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Cyclists complain about wheel-grabbing Luas tracks, rough road surfaces, daydreaming pedestrians, careless drivers, car-friendly media and unhelpful gardaí.
Pedestrians and drivers complain about cyclists: especially the red-light breakers, the pedestrian-crossing blankers and the pavement dashers.
Is the problem just bad behaviour by individual road users? Is poor urban design pitting people against each other in a fight for scarce street space? And what can be done to bring peace and safety to our streets?
On the evening of Wednesday, 21 March, from 6:30pm to about 8:30pm, Dublin Inquirer and Banter will present a panel discussion of these issues.
Moderated by Banter’s Jim Carroll, the panel will include:
––Claudine Chen, cycling advocate and a member of the Dublin Cycling Campaign
––Jason Taylor, principal author of the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets, the government handbook on how to encourage sustainable travel in urban areas.
––Jim Waldron, of the National Private Hire & Taxi Association
The event is free, but you’ll need to grab your a ticket here to make sure you get a seat.
As a lifelong city cyclist I concur with most of the sentiments expressed by my sister and brother cyclists re the dangers we face every day, especially in Dublin. We all know there are not enough cycle lanes and those that exist are all too often invaded by pedestrians, taxis, buses and cars.
However, I have to say that we are sometimes our own enemies. In my experience, 99 percent of cyclists break the red lights. If we want to be treated equally we have to obey the rules of the road. Some cyclists look pityingly at me when I wait patiently with the other road users for the lights to change to green instead of dashing through the red light with the rest of them.
The fundamental issue really is how cars have so overwhelming taken over Dublin- and been allowed to take over. Not just moving cars, but the wasted space taken up by parked cars as well. Many parking spaces are wider than the footpaths.
Being so flat, Dublin should be the ideal cycling and walking city- but it is the opposite.
The odd cyclist breaking a red light, in many cases due to safety concerns when at a crammed junction is but one main contention as opposed to the multiple of issues with wreckless drivers, the results of which are far more dangerous. Ultimately DCC is just not up to the task- we can see the mess of college green as a prime example of this, even with the years of pkanning they had.