Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

That's kind of besides the point. He wasn't racing on closed roads he was trying to train. Having some amateur whose descending and bike handling skills could be appalling for all you know trying to take the opportunity to jump on your wheel is probably the last thing any pro needs. Just a bit of respect really. Would any of us do it if we came across any of our pros training?

There was another incident only a week or so ago when another halfwit rode up alongside the VLAB squad, filming on his phone and seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that he was on the wrong side of an open road heading into a blind bend until Vingo called him out on it.

Crashing because some moron is playing out some weird fantasy in his head where VLAB go "Hey - this guy is really good. Quick - give him a contract" shouldn't really be an occupational hazard.

No, agreed, but I don't think that's what was suggested. Its a bit like tailgating in a car.

Wow. Listening to The Late Debate on RTE1 right now, discussing yesterday’s flooding. Read out a text from a listener suggesting that it’s partly due to local authorities spending their funding on “cycle lanes and anti-car measures instead of flood defences”.

Unbelievable.

I don't think it is, to be honest. And I'm not trying to be smart. I just don't think that's why there's less of an outcry, and I'd be confident that an academic psychologist could delve into the cognitive dissonance in detail.

Why then, in your opinion, WHYis there less of an outcry?

Personally I'm fairly pissed that I have to obey the rules of the road and scramblers don't

Unfortunately "to the best of (your) knowledge" betrays significant gaps. Both about the identity of scrambler rider responsible for the young girl's death and about the law around scramblers.

The scrambler rider's name and photograph have been widely publicised over the last three days.
https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2026/0127/1555269-dublin-scrambler-crash/

There is functionally zero difference in the legislation applicable to scramblers and to other motor vehicles. They need to be taxed and insured and the drivers need to be licensed and follow the rules of the road. Levels of enforcement against drivers of all vehicles are so low as to be of very little value as a deterrent. But, in the unlikely event a driver is the subject of enforcement they find it more difficult to escape while scrambler riders have a greater chance of evading capture.

Not sure how I missed that, genuinely thanks!

Enforcement is poor in this country that is true but it is a million miles stronger against car drivers. I pass a speed van at least twice a week on my way to/from work and get breathalysed once per year. I don't have an issue with being watched in this way but these scramblers are doing 90 through our parks and cycle lanes.

Call the cops on them and you get nothing

As somebody else correctly mentioned, there is functionally zero difference in the legislation, but there is an absolutely massive difference in the enforcement of said legislation.

Just saw a farmer texting on his phone while driving a massive tractor on Lincoln place lol, that's a new one

The lack of enforcement is a result of the cultural issue we have around driving. Anything for efficient enforcement is framed as anti car driver. On another thread on here we have elected councillors voting to stop active enforcement of parking regulations as it would discommode people in cars. Can't have camera enforcement as it's "shooting fish in a barrel". Judiciary who actively minimise sentencing for road crimes and deaths, and go out of their way to support motorists against enforcement measures. Basically, there's zero political will to actually take action, so ultimately can the gardai really be blamed for reflecting that?

As for turning a blind eye, I imagine loads of us have seen law breaking right in front of our eyes, with a Garda sitting in a vehicle watching it and no reaction whatsoever.

I've never seen a copper dismiss a car running a red light or a car driving in a bus lane when they see it, although I admit they don't see it very often. Speeding motorists are now largely caught by speed vans. However if you see a scrambler in a public park and call the cops you might get a car out 2 hours later if you're lucky. I've witnessed scramblers in the cycle lanes on the childers road/roxboro and the cops drive on by as if they haven't seen them

Yes, there needs to be action on this group of users but as a priority, there needs to be much more action and less tolerance on the subset of motorists.

I don't disagree with this statement, and no reasonable person would. There are camera based solutions that have been used in other jurisdictions for the last 20 years that we don't want to use here. Not sure they will solve the scramblers though as most of them don't display a reg plate

I think what you might be saying here is "nobody does anything about scramblers but there's a lot of roads policing of cars"

That's not at all what I am trying to say. A million times more when starting from a low base is still not necessarily "a lot" and I do not disagree that enforcement is low for car users

The original question phrased was why there is much more outrage at the scrambler driver flying through red lights at 85km/h killing a 16 year old than there are for other road deaths.

Perhaps it would be more helpful if others on here can give a better reason rather than making various assumptions