45 thoughts on “Island Hopping”

  1. Stephen F

    I believe they are designed to stop pedestrians and not cars, as demonstrated by the photographs

    2. Joe

      We go not rated to handle the speed they were hit at. Car was clearly speeding well above 50kph.

  2. Rob_G

    Unless the cycle lanes are to be separated using something like the Israeli West Bank barrier, I’m not sure how they could have helped…

  3. Grouse

    What has this got to do with cyclist safety, beyond the possibility of a cyclist on the road being hit? I am a cyclist, and concerned about cyclist safety, I just don’t understand the framing here.

    I guess I understand the comment about pedestrians, since the railings could appear to be meant to protect them, but in truth these railings are more to control the flow of pedestrians than protect them from a car careering off the road.

    Very glad no one was hurt. I hope the car driver feels incredibly lucky rather than anything else.

    1. Mr. Camomile Tea

      These types of guard rails are a crush hazard for pedestrians/cyclists/motorcyclists, and most developed nations either no longer install them or are fazing them out. They have been a factor in a number of “left hook” collisions where a cyclist or pedestrian ends up inside a left-turning vehicle with the barrier allowing no means of escape. They are a hazard and provide no meaningful protection to anyone.

        1. Mr. Camomile Tea

          There is no ‘instead’. Fencing in pedestrians is completely the wrong approach and progressive urban designers acknowledge that. The objective is (or should be) to design an environment where drivers travel at a safe enough speed (30-50kph) to react to the unpredictable movements of pedestrians, not to physically separate pedestrians from the road so that cars can travel at primary road speeds of >60kph.

          1. Grouse

            Spoiler alert: They will also realise this is the best approach for cyclist safety in about 20 years.

          2. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

            Interesting.
            I drove past it on the way home. I often use that crossing with a buggy to get to Rathfarnham castle. I genuinely can’t see how anyone could’ve ploughed into it unless they had a heart attack or something.

      2. Grouse

        Yes, I totally agree with you. I often walk and cycle parts of Cork Street in Dublin and they seem to have been thrown in there at every available junction and crossing. They also generally add to the infrastructure of the roadway, making the footpaths look like gauntlets rather than city streets.

      3. Glat1

        Fazing as in giving the railings hard stares in the hope that they will feel guilty and shuffle away or phasing, as in having a planned programme to remove them from our streets? Sorry, it’s Friday evening and I have just consumed a potion of pedentry +1 (aka a glass of Sav Blanc).

          2. Bertie "the inexplicable pleasure" Blenkinsop

            You don’t need to be embarrassed, we’re all friends here :)
            * sarcasm meter explodes *

  4. paul

    whenever I see leaning lampposts, destroyed barriers and missing traffic bollards, my immediate thought is “some gobshite driver”. Now maybe there were other circumstances, like in the above pictures, I still default to eejits on our roads.

  5. martco

    nasty and I hope nobody hurt but what’s the point of the post?

    accidents happen all time, bad ones too like big truck has blowout crosses the median barrier and annihilates the traffic on other side

    I’m all for separate cycling infrastructure like the Dutch if that’s the point but it won’t stop some accidents happening.

    or is the point is to ban cars from roads and have them just for cyclists is it?

    we may never know…

        1. Bertie "the inexplicable pleasure" Blenkinsop

          Oh God, now I’m picturing you singing “my name is tallulah”

          1. mildred st. meadowlark

            That’s my song, baby.

            I may or may not have played a Tallulah in my time.

    2. Nigel

      Just had an idea for a dystopia where the world is divided into drivers and cyclists and drivers can’t cycle and cyclists can’t drive. There’s an underclass of pedestrians that are basically cannibals or something so they don’t count. There’s a Choosing Ceremony where teenagers are given either a set of handlebars or a steering wheel and sent to live in their cycling or driving districts. Every year they have to compete in a series of games where the drivers keep winning because they just drive over the cyclists. A feisty young cyclist and a brooding driver flee the city because of their forbidden love. There’s an invasion of people in aeroplanes. A cyclist steals a car and is hunted by both sides. A driver steals a bicycle and gets about ten yards before falling off due to ill health brought on by a sedentary lifestyle and exposure to engine fumes. The pedestrians eat everyone. The end.

  10. martco

    hang on..what about the lads in the aeroplanes? who are they and what were they up to….car driving activists dropped in behind enemy lines to cause disruption to the bicycle factories perhaps? what happens to the forbidden love couple on the run…oh I see that’s the tie in for the sequel I guess

      1. Bertie "the inexplicable pleasure" Blenkinsop

        Always leave ’em wanting more Nigel, that’s showbiz!

        1. Nigel

          I’m hoping in the movie adaptation the last book will get turned into about six films.

          1. Bertie "the inexplicable pleasure" Blenkinsop

            They certainly did a loaves and fishes job on The Hobbit.

          2. Nigel

            And book three will be about five pages long, so it should be a doddle. Just throw in an elf on a bike or something.

          3. Deluded

            Oooh I love “Bike Elf”!
            I’m thinking, maybe, Michael Fassbender or Sandra Bullock.

          8. sǝɯǝɯʇɐpɐq

            Nigel, here’s a tip…
            When you are mad rich and can’t really be bothered anymore, hire some monkeys* to write a script called ‘*****; In Space’.
            Then sell it to Diosney.

            *they have loads of monkeys in Hollywood. You get to pick the ones who charm you the most and then they steal your idea and destroy it.
            But yeah… Go for it…

  11. St. John Smythe

    Did you see that lad who drove a truck into the Christmas market in Berlin?

    SO MUCH FOR CYCLIST SAFETy!!!!!!!!!°!!!!11

  12. sǝɯǝɯʇɐpɐq

    100% serious…

    I had this conversation years ago with Motorcyclists.
    Guys who worked as Motorbike Couriers, in the original ‘Gig-Economy’.

    These ridiculous barriers CREATE an obstruction for them to get out of the way of a truck-driver who’s fiddling his tachometer, not used to driving on the wrong side of the road, or just out of the bar on the ferry.

    I’ve lost friends.
    They were REAL people.

    It was NEVER because a bike hit a bike…
    The bike rider was never the one in the wrong, but yeah…

    These barriers are a deathtrap.
    Stupid beyond belief.

    I’m very angry.

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