Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

Like that regular john bloke always posts on journal cycling articles blaming all the pedestrian deaths by motorists on pedestrians and truly seems to believe bikes are the real menace to pedestrians. Insane stuff. I suppose all the hit and runs by motorists on pedestrians aren't their fault either. But yeah it's upsetting that we have to live among these ghouls.

And get rid of all the traffic lights apparently. One bright spark had a theory that the lizard hive mind in DCC secretly changed all the sequencing during lockdown to ensure gridlock

There's so much to unpack there

I'm surprised by Dublin Bus in this, in the past they seemed to have had more cop-on.

For a relatively small claim (€25k) the legal costs are going to dwarf the award, even more so by enjoining a third party.

A dedicated cyclepath becomes a shared space if a pedestrian crosses onto it. I can't think of a cyclepath in Dublin I've used that hasn't had people cross onto it, or even walk along it. If I'm cycling at 30km/h on a dedicated cycle path and someone steps onto it, I'll obviously slow down. I won't always be cycling below 20km/h just in case someone steps onto it - just like I won't crawl along anytime I'm in a cycle lane with cars or buses in traffic beside it just in case one of their doors opens into the lane or a passenger suddenly alights.

There's no evidence that the shared space had any pedestrians on it until the person alighted from the bus, and in that case, I'll repeat:

If the new requirement for 'sensible' cycling is unreasonable expectations as to others actions, then we all might as well get off and walk our bikes around all the time because that's the only way we'll ever reach that extremely high bar.

This seems to be the bus stop in question (the only downhill section on a shared path on the old Dublin road):

X marks roughly 30m from the stop, but it could be another couple of metres depending on where they were measuring from.

Loyatemu, if cycling at 10km/h around vehicles is what you consider safe, genuine question, how do you get anywhere on a bike? I can't think of a single cycle I do that doesn't have me in close proximity to other vehicles for the majority of my cycle - and it would make my 25min commute to work take at least an hour since there's none of that that isn't in close proximity to vehicles.

I think it's tomasrojo who pointed out that 30km/h is the magic threshold that is "far too fast for a bicycle" according to many commentators (not picking on anyone here) and incredibly dangerous, but also "far too slow for a car" because modern cars will implode if driven within the speed limit in Dublin city centre apparently and sure you'd never get anywhere at that speed.

I can see both points, but it highlights why I rarely use those kind of cycle lanes as I generally want to be travelling at around 30kmph and would never feel comfortable doing so where there's a decent chance of being routed along the inside of buses. RTE to Donnybrook is a prime example.

Yes, there's always risks, such as being doored for example. The difference is I'm willing to take that risk where the potential harm is to me. I'm not willing to take that risk where the potential is for me to plough into someone at 30kmph.

Not a hope in hell I'd use that shared space. I'll use the bus lane and then the main lane to overtake stationary buses, and angry motorists can go get f**ked for the 3 seconds of inconvenience it may cause them.

Two points;

Firstly, a bike slows very quickly (and a modern car too, in fairness) from 30km/h. It's quite subjective depending on tyres, brake type, attention, etc, but it's not going to require even 10m unless someone isn't even trying - potentially it could only take half that. The accident happened 30m from the stop - and I don't believe current advice is "you should travel at a speed that will allow you to stop 6 times over in the distance between you and an expected obstacle".

Secondly, we don't actually know how quickly the cyclist was travelling. A Garda investigator estimated it, but we don't know how or using what methods (and being honest, having looked into how they estimate car speeds at accidents, I'd be lary of them applying that methodology in general, nevermind to bikes).

Honestly, buses on my commute have gotten very strict in queueing for a stop rather than dumping people higgledy-piggledy and I could be caught out by something like this, albeit I don't quite hit 30km/h on my commuter very often.