The Dublin Cycling Campaign is an independent, voluntary lobby group that has been working to improve the city for all cyclists for over a decade and a half.
A PLANNED GARDA road safety strategy for Dublin is to be geared at protecting vulnerable road users who make up just over 61 per cent of road deaths in the capital.
The number of people hopping on their bikes to avoid traffic gridlock has soared to its highest level in the past 10 years, according to new figures.
Yet, despite the downturn and the apparent increase in people trading in four wheels for two, there has also been a rise in the amount of cars travelling into the capital city in recent years.
JOE DALY, who has died aged 89, was the founder and owner of the famous bicycle shop in Dundrum, Co Dublin which bears his name.
Bikes were his life. He sold and repaired them, talked about and cycled them, and fraternised with and supported the professional and wider cycling population, having first set up business in 1951.
Dublin City Council is to draw up plans for "contra flow lanes" for cyclists, allowing them to travel in either direction on streets that are restricted to one-way for motor vehicles.
The move has been prompted by members of the Dublin Cycle Forum who pointed out the current one-way streets such as Pearse Street and Nassau Street can leave cyclists a detour of several kilometres.
Councillors must put safety ahead of the motoring lobby by holding their nerve with the new 30km/h limit
THERE IS is almost nothing quite so pathetic as the sight and sound of public representatives buckling under pressure from powerful lobbies or vested interests. We are seeing more of this shameful spectacle, as the elected members of Dublin City Council reconsider the 30km/h city centre speed limit – an initiative less than a month old.
THE 30km/h speed limit that now applies to the core area of Dublin city centre has been interpreted by the Automobile Association (AA) and others as a punitive measure. In fact, however, it is part of a more general strategy to civilise the city, along with other initiatives such as the “bus gate” at College Green and the hugely successful Dublin Bikes scheme.
Dublin city commuters and students are increasingly using bicycles with a 74% increase over the past four years according to the latest traffic figures.
REPRESENTATIVES FROM over a dozen civic organisations have urged Dublin city councillors to maintain the 30km/h speed limit in the city centre.
Signatories of the open letter come from a wide range of bodies including the Children’s Rights Alliance, National Council for the Blind of Ireland, An Taisce, Dublin Cycling Campaign, pedestrian advocacy group Cosain, Friends of the Irish Environment as well as Dr Declan Bedford specialist in public health medicine and broadcaster Duncan Stewart.
Madam, – There has been much ill-informed comment about the new 30km/h speed limit in Dublin city centre, with some people claiming “you could walk faster”, or (more realistically) that many cyclists go faster. The truth is that only the fittest cyclists will do 30km/h on the flat, and Usain Bolt’s world record 100m run was at a speed of 37.58km/h.
Double lock : If your bike cost a lot and you want to take it out in public, make sure you use a U-lock as well as a wire lock - thieves need a hammer (or angle grinder) for the former and a bolt cutter for the latter, so only the most dedicated of scoundrels will be fully equipped.
While pedal power is back in vogue, so is bicycle theft
CYCLING IS, in many ways, the perfect form of commuting. It's fast, cheap, wholesome, invigorating and very, very handy as long as you live within 10kms of your place of work - any further and you need steely determination and steelier thighs.
ALMOST 25,000 people have signed up for the Dublin City Council bike scheme, meaning it is 100 times more popular than the Paris and Brussels equivalents.
The council is now planning an expansion of the scheme, due to be completed before the summer.
Madam, – There has been much ill-informed comment about the new 30km/h speed limit in Dublin city centre, with some people claiming “you could walk faster”, or (more realistically) that many cyclists go faster. The truth is that only the fittest cyclists will do 30km/h on the flat, and Usain Bolt’s world record 100m run was at a speed of 37.58km/h.
