Jaysus cycling! (1 Viewer)

[rettucs]

there was a cyclist fatally injured in an accident in Harold's Cross this morning.

fuck it anyway. Hearing about stuff like this really gets to me.

 

[jane]

I heard that.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0114/breaking32.htm

I'll fucking bet you anything it was one of those Kilsaran drivers, the worst drivers in the city. They run red lights because they have a phone in one hand and a fucking breakfast roll in the other and they're barreling down the road like crazies.

So that's two pedestrians and a cyclist in the last five days. Of course, we're going to now get a campaign about how we should all be more careful, and no one is going to even point the finger at dangerous drivers.

Oh yeah, though, cyclists, get off the fucking footpath. I don't care how fucking awesome you think you are, you could really fucking hurt someone. If you're afraid of drivers, then don't fucking cycle. You have no right to use your fear of dangerous drivers to put other people in danger.

 

[Pantone247]

Hybrids rule.

seriously!

I'm loving this bike, it's super quick can pretty much overtake anything at will now, which makes me feel much safer and in control. It's dead stable and handles really well.. really is the best of worlds. I'm almost glad my last heap o' junk got swiped

on the downside my short congested journey means I've not had the chance to "open her up" yet, going to head down to the phoinex park some weekend, I predict it'll be terrifyingly fast

 

[magicbastarder]

I'll fucking bet you anything it was one of those Kilsaran drivers, the worst drivers in the city. They run red lights because they have a phone in one hand and a fucking breakfast roll in the other and they're barreling down the road like crazies.

what really bugs me is the mind-numbing 'cyclists are subject to the rules of the road every bit as much as cars' brigade.

placing cyclists on the same level as cars in terms of road safety is nuts. they exist along a continuum from pedestrians, through cyclists and cars, to trucks, and the rules of the road do not really take that into account
there are lots of places i can think of where following the rules of the road (or their implied conclusion) would kill me. the rules of the road do not take into account adequately that the top speed of cars and cyclists is vastly different.

 

[minka]

what really bugs me is the mind-numbing 'cyclists are subject to the rules of the road every bit as much as cars' brigade.

placing cyclists on the same level as cars in terms of road safety is nuts. they exist along a continuum from pedestrians, through cyclists and cars, to trucks, and the rules of the road do not really take that into account
there are lots of places i can think of where following the rules of the road (or their implied conclusion) would kill me. the rules of the road do not take into account adequately that the top speed of cars and cyclists is vastly different.

exactly. i remember someone once giving out about the way cyclists "weave between lanes" coming up to a set of lights, and i realized she expected cyclists to be able to change lanes like/at the same speed as a car. well, either that or for us never to be able to turn right, i think it may have been the same person who thought cyclists were always supposed to be on the leftmost side of the *road*, not just the lane...

and yeah, if i followed the rules of the road for cars to the letter i would probably be dead under a bus by now. considerate and observant is the thing.

 

[rettucs]

what really bugs me is the mind-numbing 'cyclists are subject to the rules of the road every bit as much as cars' brigade.

placing cyclists on the same level as cars in terms of road safety is nuts. they exist along a continuum from pedestrians, through cyclists and cars, to trucks, and the rules of the road do not really take that into account
there are lots of places i can think of where following the rules of the road (or their implied conclusion) would kill me. the rules of the road do not take into account adequately that the top speed of cars and cyclists is vastly different.

cycling in the city is about applying one's common sense, which can mean straying beyond the limits of the law from time to time. I do it and make no apology for it.

Applying one's common sense does not include putting other cyclists or pedestrians in danger.

I almost got knocked down yesterday.

 

[minka]

I almost got knocked down yesterday.

ditto. some genius in a car who was unfamiliar with this little custom we call "indicating". obviously we all know you're turning left BECAUSE WE'RE PSYCHIC.

sometimes i wonder if cycling is good for me: sure, the exercise, the fresh air, but also the tendency to mutter "argh, fuck off and die, fuckface" at total strangers...

 

[Lolo]

the same person who thought cyclists were always supposed to be on the leftmost side of the *road*, not just the lane...

Aargh yes I have to deal with people shouting at me from cars, and forcing me into the wrong lane, on a regular basis at a particular bit of my route to work because of this. Somebody did once shout back "She's in the correct lane!" at a driver on my behalf though. In a Geordie accent, I felt like I was being defended by the Big Brother voice

I've been doing a little count of the gender of the people who do dangerous and stoopid things on my commute. So far male motorists and cyclists are in the lead, but female pedestrians are waaaay ahead of their male counterparts.

 

[rettucs]

but female pedestrians are waaaay ahead of their male counterparts.

agreed. General observation amongst female pedestrians seems well below that of their male counterparts. I don't get it.

from my experience.

 

[classic seanc]

there was a cyclist fatally injured in an accident in Harold's Cross this morning.

fuck it anyway. Hearing about stuff like this really gets to me.

Be safe everybody.

 

[flashback]

some prick came ambling the wrong way down the middle of the cycle lane on sixth avenue with no lights almost straight into me last night, trying to force me into the rush hour lunacy of the traffic.

So I plowed into him, and gave him a massive shove out of my way as I was coming past and a quick "fuck sake" to be sure. Because I could. I didn't actually mill him into a parked car cause I was feeling generous.



Fuck cunts cycling the wrong way down roads on the cycle lane I say.

 

[Froog]

there was a cyclist fatally injured in an accident in Harold's Cross this morning.

fuck it anyway. Hearing about stuff like this really gets to me.

couple of hundred metres from my gaff. that crossroads is a bloody nightmare, i use the pedestrian crossings.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

agreed. General observation amongst female pedestrians seems well below that of their male counterparts. I don't get it.

from my experience.

A couple of weeks ago a young lady on her phone wheeling a buggy went to cross the road without looking behind her. If I hadn't of jumped on the brakes I'd have smashed in to the buggy. I was amazed she could be so negligent wheeling a young 'un around.

Total cunt drivers are usually men though. Men who are driving for their job.

I take the near-misses personally for some reason. I often stopn and stare at the ground awhile and feel depressed.

 

[La La]

that harolds cross story today was just terrible. i live up the road from where it happened. plus, the bike looked like one of my housemates' which really freaked the fuck out of me. awful, awful.

 

[Los Davos]

A few months back I emailed century 21:

Hi,

Are there any plans under century 21 for the development / improvement

of cycle lanes in Dublin?

A month later:

My sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your mail.
The Strategic Planning and Policy Division of the Department of Transport is currently conducting a public consultation for a Sustainable Travel and Transport Action Plan (STTAP) (see sustainabletravel.ie for details and to make submissions).
An element of the STTAP is likely to require significant modal shift from the private car to walking, cycling and public transport and, in parallel with the preparation of STTAP, the Department commissioned research to help in the development of a National Cycle Policy.
The Department has recently received the outputs of the research, including a draft National Cycling Policy. However, as there is a close inter-relationship between the development of a National Cycling Policy and delivery of STTAP, detailed policy consideration must be undertaken of the research output to ensure that it will ultimately be a good fit with STTAP.
I hope this information is of benefit to you.

eh....

 

[flashback]

a mate of mine who is a proper cyclist, (olympics / Ras / used to train with Stephen and Laurence Roche type) just talked to me about how he got the biggest scare in his life last week on the bike.
He nearly, like *really* nearly got milled by a construction truck on sixth avenue. He was saying basically he ended up pushing a pedestrian back and leaning the bike over and the truck literally brushed past him. He was saying he just would have been dead if he hadn;t been able to make space and get out of the way.

He followed the driver, and caught him at lights, and just pulled up behind him, pulled out his phone, and took a shot of the reg plate and then put it up to the window and took his picture.
Your man went fucking apeshit of course and freaked out completely.
But now he's wondering what the hell he can actually do.
I mean, the driver will without doubt kill someone. I was saying that it was his duty to go to the company that ran the trucks and tell them what was happening.
But realistically, what can you do?

That was the real reason I fucking blew up at that asshole riding the wrong way up the road in the cycle lane, and pushed him out of my way...

 

[Lili Marlene]

some prick came ambling the wrong way down the middle of the cycle lane on sixth avenue with no lights almost straight into me last night, trying to force me into the rush hour lunacy of the traffic.

So I plowed into him, and gave him a massive shove out of my way as I was coming past and a quick "fuck sake" to be sure. Because I could. I didn't actually mill him into a parked car cause I was feeling generous.



Fuck cunts cycling the wrong way down roads on the cycle lane I say.

dude, we need solidarity among cyclists. is it not enough to have all the cars and pedestrians in the world against us??

this is just like ireland in 1922

 

[jane]

dude, we need solidarity among cyclists. is it not enough to have all the cars and pedestrians in the world against us??

this is just like ireland in 1922

Pedestrians and cyclists need to band together, and not be enemies, and not make the mistakes that the Republicans made when they sidelined the labour movement. Pedestrians need to get used to using crossings, but also people need to lobby the government to time the lights more sensibly. The problem is that there's no 'pedestrian lobby' really, since everyone is a pedestrian at some point. It's not like cyclists. People who run out in the middle of the road, especially when a crossing is RIGHT THERE make it worse for the rest of us.

I always smile at cyclists who are not being cunty and barreling down the footpath, or who are clearly being courteous road users. The guy who flew by me this morning, on the footpath (and on the wrong side of the road, so he didn't just hop onto the footpath briefly or anything) wearing no lights and having headphones on and giving me a fucking awful fright. FUCK YOU PRICK. I also see a guy I know nearly every morning, cycling down the Sandymount promenade, where it is CLEARLY marked "NO SKATING OR CYCLING" and where sometimes it is so packed with headphone-wearing speeding cyclists that it's impassable and it makes me really mad. He should know better.

Men who drive for their job are indeed the most dangerous, but also women in SUVs going to pick little Alastair and Aoibheaifghtnen up from ballet after being hosed down with lunchtime chardonnay in Itsa4. They also are evil and get fucking crazy if you so much as look at them after they've run right through a green man as you're crossing/red light as you're cycling across the junction.

Also excessively dangerous are the drivers of luxury cars of any description. Cunts. I hope they bought them on equity and they all get repossessed and everyone has to drive around in a Fiat chinkychento and can't go over 30 kph.

BTW, I found a pretty funny thing in a newspaper clipping from 1805 about how hackney drivers were totally reckless and anyone who 'objected to the exhortations of the carriage-drivers', well, 'many persons were ran over and some killed.'

Apparently road rage is at least a 200-year tradition in Dublin. Backtalk will get you squashed.

 

[rettucs]

Your man went fucking apeshit of course and freaked out completely.
But now he's wondering what the hell he can actually do.
I mean, the driver will without doubt kill someone. I was saying that it was his duty to go to the company that ran the trucks and tell them what was happening.
But realistically, what can you do?

he should do that. In America you see that 'how am I driving' shit everywhere with a number. Let them know how their guy is driving. Like a prick.

Imagine that here, ringing up some company to complain about a driver. Some Irish prick that couldn't give a shit cos basically, we don't give a shit.

America is different though.

I got run off the road on Lower Mount Street one morning by a bendy bus (which are way too long for the streets of Dublin). It wasn't the worst cos I could just pop up onto the path into the clear. But I figured if there were parked cars there I was a gonner, so I chased him. At the next bus stop I pulled up next to the door and politely (seriously, I was polite - its kind of a rule with me now to be polite as much as possible when on the bike) informed him that he ran me off the road and to please have consideration for other road users. I expected him to tell me to fuck off, but he simply nodded, apologised, and that was that. He wasn't Irish. An Irish bus driver wouldn't have done that.

 

[rettucs]

couple of hundred metres from my gaff. that crossroads is a bloody nightmare, i use the pedestrian crossings.

is it the one at Leonards Corner? I got knocked down at that junction back in my college days. A taxi ran a red light and smacked into me. I don't know how I didn't come off worse than I did. Wrecked my bike but I was ok.