irjudge
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irjudgeParticipant
Beaulieu House is worth a look. http://www.beaulieuhouse.ie Built in the 17th century, architect unknown
September 17, 2005 at 10:54 am in reply to: The Irish attitude to development – what is holding us back? #761650irjudgeParticipantWhy? Bear in mind, Vienna rebuilt its transport infrastructure completely in the last 40-50 years (after destruction of WWII). Dublin has never had its transport system bombed into nothingness and yet is about 30 years behind.
I think in part this is the reason why our infrastructure is so far behind the rest of mainland europe and britain. They had to start from scratch and plan infrastructure which would cater for motorised vehicles, and I would assume, the construction of these projects would have been implemented to provide both the infrastructure and post war employment.
September 17, 2005 at 2:19 am in reply to: The Irish attitude to development – what is holding us back? #761648irjudgeParticipantCtesiphon, The EU limit for tendering in the in the EU journal is €5 million for works contracts. Very few if any of the works on national routes come within this figure.
Substantial design changes while a contractor is on site is one sure way to increase a contract outturn cost significantly.
I believe that in the current climate that the design and project management practices are under resourced given the volume of work being executed. Smaller less experienced practices are trying to fill a void left by larger practices who are chasing the major projects. This environment creates a great opportunity for young construction professionals to gain experience , but this quite often is not in the exchequers interest as inevitably less experience means more errors.
While contractors are suffering the skill shortage as well, any contractor worth his commercial salt has invested in commercially aware QS and project management staff. Many of whom have returned from the UK and are extremely well versed in producing paper trails which would make many a graduate consider a job in McDonalds.
irjudgeParticipantJIMG,
I have no doubt that you are a rational person. The reason we have rules of the road is to cater for the irrantional people. Why have a legally enforceable 50kph speed limit in built up areas? Because there are idiots out there who believe 80kph / 100kph is quite reasonable if you have to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, and as we all know the law doesn’t prevent some idiots from speeding anyway.
So we change the law so that cyclists can pass through a red light if it is safe to proceed! Where does this leave pedestrians? Once there is any doubt things become messy. The rule in the mind of many irrational cyclists may well become “red light doesn’t mean a lot I can safely pass between those pedestrians and get across the junction before the light goes green again.”
I do symphatise with cyclists and while I do not cycle anymore I did a couple of years ago in a provincial town. I bought a bike again just over a year ago brought it out on a country road a couple of mornings, gave it up as too dangerous, so I can only imagine what it is like cycling in Dublin.
The basic lack of respect for road users by road users is the real problem. All motorists are not ignorant, cyclist hunting morons. Many motorists, cyclists and indeed pedestrians show blatant disregard for others and this can only be solved by education and provision of the correct infrastructure. Our problem is we lack the provision of both in equal measure.
irjudgeParticipantIt appears that the attitude of cyclists to motorists with which they are forced to share space with in the city centre needs to change as much as the attitude of the motorists to cyclists.
I fail to see the sense in the argument that breaking the law to facilitate a safe passage from point A to point B is any more acceptable for a cyclist protecting himself from motorists than it would be for the motorist to do the same to protect himself from SUV’s , Artic’s or buses.
Surely by routinely breaking red lights, the cyclist is putting their own safety at risk, the safety of pedestrians at crossings at risk and possibly in some cases motorists at risk.
Ideally there would be physical separation between the cyclist / pedestrian / motorist, but the majority of space in the city centre has to be shared by at least two parties.
However I do agree that little thought has gone into cycle route design. While there are design standards in place, these seem to be implemented in a lazy fashion and the detailing of junctions and points of conflict between the various modes of transport is poor. In many cases the cyclepaths dissapear with no safe way for cyclists to transfer from say an off road cyclepath to the carriageway.
Incidentally have cyclists been catered for in any meaningful fashion on O’Connell St in the redevelopment works?
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