Any sensible driver should be in full support of bicycle infrastructure. The more people that ride, the more people that don’t drive. And that means less traffic. And no-one likes traffic.
Any sensible driver should be in full support of bicycle infrastructure. The more people that ride, the more people that don’t drive. And that means less traffic. And no-one likes traffic.
47 comments
unfortunately this idea makes too much sense for an irish politician to care about it
This is Ireland. This is not the place for logic!
That means building cycle lanes. Cyclists and motorists are not supposed to share road of course
If the end result is more people riding I’m willing to support almost anything.
Unfortunately we don’t have that kind of space everywhere. We need more outside the box thinking for some spots and also intelligent people working on it. Not the gombeens who only do bike lanes halfway down the road but yes I want this to happen too.
Typical comments in the main thread…….no matter where in the world you are.
The only way to build cycle infrastructure seems to be to dramatically decrease motor vehicle space.
The sooner people accept that the only reasonable solution is a dramatic increase and improvement in public transport options the better.
Trains need to be cheaper and more frequent. Commuter towns (Athlone, Tullamore, Portlaoise, Carlow etc) need to be reclassified as commuter train services rather than intercity services. And we need to review how taxsaver tickets are sold.
Need to build more trains and trams and increase the amount of buses serving towns and cities.
It’s something I really can never get my head around. I build high end bicycle frames, but spend a lot of time around fast cars for fun, and the illogical hatred of cycling and cyclists in car circles is still shocking to me. Every gross smelly lycra clad chode you come across is one less car you have to compete with! Embrace cycling, if not for yourself then for anyone else in your vicinity.
Well, no. There’s whole disciplines about this and traffic that unless you actually combat vehicle numbers no matter what free flow a measure achieves gets eaten up as people see the free flow and fill it up again.
So reducing traffic on roads doesn’t actually reduce it long term. Rather making road use for vehicles so awful people have to switch is more likely to achieve it which is happening anyway.
It’s a better of thinking really to see great cycling infrastructure as a good in and of itself and not a method to reduce traffic on roads, but to reduce, over time, numbers traveling by car but not making the car journeys better for less traffic. As counter intuitive as it may be, those two are quite mutually exclusive.
Obviously having alternatives is critical but over time with cars freely available and use relatively cheap road capacity will always be used, so you have to aim for that if you want a true switch, provide for cycling, but don’t focus on making the roads less clogged as current condition just won’t allow that without source control on cars.
They built one of these along a local highway that cyclists love; it’s the main thoroughfare between several towns and a larger city. The lycra-wearing eedjits still take their bikes on the road, slowing traffic to a crawl. I very much support building infrastructure for bicyclists, but there’s no guarantee they’ll use it.
also cheaper petrol and cars, it’s supply and demand
Yet when I lived in Celbridge which has purpose built cycle lanes along the Maynooth road, I often encountered cyclists who were on the busy road regardless, holding up traffic. No point building the infrastructure if the cyclists won’t use it.
The old adage “stop complaining about traffic, you are traffic” rings true
Was getting my first driving lesson yesterday (I don’t plan on getting a car just so I know how) and the teacher said its like the gov doesn’t want us driving cars. I did not have the heart to say it to him
For everyone saying “cyclists don’t use the cycle lanes anyways”, there is always a reason for this that isn’t immediately apparent if you’ve never used it. A lot of them are simply painted onto footpaths and have loads of obstructions like bus stops along the way, or start stop with no safe means of getting back onto the road, or are very poorly maintained, or don’t allow safe crossing of junctions.
If cycle lanes were built properly, who in their right mind wouldn’t use them to avoid competing with cars?
Cold, wet and needing a hot shower is not the way to start school/work.
That’s a lovely picture. But how are you gonna do that around a city centre?
If these where built, you would still get people walking in them, same as the cycle lanes we have now. Every morning I cycle to work there is a woman and small child walking in the middle of the cycle lane, very dangerous and irresponsible of the mother.
I’m 100% in favor of bicycle infrastructure when done correctly. So many places fuck it up though.
Cycling is part of the culture wars now since some American commentators decided the Government and Greta are trying to ban cars.
I think the government would rather just tax you more than investing in cycle lanes and public transport.
Or we could just do the more environmentally and socially acceptable option of encouraging WFH.
But maybe I’d have a different opinion if I lived in Brisbane.
I don’t drive or cycle on a regular basis, but I’ve always thought this argument is actually two arguments. Countries probably need to tackle driving by itself and just make the “look, we want far fewer cars on the road for lots of perfectly valid reasons” case. Then tax/regulate it enough to push it way down.
After that they can focus on infrastructure for alternative transport, cycle lanes/public transport.
Setting it up as driving vs cycling is counter-productive.
Ask a Dutch person how that’s going. Netherlands is probably #1 when it comes to biking infrastructure and bicycle use, however there’s a shit ton of traffic jams (during peak hours) on highways as people go to work (and trains are experienced as shit/too expensive + too far away to ride a bike)
In Ireland we just take an entire lane off the pre-existing road and increase the amount of traffic ten-fold.
Example: The Shannon Bridge in Limerick, A bike-lane that nobody uses that removed a left turn lane onto Bishops Quay.
That’s a grand image there. In saying that, you wouldn’t see this around much it’s fair more likely we get them little post yokes separating road and bike lane, on already narrow roads. In stead of just passing a cyclist as they arise now that whole chunk of road is gone. Doing it up the long mile road this morning, not as bad now cause the roads wide enough. But there’s better stuff we could be spending our money on when it comes to roads some of them are in bits
Too many people have made shitting on cyclists part of their personality in Ireland to make this a thing
Australia is the last country in the world to follow on any sort of sensible approach to cycling.
Some people just don’t get logic though.
Id even settle for anything better than the donkey tracks we have in the North West!
I’m a runner, sidelined by injury. Went out today for my first cycle to try to keep the fitness up.
What a depressing experience. The roads are poor, the drivers at best indifferent, what cycle paths we have are either a painted white line on an existing road or, where on the pavement, are full of rubble and broken glass. I had to avoid drains, van drivers, holes in the road, glass.
I wore full high vis, lights, helmet. I obeyed red lights and road signs.
I’ve genuinely never felt so unsafe.
This was a Sunday morning. I can’t imagine how people commute on bikes every day. I didn’t appreciate as a driver and a runner how consistently bad and dangerous it is for cyclists.
I’m a convert. We need to invest property in our cycling infrastructure and public transport.
The problem is the bicycle infrastructure they build is fucking shite and more dangerous.
Has anyone seen the labyrinth they built beside Christ church?
*raises hand timidly*
Uhm, I like traff-
*is immediately pelted with garbage*
Makr the trees scattered (staggered lines ) on booth sides of the walkway so you have shade throughout the day .
Dun Laoighre Rathdown are spending a small fortune installing cycle lanes and changing road layout. I think in less than 5 years they will be falling apart.
But at the same time local tidy towns are out cleaning g up streets that should be maintained by the council. But they don’t have a budget fir autumn leaves.
Personally I think it’s green washing.
Man old people protesting this kind of thing really winds me up, I just don’t get why anyone would be against this. Os it an us vs them attitude they have? Why are some people afraid of change
Maybe they just like the misery
The fallacy of your argument begins and ends with “sensible”
Nah, there’s not enough sensible cyclists. Too many mfs taking up a lane when there’s a literal cycle path beside for the whole road. Too many cocky cycle groups not letting other traffic pass creating traffic jams.
Well, this has not worked in London. During lockdown, they were busy, adding cycle lanes everywhere. The results have been a huge increase in travel times. As for those cycle lanes being full of former drivers, who now think they are Sam Bennet, well, that’s not true either. The aim ? Cause congestion and charge people for the privilege to drive and then justify it by saying the charge is to reduce congestion, but they caused the congestion, the congestion charge has not reduced traffic in London either 😂
[deleted]
Pedestrians love having their space reduced to a glorified gangway too!! Hurrah for white elephants
This is my thought when people who can’t work from home start exhorting everyone to go back to the office. Why would you want extra traffic or rammed buses?
Strongly recommend checking out the NotJustBikes YouTube channel. Great intro to the transport/urban planning rabbit hole. Ireland needs to be developing its cities and towns more like the Netherlands and less like the concrete hellscape of America.
I am 100% behind this. More ridding.
To be fair tho, I think he is a daycent lad. He just expected the trolley to bounce off the coach, but didn’t expect how fragile the coaches in the US are. After all, he apologised with “it’s all just business”. He woz mostly having a banter about the wife, religion, punching old men, seducing women and stuff – it’s just hard luck that americans and other nationalities don’t get his sarcastic british humour
Goodspeed that he’s still ere
I don’t understand why the government are adapting an attitude of encouraging cycling by pushing cars off the road. Why can’t they give people the incentive to cycle by building the proper infrastructures and improving public transport while also being inclusive towards drivers? I’m all for a better cycling system in this country but pushing cars off the road is not the way to do it. Not everyone can cycle, for a multitude of reasons. Some people depend on being able to drive.