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Cycling against oncoming traffic

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  • 10-05-2022 12:17pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,102 ✭✭✭


    Not sure when it started, but in the last 2/3 years i'm seeing more and more people in Cork city (and in my brief visits to Dublin the same) cycling against oncoming traffic.

    Just curious how/why this is happening, seems an accident waiting to happen. Maybe it's a country thing, or maybe as corny as the safe cross code was back in the day it stuck but I was never inclined to put myself at greater risk cycling in the city.

    Post edited by magicbastarder on


«13

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 154 ✭✭whatchagonnado


    Yes, have seen this a lot in Dublin and surrounding areas. Madness. There is a particular junction near my house where cyclists and electric scooter users do it frequently, a nightmare if you are turning left onto the main road. Someone will be hit one day.


    I think it's ignorance, yes, a safety campaign might be useful.



  • Registered Users Posts: 34,409 ✭✭✭✭o1s1n
    Master of the Universe


    Funny you mention this as I'm starting to notice it a lot more in Dublin lately, only commented on it this morning to someone. Cyclists going the wrong direction in the cycle track coming at me head on. Seems to be particularly bad on the quays.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,724 ✭✭✭tnegun


    There seem to be a lot more people on bikes/scooters than ever before which is great but a lot of education is needed along with improvements in road design. I experience it quite frequently in the mornings heading towards Leixlip at Intel particularly if a train has just called to the station you can have 3/4 people on the wrong side of the road using the cycle lane to get to Intel and then in the opposite direction in the evening kids coming from the amenities traveling in the wrong direction in the cycle lane.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,226 ✭✭✭secman


    Saw a lunatic on a scooter yesterday , i was coming from Wexford to Dublin, he was coming against traffic on n11 along slip road for Bray,and just turned up the slip road, madness 😠



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,268 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    Whatever about cyclists, how would they run a safety campaign for PPT's when they're illegal to use?

    Maybe scooter users see themselves more akin to pedestrians though? Most times I come across it with bikes it's to do with multiple road/ carriageway crossings, and normally teenagers tbh.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,424 ✭✭✭Gerry


    Some basic education from the RSA would help here. and some enforcement from AGS. not even fines, just stop people and have a word.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,361 ✭✭✭jack of all


    I see it a lot, it really started with the lockdown I think. I began to observe people cycling on paths first off, then the scooters entered the scene, on paths and roads, and within a year it seemed that paths and roads were a free for all, contra flow etc. I cycle to work myself on the odd day and on a steep incline on the way home I would often have to watch out for another cyclist and scooter user in tandem coming at speed towards me as I legally cycle uphill with the flow of traffic, watching out for parked cars etc. It's not just teenagers either, plenty of grown adults cycling on footpaths and contra flow on the roads also.



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,556 ✭✭✭✭AckwelFoley


    My experience with cyclists is, that its the casual cyclists that's the major prick on the road that irritate people. Ie, the guy that pulls the old bike out of the shed to with no reflectors, a light at night would only be a pipe dream. I've seen lads in the pitch dark, no high viz no lights stroll down the road..same lads thinks Traffic lights are advisory.

    The vast vast majority that use the bike for regular commute, and or the 40 mile Saturday run tend to be properly geard up and follow proper road use.


    I can't say I've ever seen anyone cycle contraflow in traffic. On a footpath yes but not on the road



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,268 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    I should've clarified, I've only experienced it cycle paths, not on the actual road.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,291 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    My experience with cyclists is, that its the casual cyclists that's the major prick on the road that irritate people.

    on the other hand, i've seen many comments online specifically about the well kitted out, experienced cyclists being the real menace.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    I was on the busy N3 at the weekend... 2 very fancy bilkes side by side about 3 metres apart and cars behing them... if they were single file no problem... they can have a chat over a few pints...



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,291 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    FWIW, cycling against the oncoming traffic is referred to as salmoning.



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,556 ✭✭✭✭AckwelFoley


    I do see that. However the argument is that they're entitled to use the road, and also that its done because its safer. The latter argument I dont agree with and I personally wouldn't, because it takes one bollocks to be on Facebook and wipe you out of it. I'd rather my chances closer to the verge



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,865 ✭✭✭cletus


    Maybe they're just hotlining...



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,291 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    cyclists cycling 3m apart? probably an entire lane width apart? my first reaction is i don't believe it. second is well, stranger things have happened, and my third reaction (with my mod hat on) is a sinking feeling that this thread is in danger of becoming a cyclist bashing one.


    nevertheless, to take you at face value, you saw a single cyclist misbehaving at the weekend. stop the presses.



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,556 ✭✭✭✭AckwelFoley


    I seen the same actually heading from mullingar to athlone Sunday afternoon. I wouldn't say 3 meters apart or anything close, but there was a line off traffic behind them that couldn't pass because of oncoming traffic.

    Irritating for drivers, but apparently entitled to do it



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,268 ✭✭✭Macy0161


    Drivers were lucky it wasn't a tractor, which would be significantly wider! Singling out can just encourage close passes, as drivers try to squeeze by.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,895 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    Not worse than getting stuck behind a tractor, but there should be some etiquette involved.


    I pull in if there's more than one car behind me and no chance to overtake.


    RE cycling on the wrong side, there's a few roads in Cork with cycle lanes on only one side. Maybe people think they're bidirectional?



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,291 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    to break that down - let's say the lane was 3.2m wide (which i think is the standard width for a 120km/h motorway lane, but i'll use it as a starting point). cycling in single file, a cyclist would usually cycle say 50cm out from the side of the road, and say the cyclist is 50cm wide. we've already lost 1m. and on that road, the guidance is for someone overtaking to give 1.5m space, so we're at 2.5m of road used. then add the width of the car, at say 2m. so the driver's side of the car is now 4.5m from the extreme left of his or her lane - i.e. 1.3m into the oncoming lane.

    in that instance, the car cannot pass even a single cyclist without committing to a full overtake - i.e. the oncoming lane must be clear, so it's moot as to whether there is one or two cyclists abreast, because the entire oncoming lane must be clear in either scenario.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    I always have a doubt on people who think posters here are telling lies... it eas at least 3 meters as the combined wdith was wider than the car that was in front of me...

    Also if you don't agree with the boss your trouble...



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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,291 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    don't believe everything someone with a stupid username tells you online.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    They have no courtesy to other users... generally no cop-on like magic here...

    It a poster said what you just said they be warned... generally people that are losing the game get angry... yer magic toch fading...



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,561 ✭✭✭Eamonnator


    Sometimes I find it difficult to detect sarcasm online, but really........



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 19,820 Mod ✭✭✭✭Weepsie


    Only folk I see cycling wrong way tend to be the young lads on those fiido yokes



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,062 ✭✭✭hans aus dtschl


    This is a literary masterpiece.

    I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,445 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    Just to put it in perspective, a typical modern double decker is 2.55m wide, so these cyclists were cycling far enough apart that a DB bus could have made it between them(dangerously admittedly). That is what is being claimed, f*ck me, I am going back to smoking crack, life is just too unbelievable for me to deal with right now. On the N3, 2 cyclists side by side were cycling with one of their handlebars hanging over into the overtaking lane.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    I did not measure but the with of the car in front of me plus... Dublin bus may well have being able to drive between the two but there would not have been 1.5 metres either side... i cycle myself and some of the stuff i see is crazy but thats what bikers are like these days (hells angels) we do as we please...

    I meant to say this earlier i have the same opinion on tractors but because... your on the magic team... we are the bosses and we do as we please...



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado




  • Registered Users Posts: 9,400 ✭✭✭TheChizler


    Or Deliveroos, but that's an entirely different category



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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,426 ✭✭✭maestroamado


    Do you need my account details... Just leave €20 a week in a little envelope under the stone on your bike run...



This discussion has been closed.
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