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A GROUP OF concerned cyclists took part in a lunchtime protest today against new Luas Cross City signs that urge people on bikes to dismount and walk.
They also wanted to raise awareness of the impact of the new Luas Cross City layout on those who cycle around the city centre.
The event, organised by I Bike Dublin, saw over 35 participants dismounting near College Green, one of the busiest parts of the city centre, and walking up and along part of Nassau St. This section of the road, along which buses, the Luas, and pedestrians can pass, is where cyclists are asked to dismount.
A transport official told TheJournal.ie that these dismount signs are advisory signs and were erected for safety reasons.
Stephen McManus, one of the co-founders of I Bike Dublin, told TheJournal.ie they were trying to send a message to those behind the Luas Cross City project.
(Can’t see the tweet? Click here)
“It is quite obvious that cycling was a complete afterthought, that no planning was put in place and it is today very dangerous as there were a number of accidents,” he said. “And now they have decided to make themselves safer they put signs saying cyclists dismount, so basically exonerating themselves of any responsibility.
So what we are doing is making a statement here by dismounting. There is nowhere to go so we are going to be walking on the street and making a point that it is an absurd policy. They can’t just turn their backs and close their eyes on the issue.
He said that cyclist deaths increased 130% this year on 2016. “We would prefer if there were none but we are already actually 60% up on last year and if you consider last year only seven of the 10 deaths involved motor traffic, we are actually 130% up on last year because every single of the 16 deaths involved motor vehicles this year.”
“It’s a crisis, a 130% increase in anything should send alarm bells going off but it doesn’t seem to be happening. We are hoping we won’t see any more for a while but the environment is there for creating more tragedies unfortunately.”
Avoiding issues
McManus said there are things that could have been done to avoid the issues with the new Luas Cross City.
“At the very least start with education and awareness,” he said. “But there are also technical solutions like a rubber insert that actually makes it safe to cross the rail line at key points. And also there could have been options of creating a dedicated space for cyclists to bypass all of this.”
He said that I Bike Dublin had invited the National Transport Authority and the Luas Cross City project to come together and run a series of workshops with cyclists so they can experiment and see what causes a bike to slip or get stuck, and what causes accidents. “They didn’t even respond,” he said.
It’s not lack of knowledge, it’s lack of will.
McManus said that there is “no social awareness in this”.
“‘It is ‘our job is to put rails and we put the rails’. You forget you are working in the context of a city, with pedestrians, with blind people and so on,” he said.
He said that in other cities, cycling is treated as a preferential mode of transportation, but not so in Ireland. “Obviously the priorities are wrong, there has to be a big shift on that, it should be pedestrians, cyclists, public transportation and [then] private cars. It’s the opposite.”
“Cycling has a positive economic impact due to the health effects, improved quality of life and reduced stress levels,” said McManus. “It’s a sensible thing but there is an education process that people in positions of power need to be educated about.”
Direct action
I Bike Dublin is a direct action group, said McManus, which believes that people in positions of power, and politicians, need to become more aware and conscious of pedestrian and cycling issues, and that cyclists need to communicate with politicians on the issue.
Louise Williams, another member of I Bike Dublin, said that all of the cyclists gathering together for the direct action sent out a strong message. She said that cyclists are treated “as second-class citizens in the Dublin transport hierarchy”, but that they want to make the city “much more liveable in”.
“We shouldn’t be dismissed,” she said.
“If all of us here today had travelled in in cars, there would be chaos,” said Williams, emphasising how little space cyclists take up on the road compared to cars.
“We are here to make life easier for everybody.”
It took three years to construct the huge Luas Cross City system, and it led to significant changes to lanes and traffic flow in the city.
As the new tram lines were set to be launched, Colm Ryder of the Dublin Cycle Campaign told TheJournal.ie they were worried about how many incidents had occurred before the trams started running on the new tracks.
Concerns were raised earlier this year, during the construction phase, around cyclists getting stuck and falling on the tracks on O’Connell Street.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) – which manages the Luas Cross City project – originally attempted to ban cyclists from certain areas where the Luas would be in operation. However, Dublin City Council said that it would not enforce this ban, and put in place ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs in a number of areas, including at College Green and on Dawson Street.
An NTA spokesperson said that cyclists were being asked to dismount and walk from the stretch of Luas tracks running from the Molesworth St junction on Dawson St through to College Green.
“In this area, cycling in the tram line involves dealing with a restricted width between kerbline and tram track, with a high number of trams, buses/coaches and taxis which will all be using the same street space,” the spokesperson said.
“This gives rise to the possibility of bicycle wheels becoming caught in the groove of the tram track leading to accidents and incidents.
For that reason, the NTA believes that, particularly at the busiest times of the day, cyclists are best advised to dismount for these sections.
In response to queries from TheJournal.ie, an NTA spokesperson said that there were no plans in place to restrict cyclists in Dublin city centre, and that it was important in preparing for Luas Cross City to ensure cyclists could move around the city safely.
- With additional reporting by Cormac Fitzgerald
Isnt god wonderful….
No….The universe is wonderful.
Your obviously more religous than scientific otherwise you would know your so called God did not create the Universe. Or this World for that matter.
I think there was a slight hint of sarcasm in James’s comment which you all missed
Nice work putting the caption over the actual object in the image…
Erhhhhhh…….they didn’t. Its above the word “at” in the caption right on the edge of the outer ring.
Infinitesmily grand!
Is that we’re the little bo***x Fitzpatrick comes from????
The world is flat, one god created all this and we don’t know who created him/her/it?
I’ve got your ring and new moon right here.
God
Invisible pink unicorn
SCIENCE SHOWS THAT THE UNIVERSE CANNOT BE ETERNAL because it could not have sustained itself eternally due to the law of entropy (increasing net energy decay, even in an open system). Einstein showed that space, matter, and time all are physical and all had a beginning. Space even produces particles because it’s actually something, not nothing. Even time had a beginning! Time is not eternal.
The law of entropy doesn’t allow the universe to be eternal. If the universe were eternal, everything, including time (which modern science has shown is as physical as mass and space), would have become totally entropied by now and the entire universe would have ended in a uniform heat death a long, long time ago. The fact that this hasn’t happened already is powerful evidence for a beginning to the universe.
Popular atheistic scientist Stephen Hawking admits that the universe had a beginning and came from nothing but he believes that nothing became something by a natural process yet to be discovered. That’s not rational thinking at all, and it also would be making the effect greater than its cause to say that nothing created something. The beginning had to be of supernatural origin because natural laws and processes do not have the ability to bring something into existence from nothing. What about the Higgs boson (the so-called “God Particle”)? The Higgs boson does not create mass from nothing, but rather it converts energy into mass. Einstein showed that all matter is some form of energy.
The supernatural cannot be proved by science but science points to a supernatural intelligence and power for the origin and order of the universe. Where did God come from? Obviously, unlike the universe, God’s nature doesn’t require a beginning.
EXPLAINING HOW AN AIRPLANE WORKS doesn’t mean no one made the airplane. Explaining how life or the universe works doesn’t mean there was no Maker behind them. Natural laws may explain how the order in the universe works and operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot explain the origin of that order. Once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.
WHAT IS SCIENCE? Science simply is knowledge based on observation. No one observed the universe coming by chance or by design, by creation or by evolution. These are positions of faith. The issue is which faith the scientific evidence best supports.
Some things don’t need experiment or scientific proof. In law there is a dictum called prima facie evidence. It means “evidence that speaks for itself.”
An example of a true prima facie would be if you discovered an elaborate sand castle on the beach. You don’t have to experiment to know that it came by design and not by the chance forces of wind and water.
If you discovered a romantic letter or message written in the sand, you don’t have to experiment to know that it was by design and not because a stick randomly carried by wind put it there. You naturally assume that an intelligent and rational being was responsible.
I encourage all to read my popular Internet articles: NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION and HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM
Visit my newest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION
Babu G. Ranganathan*
(B.A. Bible/Biology)
Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS
*I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterwards) defending creation before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities. I’ve been privileged to be recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East” for my writings on religion and science.
Wake me up when you’ve finished the lecture. Time and place. This is neither.
There’s a spacecraft leaving tomorrow for it be on it the lot of you
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