What on earth are dribbling on about bicycles can be as badly parked as a car. Is this a serious comment or is it a windup? You do know roughly the size difference between bikes and cars surely?
I recall getting a taxi on Shop Street back in the mid 90's.
Now I go to the rank on Eyre Square or Cross Street.
Times change
Surely much better because there'd be space to actually get your wheelchair or mobility scooter around
Have you ever had a lift from a friend, of taken a taxi anywhere?
...
Bikes are great mobility aids for many people.
Car lanes are only of use to those with the financial resources to pass the test and buy a car. Infrastructure is needed for all road users.
Good photo though. I am pretty sure Cllr Noel Larkin firm in Tuams makes kissing gates (as well as cycling stands). Lots of these galvanized gates in the City need to be repurposed.
Headline is misleading as they are basically thinking about it, that's all
all shops should have drive-thru facilities as well.
What about people like myself who don't have a driveway and only on-street parking that's not directly outside the house? If I was unable to walk easily, how do I get across the busy road to my car? There used to be parking on both sides of the street but it was removed to improve traffic flow. Now traffic moves fast and the nearest pedestrian crossings are 1) a few hundred meters away and 2) require crossing another road to use (one that doesn't have any pedestrian crossings on it).
If I ever end up disabled I'll probably have to move. My possibility of an individualized solution has been removed so people can drive past my house faster. And the footpaths and road crossings are so poor it would make it nearly impossible for me to get around in a chair.
Would that mean there's no way we can ever pedestrianise anywhere, ever again because we have to retain the ability to drive from door to door from every location to every location?
Should we remove existing pedestrianisation too?
The article quoted says "is it time to ban cars" - it's headline answer is Yes. Maybe its got some small print saying "well not quite", but that wasn't obvious from a quick read on the phone.
I use buses a lot. Reckon my monthly ticket probably qualifies for gold-VIP status. And I've done a lot to encourage their use. But they aren't a universal solution. They cannot stop at every house or every 50 metres. They're not great for slow loaders like wheelchairs. Some people will always need individualised solutions.
We need more space for cars damnit
Has anyone proposed a total ban on cars including taxis, and presumably buses also - otherwise why wouldnt you get a bus to work?
Too many cars and car infrastructure being priority is already impacting the other options, only way to enable things for more people is to reduce the prevalence of cars.
Nope, because bicycles can be parked as badly as cars can be. And will be more frequently if there are more of them.
Imagine 7am, midwinter, pouring rain, and to get to the taxi that's taking you to work, you have a 15 roll in your mobility scooter. The cyclists can manage a shower to warm up when they get there. But you just get to stay damp all day.
Anything that says "ban X" is just bollix.
We need to be enabling thing that work for more people, not removing options.
I imagine, on many levels, it would be a distinct improvement.
It would be a lot friendlier for mobility scooters
I can imagine practically every wheelchair user in the country rolling their eyes at that comment.
Read the article again, read twice, read slower.
Imagine your walking problem got worse, and you simply couldn't walk. What would a city be like for you if motor vehicles were totally banned?
Not Galway, just interesting reading. I'm still all for a park and ride, less cars, more bikes, more scooters, more walking. (And I say this as someone who has problem walking - I'd rather hop on a bus and get off quicker & closer to where I need to be than sit in stupid single occupancy cars in stupid traffic jams and still have to park a 10 minute walk away.)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/11/the-big-idea-should-cars-be-banned-from-cities
Ya this is what it boils down to. Money. Walking and Cycling spend is the cheapest and get the greatest ROI as well.
There's a huge financial benefit to getting rid of a car in a household too. They're serious money pits.
Non-cyclist myself, and would rather that more money be put towards public transport and walking than anything else, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting additional cycle lanes. And proper lanes too, to achieve complete separation between cars and bikes, rather than just painted lines. Even a cheap barrier such as there is here would help.
The very basic point being made, that better cycling infrastructure encourages more people to cycle, which frees up the roads, is entirely sensible.
I know quite a number of families in Galway, including my own, who have already migrated from being two car families to one car plus bikes.
Same. The father said to me the last day he hasn't driven the car in months around the city and is seriously looking at getting rid of it. GoCar makes more sense for him for the handful of times he actually needs to drive anywhere. Since I got him Ortlieb pannier bags, he hasn't used the car for a single shopping trip.
Other family in the city have gone from 2 cars down to one and are close to ditching that last one too but thats dependent on a job move that may or may not happen.
Other family out in Oranmore have also gone from 2 to 1 car with one of the parents using an ebike to get in and out of Galway every day for work, he loves it. He reckons when the safe bike lanes go in on the Coast rd/Dublin Rd they'll ditch the last car, though the kids might be grown and off to college by the time that actually gets built, sigh.
I have nieces and nephews, some living out the country, some living in the city. The ones in the city have vastly more freedom due to being able to cycle wherever they need to while the rural kids need mom or dad to drive them, severely restricting their freedom. Heck even calling over to a friends house is a case in logistical planning lol.
Its slowly getting better in Galway, very slowly, for safe active travel alternatives that don't involve the car. We've a long way to go until its truly safe though
I think most people are just sick of spending their lives sitting in traffic. It would be nice to try things that have been shown to help for once instead of just continually trying the same things that got us in this mess in the first place.
Sorry, you misunderstood. I've no interest in posting anything disagreeing with you. Complete waste of time. You can keep on posting your manifesto on how cycle lanes will save us all, but you shouldn't be surprised when you're not taken seriously other than by your fellow travellers here, and the handful of cycling crusaders active online in Galway.
If you want to post a reasoned disagreement to anything I've written I'll happily engage. But if all you've got is snide comments then I guess you should look closer to home to find out who is really relying on dogma rather than evidence.
Is "Unrealistic" short for Unrealistic Dogma?
Well done on (yet again) conjuring up a strawman argument to rebut when something is posted that you don't like but you can't legitimately argue against.
My 'sermon' was a response to a very specific statement only: "Cycle lanes are only of use to cyclists."
It made no mention of Renmore, nor did it make a claim that design doesn't need to "cater for both modes". I actually did the opposite as two of the points I listed were specifically about how bike lanes can improve travel for those driving motor vehicles.
As for your claim that cars will not just evaporate; in reality traffic evaporation is a well understood phenomenon and has been for decades. If road capacity drops the number of car journeys also drops and usage patterns flatten as those drivers who have the flexibility drive at quieter times or consolidate journeys, do so. The number of cars on the road can reduce too. I know quite a number of families in Galway, including my own, who have already migrated from being two car families to one car plus bikes.
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