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!
Tag Archives: GeneralNews
General news about cycling
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″]
Build it and they will come
Think the M7 widening project will ease Kildare’s traffic? Don’t believe the hype
More roads equal more traffic
Rural Ireland on two wheels
A national Greenway cycling route would cost the same as a few kilometres of motorway, and transform how tourists and locals travel through the country. Read article
Ireland worst in world for diesel car sales; tax reform overdue
Irish people buy the most new diesel cars in the world. Car sales data shows diesel cars account for 7 out of 10 of all new cars sold in Ireland.
“Globally, Europe is a diesel island. In the US and Japan diesel cars account for less than 5% of new sales. Europe, where diesel makes up 50% of new sales, is an outlier, and Ireland is way out on a limb with diesel accounting for 70% of new sales”, according to James Nix of Green Budget Europe, pointing to a comparison with other European countries, and adding that “Ireland needs to get back on track, shifting car sales away from diesel and on to electric vehicles and hybrids”.
