All posts by John Dawson

Use Deliveroo? The company won’t be looking like this for much longer

Online food delivery service Deliveroo has gone through a major re-brand, trading in the animated kangaroo for a much more London Olympics 2012-esque minimalist logo.

The company, which has been in Ireland for over a year and a half now, is hoping to make its new logo “shorthand for great food delivered anywhere”.

The re-brand comes with some new kit for the firm’s delivery people. Now cyclists will sport a brightly coloured hyper-reflective kit, which Deliveroo says will enhance the safety of its workers.

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Deliveroo 2

Great Southern Trail

On Saturday 27th August the Great Southern Trail (GST) Greenway organised a large group of over forty people to spend a most pleasant day in Waterford City and on the Greenway from Kilmeaden.

The visitors from West Limerick & North Kerry were making their second visit to the Déise. In May they had walked the Dungarvan to Durrow section and on Saturday they took the  narrow gauge train from Kilmeaden to Mount Congreve and walked from there to Waterford. The late  afternoon was spent exploring the city and enjoying the Summerval festival attractions.

Before returning home they had a wonderful meal at L’ Atmosphere Restaurant in Henrietta Street. In the morning an excellent breakfast had been provided at Brazil’s in Tipperary Town. Transport was provided by Coach House Travel, Newcastle West and the Waterford & Suir Valley Railway.
When the Déise Greenway is completed a third visit is planned to include a cycle from Dungarvan to Waterford.

Visitors from Waterford would be much appreciated in West Limerick where the 40km Greenway is also along  an old railway from Rathkeale to Abbeyfeale. This year it has already hosted visiting groups from Spain, Germany and the McAuliffe Diaspora Gathering. The development of the GST, spearheaded by volunteers, was successful in County Limerick but was obstructed in County Kerry. The volunteers also managed the Limerick Greenway until November 2015 when Limerick City & County Council took charge.

A planned further 50km along the former railway from Abbeyfeale to Fenit in County Kerry has been awaiting development since 1988. The fact that this State owned route has been languishing for almost a generation is surely an issue long overdue to be addressed by local and national authorities and politicians.

Photo: GST Greenway visitors from West Limerick/North Kerry with the Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge (N25) in the  visits Déise Greenwaybackground

Love 30 Campaign

The Love 30 Campaign favours a default speed limit of 30 km/h in urban areas, in residential estates, and in all areas of high pedestrian and cycle use. This includes residential streets and estates as well as the centres of cities, towns and villages and the areas surrounding schools. We believe there is a need for a paradigm shift in how road authorities manage traffic to enable pedestrians to use our roads and streets safely, to cater for the safety of the 8-80 age cohort while cycling and to allow our children to play outdoors and to walk to school, shops and friends & family. There is a need to protect the next generations, by ensuring that drivers understand their responsibilities fully, and that Councils put in place necessary speed limits to slow traffic. Road traffic planning and provision for many years has been for the benefit of the private motorist to the detriment of other road users including pedestrians, cyclists, public transport users, older and very young people and those with disabilities.

Full document

Link to Love30 on this site: see Organisations / Collaborative

Sligo Cycling Campaign’s Bike Week Buffet an outstanding success

Sligo Cycling Campaign’s Bike Week Buffet an outstanding success!
On Thursday 19th June over one hundred people assembled in Clevreagh Park ready to set off on Sligo Cycling Campaign’s inaugural Bike Buffet. Chairperson Gemma Woods told the Weekender that cycling campaign members were looking for an interesting idea to mark Bike Week and became aware that their neighbours in Westport have hosted several successful Bike Buffets. Gemma floated the idea to Emer Concannon of Sligo County Council and received enthusiastic support.

The idea of the buffet is that participants cycle from venue to venue and have one course of their meal in each venue. The participating venues were the Riverside Hotel for “Mocktails”, Café Fleur for Starters, the Radisson hotel for a Barbecue and finally the Glasshouse hotel for coffee and dessert.

When booking opened for the buffet, some would-be participants sadly echoed Judy Garland’s lines from the song “We’re a couple of swells” “We would ride on a bicycle, but we haven’t got a bike”. However, Jarlath Gantly of Wild Atlantic Ways rode to the rescue as it were and provided hire bikes at a nominal fee.

In fact not only did Jarlath provide standard bikes but also tandems and even an electric tandem, which of course to those of us of a certain age brings to mind the lines of another song, “Daisy” , “But you’ll look neat going down the street of a bicycle made for two”. Traffic management of such a large number of participants was greatly assisted by support from Sligo Garda, from experienced Innisfree Wheelers marshals and from vehicle support by Jarlath Gantly and Mickey Scanlon.

Sligo Cycling Campaign aims to be a voice for Sligo’s everyday cyclist as well as for people who would like to start cycling but may not feel confident enough to do so. It seeks to lobby local and national government to bring about improved conditions for cyclists. The campaign is affiliated to ‘Cyclist.ie – The Irish Cycling Advocacy Network’ and would love to have new members. The National Cycling Policy Framework published by Government in 2009 has as a target that 10% of all trips should be made by bike by 2020.  However, for this to become a reality changes need to happen and Sligo Cycling Campaign is adding its voice to the call for change.   The campaign can be contacted on Sligo Cycling Campaign (Facebook), twitter @SligoCycling or email

The bike buffet was a leisure activity with the simple objective of providing a fun experience by bike. However, Sligo Cycling Campaign has also received funding from Sligo County Council to make Safe Cycling Ireland’s 1.5 metres please, Share the Road windscreen stickers available throughout Sligo town. The stickers are an initiative of Phil Skelton, a Wexford cyclist, who became concerned at the risk to cyclists from dangerous overtaking.

Many European countries, for example Spain, Germany, France and Portugal as well as several US States have legislated for a minimum overtaking distance of 1.5 metres. Ireland currently has no legislation to this effect but the windscreen stickers can remind motorists to be considerate when overtaking a cyclist. The stickers are available from all Sligo bike shops as well as City Hall, County Council Office at Riverside and the library.

Sligo Cycling Campaign also supports the www.love30.ie campaign for lower speed limits in urban areas. There is overwhelming evidence that lower limits make streets safer and more pleasant for pedestrians and cyclists.

The cycling campaign supports cyclist education, driver education, restricted speed, improved infrastructure, a minimum overtaking distance of 1.5 metres and enforcement of existing road traffic legislation re for e.g. speed limits and parking in cycle lanes.