Extreme Steps

at

This morning.

Outside the offices of Dublin City Council on Wood Quay, Dublin 8.

Cyclists held a ‘die-in’ demonstration following the death of Neeraj Jain (top) who was cycling to work last Friday morning when his bike collided with a cement mixer at the back of the building site of the National Children’s Hospital.

Mr Jain, from Faridabad, India, moved to Ireland in 2018 to pursue a Masters degree in Engineering in UCD and was working with Deloitte in Dublin.

UPDATE:

Table from I Bike Dublin

I Bike Dublin has announced that it will hold a second ‘die-in’ demonstration outside Leinster House at 1pm tomorrow.

They write:

During the tenure of our last three Transport Ministers – Leo Varadkar, Paschal Donohoe and Shane Ross – 85 people have been killed while cycling on Ireland’s roads.

Mr Neeraj Jain, who was killed in Kilmainham last Friday, is the 39th person to die while cycling since the formation of the current government.

Fine Gael are the only party in Dáil Éireann who objected to a motion calling on the level of investment in cycling and walking to reach 20% of all capital spend on land transport.

Despite the Citizens’ Assembly and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change also recommending this level of investment, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and his colleagues have rejected these recommendations and continued to spin minuscule investments as something to be celebrated while, at the same time, announcing billions of euro in funding for new roads.

Leo Varadkar’s government, with their conservative 20th century car-first approach, are balancing the transport budget with the lives of people who will die cycling.

Minister Ross, who takes years to get a line of text brought into law has long lost the respect of people who cycle.

His penchant for photo ops is matched only by his penchant for avoiding eye contact with those to whom he has made past promises.

The minister has also been unwavering in his support of the Road Safety Authority, who have embarked on a multi-year campaign of victim-blaming, embodied by their fetishisation of high visibility vests.

We call on the government to:

– Immediately allocate 20% of the Land Transport Budget towards active travel (walking and cycling) and prioritise the implementation of the Greater Dublin Area Cycle Network Plan.

– Increase funding of An Garda Síochána coupled with zero-tolerance enforcement of illegal use of cycle lanes, bus lanes and bus corridors.

– Introduce mandatory regulations for HGVs in urban areas to ensure maximum visibility from the driver position.

– Immediately introduce a €500 e-bike grant for all Irish residents regardless of income.

Yesterday: ‘This Death Marks A Turning Point’

Rollingnews

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13 thoughts on “Extreme Steps

  1. Ted

    Accidents will always happen. Nobody is intentionally killing cyclists.
    I cycle into town through ballybough, Summerhill etc… I’ve never had any problems because I obey the rules of the road and keep my distance when necessary but the amount of cyclists I see who seem to think they are invincible is scary.

    1. dhod

      some go over the top with their claims but I think Dublin could be a lot more bike friendly. The car is number one in the city and it really shouldn’t be. There’s no reason we can’t emulate some Central and northern European cities

    2. edalicious

      Obeying the rules of the road is no protection for cyclists in Dublin. You need to be able to read minds and predict the future too.

    3. george

      I’ve had 2 different drivers try to hit me with their cars intentionally. There are several videos online showing drivers chasing cyclists in their cars.

    4. Rob_G

      “Accidents will always happen.”

      People used to be killed in airplane crashes all the time. Eventually, they stopped just saying “oh well, accidents will always happen” – they invested lots of money and made it much, much safer.

      “I cycle into town through ballybough, Summerhill etc… I’ve never had any problems because I obey the rules of the road”

      What a strange, victim-blame-y thing to say… You can be cycling as safe as you like and if someone driving a truck is inattentive for a second, you’re a grease spot. 100% of collisions are caused by human error; provision of safe and separate infrastructure for cyclists means that soft, squishy humans will no longer be interacting with one-tonne metal boxes driven by fallible humans.

  2. Jake38

    1 Cycling infrastructure is very poor and Dublin council are incapable of improving it (North keys cycleway, anyone? Millions of taxpayers money wasted, nothing produced)

    2 Many drivers are angry, on their phones, etc.

    3 Lots of cyclists have no lights on their bikes, don’t obey rules of road, etc.

    Plenty of blame to go around.

      1. V

        But shur the whole Northside Quay has been mangled for private cars as well

        It used to be 20 mins maybe 30 at peak, from mine into Arnotts carpark
        Last Thursday Week – late night shopping night
        An hour and 40

        Yet – I can still get to the Ilac/ Parnell Square (via Dorset Street) in the 20/30 minute window

        And not only that
        The lanes are badly marked, and the lights and directions don’t make any journey on the North Quays safe, or clear, or efficient

        There is a major pile up waiting to happen there
        And this is the time of year for it to happen

        1. $hifty

          That’s by design, not by accident, though. Car use into the city along the quays should be discouraged, or at least given a lower priority than mass transit. Before the new layout, had you ever been on a bus that travels from Heuston area to O’Connell bridge? Sat stuck in bus traffic in the QBC while two lanes of cars whizz past on your right and another was parked on your left is no fun and sends the wrong message.

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