Once ranked among America’s worst bicycling cities, Boston has cleaned up its act in recent years, becoming a safer place to bike to work, according to a Harvard Chan School study of injuries to bicycle commuters between 2009 and 2012. Read more
Tag Archives: GeneralNews
General news about cycling
GoCycle – compact foldable electric bike
Meath Co Co Rejects Maynooth Cycling Campaign’s Submission
Maynooth Cycling Campaign’s submission here
Meath County Council has rejected all the points raised in Maynooth Cycling Campaign’s submission on the Moygaddy Road, part of the proposed ring road around Maynooth.
The main point concerned the separation of an off road cycle track from the road. The council proposed a separation of 1.5m whereas Table 4.3 of TD300 Provision of Cycle Facilities in Rural Areas requires a minimum separation distance of 2m for speeds of 80km/h or less. The council’s response was “The separation distance at 1.5m is deemed to be appropriate”.
The second point of the submission was differentiation of cycle track from the footpath in level and material. Meath County Council responded that there would be suffice demarcation with different materials.
The third point was for the provision of filtered permeability on the existing road. Meath County Council undertook to implement some traffic calming but did not state whether or not filtered permeability would be included .
A common aspects of all three responses is that they fail to address the points raised in the submission and recommend no changes regardless of standards, best international practice or any other arguments or precedents. This continues the practice in most local authorities of looking for public submissions but rejecting submissions from cycling groups if it does accord with their proposals
Cyclist.ie’s Work Highlighted at Cycling Ireland Awards Night
On Saturday 26th November, Cycling Ireland hosted its 2016 Awards Night in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Dublin. The night was a celebration of the cycling events and developments of 2016, across the many strands of the activity and sport of cycling. Cyclist.ie was represented by its new Chairperson, Colm Ryder, and by National Cycling Coordinator, Dr. Damien Ó Tuama.
Cyclist.ie’s work – and the new collaboration with Cycling Ireland – was highlighted. A new video explaining what the collaboration is about was shown to the 200 or so guests at the event. This was followed by an on-stage interview with Damien and the Secretary General of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), Dr. Bernhard Ensink – as pictured here with Declan Quigley, MC for the event. Damien and Bernhard stressed the importance of making everyday cycling safe and normal, and for proper investment to be made in high quality cycling interventions. The ECF and World Cycling Alliance proposal that there needs to be a designated UN World Bicycle Day received a great reaction from the attendees.
Bernhard had been in Dublin with a team from ECF as a result of Dublin City being short-listed, along with Helsinki, to host the prestigious 2019 Velo-city International Cycling Conference. The ECF team spent three days exploring the city and meeting key figures including Minister Shane Ross, the CEO of the National Transport Authority Ms. Anne Graham, the CE of Dublin City Council, Owen Keegan, and other decision-makers. It is expected that a decision will be made on which city will host Velo-city within the next month or so. Watch this space.
ECF Newsletter
Dublin Cycling Campaign is a member of Cyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network (ICAN), which in turn is the Irish member of the ECF (European Cyclists’ Federation). This is the latest ECF newsletter, with great articles on innovations and developments in cycling around the globe, from bike parking in Holland to public bike systems in Africa!
Aim for 1,000km of greenways across NI
Cyclist.ie Belfast member Jonathan Hobbs, who moderates NI Greenways, and is active in lobbying for greater cycling provision in Northern Ireland, writes on a major move by Northern Ireland’s Infrastructure Minister, Chris Hazzard in laying out an exciting long term strategy for development of Greenways.
Would that we here in the Republic could manage to get a similar strategy agreed by our incumbent minister of Transport Tourism & Sport, who has yet to make any statement of substance in relation to Active Travel, and sustainable transport. Cyclist.ie continues to seek a meeting with Minister Shane Ross, to put the case for a greater share of transport investment for cycling. We have yet to get an agreed meeting.
In the meantime why do we need to look North to get a definitive statement of belief in cycling as a central and important mode of transport, as well as providing major health and environmental benefits!?
Shane Ross needs to wake up to the future of transport in a reduced carbon emission world
Greenway News
Latest from SouthernTrail.net
More news (graphics): here and here
But: Ross diverts Greenway funding to ‘Boxer’ Moran’s turf
Also: Work starts on Great Western Greenway expansion in Achill
Council to investigate making Barnagh Tunnel part of GST
Planning permission (part 8): upgrade to the Great Southern Trail now uploaded to Limerick City & County Council’s website
GST extension into Kerry comes closer:
3km extension of the Great Southern Trail; planning details and associated drawing
Freedom machines: How Ireland embraced cycling
Ireland’s Cycling History – A Wonderful Story!
Paul Rouse, the noted sports historian has written this article, on cycling in Ireland, in a recent edition of the Examiner newspaper. Anyone who reads it will, I dare say, be very impressed and amazed at the grip that cycling had on the Irish psyche back in the early part of the 20th century.
The article also has wonderful and evocative images of cycling ‘events’ over the years. As we arrive next year in 2017 at the 200th anniversary of the invention of the bike, articles such as this will help us to appreciate how far the simple bicycle has come … and gone … in its development, and in our culture.
Sit back and Enjoy the Ride!
Campaigners Seek Better Train – Bicycle Integration. Volunteer Needed!
Cyclist.ie has a new working group examining how to integrate rail and cycling better. We want to see far higher quality cycle parking at all Irish rail stations, easier carriage of bicycles on trains and clearer information on how this can be done. We are inspired by the policies and practices of train operators abroad who really value their cycling and rail customers! Even simple interventions like giant bicycle logos at appropriate spots on carriages can make a difference – as shown in the photo above from Denmark!
The working group includes representatives from Cyclist.ie, Kilkenny Cycling Campaign, Maynooth Cycling Campaign and Cycling Ireland. The next of our regular meetings with Irish Rail will take place on Thu 20th October (afternoon).
We are now seeking a new volunteer (or several) from the wider cycling community who can help us prepare for these meetings. We would really like to hear from you if you are a regular train user – and cyclist – and have thought carefully about how Irish Rail could better accommodate its cycling customers. The ideal volunteer will have some knowledge of how progressive systems abroad work in terms of combining bike and rail, and/or can help us carry out research on this topic. We would also love to hear from you if you have specialised transport or mechanical engineering knowledge, since some of the discussions on the potential for retrofitting existing Irish Rail rolling stock can be quite technical. Even better still if the volunteer can take time out to come to meetings with us!
Please email the National Cycling Coordinator ASAP if you can help out (and ideally by Fri 14th October). Thank you.
Massive cyclist protest in Dublin
Following a series of cyclist fatalities and a lack of investment in cycling infrastructure, when activists called for their brothers and sisters on two wheels to turn out at a protest they couldn’t have imagined the reaction they’d get …
Read article; see also: [btnsx id=”5197″]