One of the worst things about the weather this godforsaken summer is that I can’t cycle into work every day (well, I could, if I wanted to cycle in lashing rain, but I don’t). When I got my bike last year and started cycling regularly for the first time since I was in college, a few people told me that once you start cycling, you realise how often it doesn’t rain, and over the winter months I discovered that they were right. I actually cycled to work more often in February than I have over the last month.
Me on the way to work, yesterday
So, although I did take the bike to work yesterday and today, I feel like I’ve been on the bus far too often recently. I miss my bike. As someone who can’t drive, I was surprised by how liberating it was to get back on the saddle last year. Back in the late 19th century, the bike was seen as an important tool in the cause of women’s emancipation – for the first time, ordinary women could travel under their own steam and go where they wanted. When I started using a bike again, I understood how they felt. At last I was free from the tyranny of Dublin Bus and its whimsical attitude to timetables! If I left the office at 5.40, I knew I’d be home by ten past six at the latest. Sure, I’d have to cycle up a hill to get there, but it was better than standing at a bus stop for up to forty minutes and then squashing myself onto an overcrowded bus.
Cycling would, of course, be easier if it weren’t for all those pesky cars. And potholes. I don’t really know which is worse. Potholes are bad enough when you’re actually in a car, but on a bike they’re potentially fatal. Also, whenever there are roadworks that are covered over in tarmac, the workpeople seem to have given up on, I dunno, smoothing the tarmac out and seem content to let it just lie in whatever lumpen state it lands on the ground. That’s the only reason I can come up with for why there are so many random lumps and dangerous bumps on the verges of our urban roads.
And then there are the cars. I’ve got to admit I was secretly almost glad to have my prejudices confirmed when I realised that the most arrogant, cyclist-unfriendly drivers seem to drive vast SUVs. There are a lot of SUV drivers on my route to work, and they do lovely things like drive in the bike lane (perhaps because their ridiculous tanks take up most of the road), park in the bike lane, and drive so close to the curb that a cyclist is in danger of being pushed off her bike.
Of course, the real danger comes from the huge articulated lorries that rumble through Dublin suburbia, unable to see small cyclists trundling along in their blind spot. The first time I cycled to work last year, I was so freaked out by every lorry that tore past me that I was tempted to just dump the bike at the side of the road and start walking. But I persevered, and now they only scare me a little bit, instead of sending me into a state of mortal terror. Progress!
Despite the potholes and the arrogant drivers and the vast trucks of terror, I love my bike. It’s served me well over the last year. And although there are few experiences more miserable than cycling uphill in pouring rain, there’s nothing more exhilarating than zooming down a hill on an empty road on a fresh sunny day. Now all I need are a few more of those…
Anthea McTeirnan
Croí na Duibhlinn
Aoife Barry
Aoife McLysaght
Arlene Hunt
Attracta McCarthy-McKenna
clairehennessy
Ann Cronin
Amanda Brown
Eleanor Fitzsimons
Edel Coffey
Anna Carey
Lauren Murphy
Jennie Ridyard
Jude Leavy
Hazel Katherine Larkin
Léan Ní Chuilleanáin
Leigh
Lisa McInerney
Laura Slattery
Maman Poulet
Megan McGurk
Clare Kleinedler
Molly
Rosita Boland
Catherine Crichton
Sinéad Gleeson
sarahefranklin
siobhandowling
Susan Daly
theantiroom
Nuala Ní Chonchúir
I’ve turned into a right little biketivist since I got mine. I find taxi drivers even worse than SUVs – they don’t give a shit if a cyclist is right behind them in the bus lane and will swerve into the kerb to pick up a fare, cutting the cyclist off completely. And don’t get me started on the city council’s idea of what constitutes a bike lane…
I do love it though. Even when I was completely drenched yesterday evening I got to sail past fifteen buses stuck in traffic on Talbot Street. Sodden, but smug!
Heh, I know that smug feeling well! There’s a junction on my route to and from work that always has a huge tailback in the evenings, and I do feel smug as I zoom up to the crossroads past dozens of cars. That said, most of them leave me absolutely no room to do so, so sometimes I have to get off and take the bike up on the pavement and push it to the crossroads. Still, it’s faster than it would be if I were in a car or bus.
And yeah, I’ve become quite the biketivist as well, as you might gather! I’m with you on the council’s ridiculous idea of bike lanes (and bike facilities in general). The bike lane on my route to work stops and starts at seemingly random intervals. It might as well not be there at all, especially as half the motorists totally ignore it. And as for the state of the roads themselves – seriously, how is it legal to leave crudely heaped piles of tarmac at the side of the road? It’s like they just dig in, do the work, and then throw a heap of tarmac over the hole and walk away. A long stretch of my journey to work is downhill with no junctions – the perfect place to zoom down without a care in the world – but I can’t go at a decent speed because there are so many huge dangerous lumps and holes in the road.
I’m too timid to ride in the city. Once they smell your fear, you’re toast. Mr. M waves his lock around as a weapon and yells at the cars who endanger him, they way it should be.
I don’t know how anyone cycles in this city. I stopped cycling in Toronto when getting caught on a streetcar track became the least of my worries. And Toronto makes Dublin look like a biker’s paradise. Like this morning , for example , the bus I was on came within inches of creaming a cyclist. So close that I audibly gasped. I also can’t get over that the majority of bikers don’t wear helmets.
I always had a helmet and a whistle!
i have to say this i’m sorry but this is for the walkers. I walk to work everyday and there is a REALLY good bike track on my route it allows for two way traffic and everything its great if i was a cyclist i’d love it. but SOME bikers still insist on cycle on the shaggin’ footpath nearly knocking me down a few times. I’ve actually had to point to the bike route a few times and say “hello, your obviously on the wrong path” and i cross a certain bridge which has a sign that says “cyclist dismount over bridge” and do they. Do they feck! they decide to cycle on the 2 ft wide footpath with the walkers and have the cheek to ding their bell at me to get past, one person actual put there hand on my shoulder and practically shoved me out of the way once! cheek. get off the shaggin bike crossing the bridge!!
other than that i actually wouldn’t mind getting a bike myself!
Q – a whistle, eh? I can so picture that
TCup – the reverse most definitely applies in the Phoenix Park. It’s impossible to cycle in a straight line on the bike lanes there, there are so many people walking, jogging and pushing prams on ‘em.
This is probably why the OPW decided, in their infinite wisdom, to move the bike lanes out onto the main roads where, y’know, cars can park on them.
I give up.
I’ve been meaning to post about cycling in Dublin for a while but you’ve said it all here. Particularly about the poxy excuses for bike lanes, and, my biggest pet hate, how roads are re-laid by get rich quick developers. I had a nasty fall last week near the Point as a result of one of evil those potholey tarmac bastards. And don’t get me started on the rain affecting my summer cycling to work!!!
Surely with the pro-cycling Green party (vaguely) in power conditions for cyclists would be improved round these parts. No sign of that happening any time soon.
Ladies (and gents)- i salute anyone who is brave enough to cycle in Dublin city.I walk most places,get the odd bus and find that being a pedestrian can be a scary experience sometimes.So putting me on something with 2 wheels and letting me loose in traffic *Shudders*
Penny the thought of trucks roaring past within a few inches would be enough for me to abandon the bike and leg it in the opposite direction
No life no bike. Seriously. It’s probably the one thing I’d go a bit bats without. I just hate walking so much. It takes ages to get everywhere.
For the most part, drivers in Dublin don’t give a shit about cyclists. They might say they do, and I’m sure some of them do, but when it comes to the crunch, they’d fuckin crawl up your bike lane like a flash. But the council don’t give a crunk about us anyway (have you *seen* the bike lanes in Holland?? Jeepers creepers). Our entire frikkin city is based around the needs of cars.
Smash the Vehirarchy!
Eevoid, Berlin is a cyclist’s paradise too. Big wide streets, well-controlled cycle-lanes, motorists that respect people on bikes, and a distinct lack of hills. And an amazing lack of bike theft too – you see the most beautiful bikes that you know would get nicked in about five minutes in this city.
tcup, I understand your rage at inconsiderate cyclists! They give the rest of us a bad name.
greenofeye, it’s amazing how much easier (and less terrifying) the cycle to and from work became after a few weeks! A friend of mine who is quite a serious cyclist gave me some very helpful advice: when you’re particularly nervous about having enough room, you instinctively hug the curb, but really you should go slightly further away from it. You’re legally entitled to do so, and cars are way more likely to give you enough room and much less likely to brush closely past you if they have to acknowledge you on the road rather than ignore you in the gutter.
It’s about time I got back to the cycle commute, which I haven’t done since last autumn (I never did get around to getting the winter cycling gear). I was terrified to begin with, but my commute is really not hard. 3.5 miles from the suburbs away from the city centre (I work in a small town just outside Belfast), so I’m going against the traffic and anyway there are cycle lanes most of the way.
I’ve been fortunate enough not to get on the wrong end of any mad motorists, but otherwise I’d back up the advice Penny received about not hugging the kerb and taking up enough space to make sure that cars have to give you a wide berth.
I did read somewhere about a video camera that you can attach to your cycle helmet, and I think I even (when driving) saw a cyclist wearing one once. Apparently this is an excellent way to prevent drivers from getting too aggressive: a quick tap of the camera to let them know it’s there and they soon ease off.
I must admit though as a motorist that it does irritate me when cyclists – usually the lycra-clad serious sporty types – don’t use cycle lanes that are provided. It seems to me more likely to be hazardous for everyone then. (There’s a school of thought that says that, by using cycle lanes, you are permitting the motorist to ignore you and it’s safer not to use them. But then there’s a school of thought that says the same about wearing cycle helmets – drivers give you more space if they think you’ll be seriously injured if they hit you – but I ain’t buying that one.)