The cycling lobby does itself no favours by engaging in tribal finger-pointing in an effort to excuse bad cycling behaviour … read more
Category Archives: Irish Posts
Ireland, see also NI
Majority of commuters still turning to the car
Despite Government efforts to get more people to walk, cycle, or use public transport, three out of every four journeys are still being made by car, according to a new overview of the country’s transport sector.
Changing city priorities: Let’s do more to promote cycling
A simple reordering of priorities may make our capital city, or at least a segment of it, more attractive to cyclists and encourage more people to use this sensible, healthy and environmentally commendable form of transport. Read more
New cycling chairman gets on the saddle
The new chairperson of Cyclist.ie has warned that Ireland must utilise more environmentally friendly modes of transport if the country is to ever meet its EU greenhouse emissions targets for 2020.
Colm Ryder was appointed chair of the National Cyclist Advocacy Network of Ireland last month, and he says the country is nowhere near meeting its EU targets.
Get on your bike and feel like a newly independent kid again
Róisín Ingle: I’ve been freewheeling around Dublin town since the red letter day aged eight or nine when I inherited a thoroughly banjaxed third-hand bike that once had belonged to several older brothers or sisters. It was blue and bockety, the saddle leather battered and worn, the chain creaky and in need of a good dose of 3-in-1 oil, but it was mine, all mine. Read article
More on cycling in today’s Irish Times
More than half of drink drivers escape conviction
Only 40 per cent of drink driving cases listed before the country’s District Courts since January 2013 resulted in convictions, new figures show. Read more
Waterford Greenway – Public Information Meetings
Waterford City and County Council is currently developing the Waterford Greenway along a 45km section of the old disused railway line from Dungarvan to Waterford. It is anticipated that this amenity will officially open to the public in the second half of 2016. It is envisaged that the development and completion of the Greenway will have a hugely significant cultural, social and economic impact on the people of Waterford in the years to come. Read article
Cork’s Public Bike Schemes – Continuing the Journey
One year after the official launch of CokeZeroBikes (Cork), the Transport and Mobility Forum Cork (TMF) hosted a half-day seminar on 8th March 2016 on the scheme. The event saw a packed conference room in the Metropole Hotel with about 50 delegates with professional transport / bicycle planning backgrounds attending. Presentations were given on the public bike schemes by the NTA and a group of Master’s students from the UCC Centre for Planning, while the smaller scale Clonakilty Community Bike Scheme received lots of praise too. Planners for Cork City Council reported on their infrastructure improvement projects as did those from County Hall (i.e. Cork County Council) and Cork University Hospital. Delegates learned that there are a number of major employers yet not with the reach of the public bikes.
In the lively discussion, many attendees expressed the hope that the NTA would soon expand the scheme, building on its overwhelming success. This was echoed by the NTA’s Michael Aherne, although he had to try hard to keep expectations low. The NTA would first need to help the two other schemes (Limerick and Galway) up on their feet, although officials in Dublin were more than surprised about the rocket start of the Cork scheme. He pointed out that “in Dublin, we had to wait five years to see how the [Dublin Bikes] system developed and to understand usage patterns. In Cork, however, the emergence of a cycling culture appears to be happening on a fast track.“ Coordinated promotion from various sides and bodies, many of them part of the TMF, such as Cork Cycling Campaign, the Cork Councils, UCC and others, are making a valuable contribution to that success.
For more information visit: Transport & Mobility Forum (Cork) and Cork Cycling Campaign
Exhibition April 25th – May 7th Index Gallery, Central Library, Waterford
Inspired by the words of John F. Kennedy: “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike”
Presented by Cyclist.ie and Waterford Walk & Cycle Campaign
April 25th – May 7th, Index Gallery, Central Library, Waterford
Cyclist.ie elects new Chairperson
Mike McKillen was the first chairperson of Cyclist.ie – The Irish Cycling Advocacy Network – from its foundation in February 2009. At our Council meeting on 12 March he announced that he decided to get off the ‘bike’ in order to let new legs pedal it into the future. Seven years in the saddle is long enough, particularly since as Flann O’Brien wrote in ‘The Third Policeman’, if you sit in a saddle for too long you fuse at a molecular level with the leather!
Colm Ryder (from Dublin Cycling Campaign) was nominated and elected unanimously as our new Chair at the Council meeting on Saturday 12 March and has taken over from Mike. Colm has plenty of energy and ideas so the steering and direction of the ‘bike’ are in good hands. Mike will still be involved in Dublin Cycling Campaign and with whatever has to be done in Cyclist.ie.
In handing over Mike said “I wish Colm well in the role. He has a great bunch of volunteers and an able National Cycling Coordinator in Dr. Damien O’Tuama”.
Mike is pictured above on the left, on his own bike; Colm is on a Dublin Bike, on the right