Cycle infrastructure planned for south Dublin

The road my parents live on is a regional route, has a Garda Station, and is a major route for ambulances. It also has ramps, so your idea that they wouldn’t be installed on a R road due to emergency services is bizarre.

This is so infuriating, so Irish. "People break the law so no point"..."How about enforcing the law"?..."Oh no, that would annoy them"

The good news at least is after reverting to parking it became outdoor seating for a pub

What a simplistic and intolerant argument. "The solution is move..." if ramps are a bother. Do you think moving house is ever easy, or maybe even affordable?

Ramps cause extra wear to road vehicles (you would probably approve of that!). They also cause local pollution as vehicles accelerate away from them, and the constant braking and acceleration wastes energy (and therefore fuel). As for "shite" ramps, I have little confidence in our local authorities to produce ramps of a consistent quality, and to maintain them.

But then , maybe I'm making another stupid argument.

If ramps slow people down, then there are inevitable consequences. There has to be some element of braking before you get to them, and some acceleration after the ramp. I think the laws of physics have something to say about the consequences of that for energy use. The braking can be via use of engine in low gear, but that's just another way of dissipating kinetic energy.

I would agree that ramps should be handled carefully by drivers, but they vary so much in profile that a nice smooth passage is not always possible.

Of course if you drive really slowly (10kph) then ramps are no problem at all. Except for time wasted, traffic jammed and probably fuel waster as people drive in 1st of 2nd gear.

There's so many holes in that argument it's hard to know where to start.

Ramps are for the most part going to be in areas where you are supposed to drive at a low speed. The object of them isn't to go as fast as you can between them and brake or reduce gear to slow down right before them. If you cruise at say 30kmph in a ramp area you can just ease off the accelerator in advance of the ramp, roll over and then ease your foot back onto the accelerator, this is a fairly basic driving skill.

The ramps are not an obstacale to be overcome in one's attempt to go at the fastest speed possible down a road, they are most likely there to slow you down because the speeds that inconsiderate morons drove at before they were there was inappropriate and dangerous to other road users and pedestrians.

Yes, in my experience, like in 30km/h zones, lightly engaging the accelerator in third gear pretty much gets you in the right zone for these low-speed areas, and sets up transition over speed ramps just fine.

That's interesting. I haven't got round to finding out where the cruise control (if any) is on the cars I've rented in Dublin, but that seems to make sense as a practice.

In my car I can only set cruise after 30kmph. Coincidentally the same speed limit as my area. It's great for the downhill stretch with the "your speed" display (outside a school). The highest I've seen (albeit on a weekend) was 74.

It's effectively a speed limiter in these circumstances - I'm paying full attention. As soon as I touch the brake it comes off. To engage it's less hand movement than putting on/ off the full headlights.

I only ever use cruise on quiet sections of motorway.

There is a speed limiter function on the car as well, I occasionally use this if I'm on a wide road with a low limit where it's easy to let the speed drift up.

I never advocated going fast between ramps, but especially when ramps are in a 50kph zone there will inevitably be braking and acceleration. I actually advocated careful use of ramps by drivers. As for the energy losses in braking and acceleration, do you want to question basic physics? Please read what I actually wrote and make your criticisms address what I actually said.