ctesiphon

mb-
That’s a fair point about Brewery Road. I pass near the cross roads every day so know it well. Also, if coming out of Farmleigh (the estate opposite the end of Brewery), the lights don’t go green for cyclists, meaning (I presume) that they’re on some kind of sensor that’s not sensitive enough for bikes. So I end up going through John of God’s and crossing at the pedestrian lights at H.R. Holfield- it’s one of the few times I ever bend a rule, i.e. by going the wrong way along the southbound bike path.
However, by applying Devin and jimg’s justification of self-preservation to your conundrum then the logical thing to do is either:
a) cross at the pedestrian lights at the bottom of Brewery; or
b) cross at the John of God’s pedestrian lights and go along the old Stillorgan Road parallel to the N11.
I realise this is very case specific, but similar solutions can be applied to most similar scenarios.

You’re right- the

“get off and walk” argument is … an admission that road design has failed

but I don’t think anyone is arguing that road design is a success for cyclists. And if in doubt, I’d rather walk and live than be a dead hero.

Could I ask- what are people’s cycling black spots in cities? I’m only familiar with Dublin, but there must be some in all urban areas.
For my part, more than once I’ve had very near misses on Cuffe Street with cars (well, usually taxis) exiting from Mercer Street. I’m guessing they look to their right and when they don’t see a car (or car headlights if it’s night-time) they just keep going, i.e. it seems they only yield rather than stop at the t-junction. This is one junction at which I’m always prepared to swing right out into the middle of the road at a split second’s notice, by checking in advance if there’s anything coming behind me.
(Beofre it’s brought up, I do always use front and back lights and a yellow wally band at night.)

Aaaand…
The Irish Landmark Trust is guardian of a remarkable group of buildings available for short-term letting, though none is occupied year-round as a house. Light-houses, gate-lodges, etc. I’m sure they have a URL. Not sure how many are in Dublin, though.
Also, Nationwide did a feature on the organisation not so long ago, so the ground might be too freshly trodden for you.

Are you referring to the actual Mother Teresa house- out near Inchicore (or Walkinstown?) direction? A classic, ’tis true.
What about the house over near Croke Park that’s sandwiched between the railway line and the canal? (Not sure of the road- as a southsider I make it my business not to know too much about DNS :rolleyes: )

My friend lives in a free-standing folly-tower in the garden of his parents’ house, but I wouldn’t call it a house in its own right- no kitchen or jacks. Also, it should be a protected structure but it’s not (though they do take very good care of it), so he mightn’t appreciate a film crew putting it on the map.

Have you thought about barge dwellers in places like Hazelhatch (on the Dublin-Kildare border) or Sallins (not Dublin)?
Or the park-keeper’s house in St Stephen’s Green?

I’m scratching my head to think off-hand of others…

EDIT: What about Harry Crosbie, who lives in a warehouse overlooking Grand Canal Dock?
EDIT2: Or the woman who lives above the Happy Ring House on O’Connell St.? Or anyone who lives in 100 St Stephen’s Green? I know the houses aren’t odd, but the locations are certainly unusual.

Any more and I’ll have to charge you a consultancy fee. 😉

From Ireland.com:

Accident prompts review of O’Connell Street plaza area

Dublin City Council will review the safety of the plaza surrounding the Spire in O’Connell Street after two women were hit by a Dublin bus at a pedestrian crossing yesterday. Fiona Gartland, Tim O’Brien and Olivia Kelly report

A double-decker bus operated by Dublin Bus struck the women as they crossed from North Earl Street at the pedestrian lights near the Spire around 4.15pm.

One of the women, who is 60, was taken to St James’s Hospital with serious head injuries. The other woman ( 56) was taken to the Mater hospital with minor injuries. Both were on holiday from England and had travelled from Mayo for a day’s shopping. Six passengers were on the 145 bus, which was travelling from Mountjoy Square to Bray.

It appears the two women stepped off the footpath at a point where it is difficult to tell the road from the kerb. As part of the O’Connell Street area plan, roadspace has been narrowed and the roadway has been raised to the same level as the footpath to facilitate pedestrian access.

People at the scene said the “boulevard effect” may have made the line where the pavement ended and the roadway began more difficult to determine.

A spokesman for the city council said the traffic lights were equipped with an audio signal and the area in which the footpath merges with the roadway was studded with silver discs.

The spokesman said the council would examine the issues this morning. Coincidentally, Dublin city councillors voted yesterday to reduce the speed limit on many city-centre streets to 30kph in an effort to reduced pedestrian fatalities.

A team lead by Sgt Brian Cullen examined the scene along with an investigation unit from Dublin Bus. Gardaí examined marks on the left-hand corner of the bus and measured the distance between the front of the bus and a pair of red sandals that remained on the crossing. Insp Gus Keane from Store Street station said there were a large number of witnesses.

A Dublin Bus spokeswoman said eyewitnesses reported “the driver was driving correctly through a green light”. She said the driver had said “he was driving slowly through the light.” He had given a statement to gardaí and there was no question of a suspension in what was “a very unfortunate accident”.

-ends-

Many of us have feared this for a while. I don’t want to score points from something as tragic as this, except to hope that lessons are learned and improvements are made.

Is that journalism or PR? (Perhaps that’s what you mean by ‘the Con Power treatment’- not being an Indo reader I wouldn’t know.)
And is the Jeremy Williams the same one who wrote the book on the Architecture of Ireland, 1837-1921? A flawed book, but he should still know his neo-classical Palladian from his elbow. For shame.

On a more light-hearted note…
Sometimes I map my journeys around town. This from May 2002.
(A clue: the isthmus is South Great George’s Street in Dublin.)

There’s new cycling infrastructure there? Matt Talbot has always been one of my cycling black spots- coming from Gardiner St direction onto the west-bound south quays is one of the most dangerous manoeuvres in the city that I know, especially cycling over the bridge with two lanes of moving traffic on either side. I haven’t done it in a while, so maybe the new lanes will help, or maybe I’ve done it since their installation and just didn’t realise. :rolleyes:
If you fancy a backer on my next outing, Graham, just let me know.

jimg-
If you are not a law-abiding and careful cyclist, why bother being a law-abiding and careful motorist?
I can think of very few instances in a city centre (or even more broadly) where breaking a red light would not jeopardise somebody, whether pedestrian, other cyclist or yourself, i.e. most red lights are at junctions, at which different streams of traffic (motorised, cyclist, pedestrian) come together, so it stands to reason that when you have a red light, somebody else has a green one.

I agree that the rules of the road as they stand are designed almost exclusively for motorists, but I don’t agree that this gives you the right to wilfully ignore them and do as you please. Your argument seems to stem from the fact that you believe you have a right to get to your destination as quickly as you please, regardless of the regulations. Where walking would be quicker than cycling a legal route, you choose instead to cycle illegally. Does this not depend on all (or most) other road users abiding by these same rules to permit you to break them as you require? Or put another way, how would it be if everyone did it? (A trite sentiment, I know, but bear with me.) This is one of the cornerstones of any legislative provision or regulatory intervention, that a free-for-all would be unproductive or even counter-productive (the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ in simple economic terms). I’m guessing that you would be against your next-door neighbour developing a 24-hour quarry in his back garden (tell me if I’m wrong)- I don’t see any real difference between that example and the cycling one.

I fully agree with you that cycling has been largely ignored in road developments down through the years, and where it has been considered, it has been tokenistic and downright laughable. Where I disagree with you is in your chosen method of rebellion. As I said above, the perception is crucial, and your actions are jeopardising my safety at a temporal distance, i.e. you are one of the cyclists that gets law-abiding cyclists like me a bad name. Your actions are thus ultimately detrimental to the cause of safe cycling in the city.

Finally, your selective quotation from my earlier post conveniently stopped short of including the crucial element that the quoted part prefaced:
@ctesiphon wrote:

If we are going to shout loudly that our rights aren’t being respected, we must make sure that we are respecting the rules of the road ourselves.

Hmmmm… I could spend a week jotting down my observations and feelings on this subject and still only be scratching the surface. A few to begin with:
DCC Director of Traffic (Eoin Keegan?) was reported as saying at the Velo-city conference in May that he believed that the cycle lane network in Dublin has not worked- numbers of cyclists have not risen despite the provision of a city-wide network. To which I would reply, it’s one thing to provide cycle lanes, another thing to maintain them. Daily I cycle the N11 and I can not recall it being cleaned even once- in fact, where the lane is ‘on road’, it regularly becomes the area into which broken glass etc. from the road is cleared. Not only that, the installation job was done so cheaply in the first place that the red tarmac surface has lifted in various places down through the years.
Also, wheelie bins, bus stops (with passengers and luggage) and parked cars are a regular feature of the obstacle course. For the record- parking on cycle lanes (full-time, or during their ‘active’ hours) is prohibited, end of story (Dublin parking regulations, 1962). I don’t care if you’re just popping in for two seconds to drop back that overdue DVD, or if you’re unloading a marquee and need to park right at the driveway of the house. Park somewhere else, somewhere legal.
However, I think part of the problem is that the N11 lane was so badly designed in the beginning. I once had a running argument with a motorcycle Garda (who had incorrectly accused me of breaking a red light) for a few hundred metres as I pointed out that the lane was an inconvenience to use- at each driveway, junction, patch of broken glass, parked car etc I’d say ‘inconvenience’, until after 15 or so instances of this he just sped off. Some ‘improvements’ have been made to the lane in the last few years, but it all still gives the impression that it was designed for the convenience of motorists rather than for the safety of cyclists.
Finally (before this turns into a thesis), I wish cyclists would be more law-abiding. If you want to go against the flow of a one-way street, get off and walk. Red lights apply to all road-users, not just the motorised variety. Footpaths are for feet. If we are going to shout loudly that our rights aren’t being respected, we must make sure that we are respecting the rules of the road ourselves. Even minor infringements give motorists the ammunition they need to dismiss us all with one gesture (‘bloody cyclists’). And if a motorist does right by you (even if it’s just them acting lawfully), be grateful and show it. This is a PR matter as much as a legal one.

Now look what you’ve started, Devin. 😮
I’m sure I’ll be back soon.

TP- the website says 6pm- has it been put back or was the original a mistake?
Thanks.