Brundle wrote: »

One positive outcome of the Covid pandemic...
Car bans and pedestrianised College Green part of radical Covid-19 plan to re-open Dublin

How is it RADICAL?
IT Clickbaiting? or because they would be affected by it considering location of the IT office?

NB: Question not directed at you Seth Brundle - for the IT Editorial team

Stark wrote: »

It's a pity because Cork is such a compact city, it would be perfect for cycling.

I've been cycling 15k each way from Cork city to Carrigtwohill most days since covid restrictions came in. I usually drive but now the roads are safe and it's great using my commute for exercise. Unfortunately i'll probably revert back to car when roads get back to normal again

I guess there's the etymologically derived meaning of "radical" -- changing down to the root -- but there's also the way it's used sometimes to imply that the people proposing the change are something like Bolsheviks.

Given that both uses are current, it's a bit hard to make charges of leading language stick, but "comprehensive change" is probably more neutral.

That's my pedant's eye view of the situation anyway. Other pedants are available.

tomasrojo wrote: »

I guess there's the etymologically derived meaning of "radical" -- changing down to the root -- but there's also the way it's used sometimes to imply that the people proposing the change are something like Bolsheviks.

Given that both uses are current, it's a bit hard to make charges of leading language stick, but "comprehensive change" is probably more neutral.

That's my pedant's eye view of the situation anyway. Other pedants are available.

As one pedant to another, I can clearly see the point you are making, but I think we should strive to use language as correctly as possible, and context should be the ultimate definer of the intent of that language.

In this case, I see no intent other than that which I previously posted in using the adjective radical.

Yes, the "ground-breaking/innovative" sense of "radical" hardly applies here, as there are really quite standard methods of making streets more usable for pedestrians and cyclists.

tomasrojo wrote: »

I think Cork's bold experiment in encouraging people to drive while public transit is unable to cope will yield some quite predictable consequences if it's successful, and they'll be backtracking quite quickly if so.

Senior execs from Cork City Council on Twitter patting themselves on the back for de-pedestrianising one of the city's busiest shopping streets.

They can't see any other options beyond cars. It's a joke.

They do seem to nurse a remarkable animus towards the Cork Cycling Campaign.

It's LITERALLY true! But everyone can drive, and cars don't take up a huge amount of space, so no brainer really.

Fairly disturbing video on Tiktok inciting violence and treating knocking someone off their bike as a joke or being funny... Sounds like he's in Dublin.

Ridiculous they allow such content. Comments even worse. Younger age group using this app, only encourages people to actually attempt such IMO. Not funny whatsoever.. Doubt Gardai could do anything with it?

https://streamable.com/23bufi