Dublin ranked in top 10 cycling cities worldwide

Jawgap · 20-09-2011 09:49AM #1

First the rugby, then the football, now this:)

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0920/1224304412707.html

Here's the original website:-
http://copenhagenize.eu/index/index.html

seamus · 20-09-2011 09:53AM

Very surprising.

Or very depressing that the majority of world capitals, never mind cities, have poorer infrastructure than Dublin.

daragh_ · 20-09-2011 10:00AM

In your FACE Portland.

enas · 20-09-2011 10:15AM

Yeah right. The mere fact that Dublin made the top 10 shows how serious this ranking is (yes the Dublin Bikes are a fantastic achievement, yes the canal path looks nice on paper - I haven't seen it. But that in itself doesn't make you one of the 10 most cycle-friendly cities in the world).

I don't particularly like the guys at Copenhagenize. A bit too superficial and not much substance in my opinion. Only this quote "The leading bicycle city in the Anglo-Saxon world" shows how deep their understanding of Dublin is...

The obvious risk with this is how politicians can jump on the opportunity to boast and rest on their laurels instead of addressing the real issues.

HivemindXX · 20-09-2011 10:23AM

Be sure to check the criteria he uses to determine his list. They are idiosyncratic to say the least.

I think we should get Bike Snob NYC over here to do a competing review. He's already done Amsterdam and London here, of course he already has New York and opinions on Portland are frequent. That's four already!

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 10:26AM

The term "Anglo-Saxon" is used widely in non-English speaking countries to mean "English-speaking" or "under the influence of British or American culture". Irish people would definitely be described as "anglosajón" in Spain, for example.

I find it annoying and a ludicrous misuse of the term, but there's nothing can be done about it. It's like finding the current use of "cynical" in English annoying, because it misrepresents the actual views of a school of philosophers in ancient Greece (which, charmingly, was that the purpose of life was to live a life of virtue in harmony with Nature).

Chips Lovell · 20-09-2011 10:27AM

We should be the leading bicycle city in the Celtic world. Big fish, small pond and all that.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 10:29AM

I haven't seen the criteria yet, but Mikael Colville-Andersen is the Hugh Hefner of cycling advocacy, according to bikesnob.

He's really a polemicist, photographer and film-maker. He has no qualifications or expertise in any discipline that would allow him to do objective analysis. It would be like favouring the economic opinions of Michael Moore over Paul Krugman. Except I don't know who the Paul Krugman of cycling advocacy might be.

EDIT: To get some idea of how objective he can be, look at this post, showing delight in how the USA in the 30s encouraged people to buy bicycles to get the economy moving again. Except the cartoon is not doing that; it's a pun on the "Buy Cycle", and several people make this point in the comments. But, unlike a careful commentator, he doesn't update his post to say that he was mistaken; he just leaves it as it is. He comes across a lot of the time like the "brilliant!" character from The Fast Show.
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/11/back-to-prosperity.html

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 10:37AM

enas wrote: »

The obvious risk with this is how politicians can jump on the opportunity to boast and rest on their laurels instead of addressing the real issues.

Or how they can use this to justify continuing to build cycling infrastructure of the quality evident over the last twenty years.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 10:42AM

Just looked at the criteria. In fact, Dublin scores poorly on most of them.

http://copenhagenize.eu/index/criteria.html

Dublin would score well on bike-share and modal share increased since 2006, only ok on gender split, 'E' for effort on traffic calming, and pretty poorly for the rest (especially perception of safety -- Ireland has an extremely high level of helmet-wearing by European standards, for example).

myself69 · 20-09-2011 10:48AM

tomasrojo wrote: »

Just looked at the criteria. In fact, Dublin scores poorly on most of them.

http://copenhagenize.eu/index/criteria.html

Dublin would score well on bike-share and modal share increased since 2006, only ok on gender split, 'E' for effort on traffic calming, and pretty poorly for the rest (especially perception of safety -- Ireland has an extremely high level of helmet-wearing by European standards, for example).

DublinBikes will be positive for all those criteria. Hopefully it will get ramped up soon. I amazed it hasn't been extensivly rolled out already. I guess they thought it would be just another token gesture and now they have to put their money were their mouth is.

kenmc · 20-09-2011 10:50AM

Hahaha. Sorry for a second there I thought the thread title said "Dublin ranked in top 10 cycling cities worldwide". But we all know that's hardly likely unless there are only 9 cities in the world.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 10:52AM

myself69 wrote: »

DublinBikes will be positive for all those criteria. Hopefully it will get ramped up soon. I amazed it hasn't been extensivly rolled out already. I guess they thought it would be just another token gesture and now they have to put their money were their mouth is.

Yes, it's a great scheme, but the strongest conclusion you could draw from it is that Dublin is one of the most promising up-and-coming cycling cities. Which I could fully accept and I'm very pleased that things have improved so much.

Jawgap · 20-09-2011 11:12AM

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

We should be the leading bicycle city in the Celtic world. Big fish, small pond and all that.

No need to sell ourselves that short - we're the leading city in the British Isles;)

Beasty · 20-09-2011 11:23AM

Yeah, and best in the world at harvesting bonus points:

If we look solely at the bonus points, however, Dublin rode off with 12 out of 12 while Paris and Barcelona scored 11 and Tokyo, Copenhagen and Amsterdam each harvested 10.

cycle43 · 20-09-2011 11:26AM

A joke. Dangerous Cycle lanes and the worst roads in Europe. Remember a lot of cyclist killed or badly injured in this city every year due to ****e infrastructure. A lot of Cycle lanes I use, I have to cycle out on the roadway because the surface is in such a bad state of repair.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 11:36AM

cycle43 wrote: »

A joke. Dangerous Cycle lanes and the worst roads in Europe. Remember a lot of cyclist killed or badly injured in this city every year due to ****e infrastructure. A lot of Cycle lanes I use, I have to cycle out on the roadway because the surface is in such a bad state of repair.

I know what you're saying, but not that many cyclists are killed in Dublin every year, whether on the road or otherwise.

Jawgap · 20-09-2011 11:42AM

Overdoing the negatives of Dublin as a city for cycling in is almost as bad as overdoing the positives.

Dublin is ok for cycling in - it's not the worst, it's not the best; it has improved, but only incrementally and not radically. It's going in the right direction, but progress is very measured and gradual.

It'll never "compete" with some of the cities on that list because the cycling culture in Ireland does not compare favourably with them - which is not to say there's anti-cycling culture here, it's just not as pro-everyday-cycling as other countries.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 12:04PM

Beasty wrote: »

Yeah, and best in the world at harvesting bonus points:

I can't see any explanation for bonus points on the site. I'm assuming Dublin got the bonus points for having the most successful bike-share scheme.

Doctor Bob · 20-09-2011 12:06PM

Business must be slow at copenhagenize.eu. :rolleyes:

Shouldn't this thread be moved to the Marketing/PR forum?

***

I like tomasrojo's Moore/Krugman analogy- Mr Copenhagenize is a populist and a layman who doesn't seem to understand the qualifying effect the word 'internet' has before the word 'expert', and who tries always to have his cake and eat it by being both an outside-the-tent blogger (not beholden to any authority , allowed to swear for extra [street] credit, absolved of the need to support his subjective opinions with anything as unpalatable to the empty-calorie-masses as facts or evidence, etc.) and an inside-the-tent expert ('Urban mobility consultant'? Puh-lease... You take photos and you ride a bike. Are we all now to go around calling ourselves UMCs?).

There's an interesting hypocrisy at the heart of this nonsensical bumph, though. One of the targets of copenhagenize's ire in the past has been the fact that helmet promotion is generally done by helmet manufacturers and the car industry, i.e. vested interests. Fair point. But is it not then ironic that the same 'consultancy' has now produced an Index of bicycle friendliness, using criteria of its own invention, and an opaque scoring system, in order to support previous heroic and unfounded assumptions (Dublin used to be the 3rd most bicycle friendly city after Amsterdam and Copenhagen? Really? You'd need more than two 1963 Cushman photos to convince me of that, boyo...) and to push a particular design philosophy that could, at best, be described as not universally accepted?* Physician heal thyself.

The comment that gets closest to the truth in all of this is the one from Andrew Montague- the results really are 'astonishing'. One might even say they are literally unbelievable.

*For the record, I generally like the Danish approach to design, but Mr Copenhagenize's opposition to/dismissal of any contrary point of view, and his support of infrastructure regardless of quality (for example, see his post on his visit to Dublin where he praises the airport cycling infrastructure, and, in particular, David Hembrow's measured response to that blog post) does his argument no favours.

briano · 20-09-2011 12:09PM

Dublin is rated higher than Stockholm? Because of Helmet Promotion?

The only thing I like about that list is the font.

Doctor Bob · 20-09-2011 12:19PM

Found that blog post on Dublin and the airport:

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/07/dublin-rolls-from-past-to-future.html

There was a positive sign only metres after getting off the plane at Dublin Airport. I snapped this out of the window as I headed for arrivals. A bicycle lane. At the airport. I'm assuming that it is primarily for use by airport employees to get around - feel free to fill us in, Dubliners. Nevertheless, it is great symbolism.

And the Hembrow reply:

Mikael, I really think you need to exercise a bit of quality control.

The picture you snapped out of the window is a good example of truly awful junction design. Exactly how is anyone to get onto or off that cycle path, in that location, without doing something unexpected in front of cars on the road ?

I'm very pro cycle paths, but not just any cycle path. This is the sort of rubbish which gives cycle paths a bad name. You won't find "design" like this in the Netherlands.

It's also the post where he first called Dublin 'the third great cycling city of Europe, after Amsterdam and Copenhagen...', but try as I might, I can't find any supporting data. Quelle surprise.

blorg · 20-09-2011 12:19PM

TL;DR, the man is a twat.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 12:22PM

The font is very nice. He is a pretty good photographer as well, and he's certainly a successful polemicist.

It does seem that a having bonus points allows the editorial team (which I'm assuming is Mikael Colville-Andersen) to put a thumb on the scales and make sure that the list approximates to a preconceived pecking order. Remove the bonus points and Dublin probably doesn't make the list, or comes somewhere near the bottom of the twenty. Though it's impossible to say, since it's not clear why Dublin got the bonus points, and who else got them and how many.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 12:28PM

The other thing about the "build any old infrastructure and eventually cyclists will proliferate and demand great infrastructure" philosophy is:

1) It isn't what happened in either the Netherlands or Denmark. They intervened when cycling levels were falling but still about or over 20% or trips made.
2) It's a little insulting to the achievement of the Dutch and the Danes in making infrastructure that people like if you make out that the progression is automagic.

But I don't doubt that excellent infrastructure, even if only slightly less convenient than using the road, would be helpful, especially for persuading people to let children cycle to school.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 12:39PM

I'm so square I had to look up "TL;DR".

monument · 20-09-2011 12:39PM

Here's the criteria... note it is a list of major cities, so some smaller cities and more cycle friendly cities are not included, and Dublin was the only city to get full bonus points...

Criteria

The Index
The Copenhagenize Index gives cities marks for their efforts - or lack thereof - towards reestablishing the bicycle as a feasible, accepted and practical form of transport.

Cities were given between 0 and 4 points in 13 different categories, with a potential for 12 bonus points awarded for particularly impressive efforts or results. In short, a maximum of 64 points could be awarded.

The 13 Categories

Advocacy:
How is the city's (or region/country) advocacy NGO regarded and what level of influence does it have?
Rated from no organised advocacy to strong advocacy with political influence.

Bicycle Culture:
Has the bicycle reestablished itself as transport among regular citizens or only sub-cultures?
Rated from no bicycles on the urban landscape/only sporty cyclists to mainstream acceptance of the bicycle.

Bicycle Facilities:
Are there readily accessible bike racks, ramps on stairs, space allocated on trains and buses and well-designed wayfinding, etc?
Rated from no bicycle facilities available to widespread and innovative facilities.

Bicycle Infrastructure:
How does the city's bicycle infrastructure rate?
Rated from no infrastructure/cyclists relegated to using car lanes to high level of safe, separated cycle tracks.

Bike Share Programme:
Does the city have a comprehensive and well-used bike-sharing programme?
Rated from no bike share programme to comprehensive, high-usage programme.

Gender Split
What percentage of the city's cyclists are male and female?
Rated from overwhelming male to an even gender split or better.

Modal Share For Bicycles:
What percentage of modal share is made up by cyclists?
Rated from under 1% to over 25%.

Modal Share Increase Since 2006:
What has the increase in modal share been since 2006 - the year that urban cycling started to kick off?
Rated from under 1% to 5%+.

Perception of Safety:
Is the perception of safety of the cyclists in the city, reflected in helmet-wearing rates, positive or are cyclists riding scared due to helmet promotion and scare campaigns?
Rated from mandatory helmet laws with constant promotion of helmets to low helmet-usage rate.

Politics:
What is the political climate regarding urban cycling?
Rated from the bicycle being non-existent on a political level to active political involvement.

Social Acceptance:
How do drivers and the community at large regard urban cyclists?
Rated from no social acceptance to widespread social acceptance.

Urban Planning:
How much emphasis do the city's planners place on bicycle infrastructure - and are they well-informed about international best practice?
Rated from car-centric urban planners to planners who think bicycle - and pedestrian - first.

Traffic Calming:
What efforts have been made to lower speed limits in and generally calm traffic in order to provide greater safety to pedestrians and cyclists?
Rated from none at all to extensive traffic-calming measures prioritising cyclists and pedestrians in the traffic hierarchy.

This is just my take...

Advocacy -- Fairly well organised even if not as powerful as some places and they seem to do a lot of work in the background (which has mixed results).

Bicycle Culture -- more than just sub-cultures, and a growing mainstream acceptance of the bicycle.

Bicycle Facilities -- Yes to bike racks, even if there's demand for a lot more, and yes to space on trains even if not on Luas or buses.

Bicycle Infrastructure -- while we have some very poor infrastructure most of it is middle of the road stuff, it varies a lot. It's mostly with segregated infrastructure or half arsed attempts at segregation where the really dreadful stuff can be found. The difference between Dublin and many other cities is many of the other cities have nothing in the way of infrastructure.

Bike Share Programme -- Dublin excels here.

Gender Split -- I think this has changed for the better, even if there's a long way to go, and that may be shown in the census, but I'm not sure what they based the ranking on.

Modal Share For Bicycles -- Dublin City was just under 5.5% in the 2006 census, which sadly is a fairly good ranking international. If traffic counts and the general perception is right, that should have grown a small bit.

Modal Share Increase Since 2006 -- "Rated from under 1% to 5%+" ...As the 2010 canal traffic count said: "Over the 10 year period 2000 to 2010 the volume of pedal cyclists crossing the canal cordon during the morning peak period increased by 33.3%. There was a 35.1% increase in the period 2005 to 2010 and a 5.9% decrease in the period 2009 to 2010."

Perception of Safety -- Dublin has a low rate of use of helmets and high-vis compared to the likes of London.

Politics -- Even if there's some way to go, on a political level the bicycle has jumped up the scales in recent years. The policy, focus and funding of cycling has rocked, even if some of it is misdirected.

Social Acceptance -- the acceptance of cycling has massively changed in recent years -- again, still a long way to go, but there's been a sea change in many people's eyes.

Urban Planning -- at the level of councils this is changing for the better and documents like the NTA's proposed 2030 Vision are game changers (even if some say has no hope of being approved by the minister).

Traffic Calming -- I think the list may have overly positively judged the affect of the 30km/h limit, but Dublin has other traffic calming -- mainly speed ramps -- which are absent in other cities.

tomasrojo · 20-09-2011 12:42PM

Under Traffic Calming, I was assuming the five-axle ban was included.

monument · 20-09-2011 12:43PM

tomasrojo wrote: »

Under Traffic Calming, I was assuming the five-axle ban was included.

Yes, I should remember my own articles when writing posts

daragh_ · 20-09-2011 12:46PM

Jawgap wrote: »

No need to sell ourselves that short - we're the leading city in the British Isles Atlantic Archipelago

FYP

enas · 20-09-2011 01:45PM

tomasrojo wrote: »

The term "Anglo-Saxon" is used widely in non-English speaking countries to mean "English-speaking" or "under the influence of British or American culture".

In other words, "they speak English, they must just be all the same, seeing as I don't know and care to know anything more about them". That's off-topic, but that really irritates me (I'm not Irish myself just to make that clear).

Well done for showing in the rest of the posts the full extent of Mikael Colville-Andersen's "expertise". While not completely related to the topic, but still a bit, David Hembrow has a fantastic text on cycling in Copenhagen for those of you who don't know:

http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2009/12/truth-about-copenhagen.html

Dublin ranked in top 10 cycling cities worldwide

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