This afternoon.
Following a serious spike in city centre spills, The Dublin Cycling Campaign has mapped out (above) the locations of reported falls.
It shows many are occurring in the vicinity of large construction sites including The National Children’s Hospital site in Kilmainham, the new Technical University of Dublin (formerly DIT) campus in Grangegorman and Broadstone, as well as multiple major construction sites in the Docklands area.
Dublin Cycling Campaign spokesman said:
“Our hypothesis is that heavy vehicles travelling to and from these construction sites are depositing dirt and oil on our streets.
The lack of rain could have led to a build-up of these hazardous materials, creating greasy slicks in many areas.”
Dublin Cycling Campaign is advising people to take additional care on the following routes:
All along the Liffey Quays, between Heuston Station and the Tom Clarke Bridge
North Circular Road
South Circular Road
All streets running alongside the Grand Canal
The Docklands area, especially in the vicinity of construction sites
All street adjacent to the National Children’s Hospital Site/St. James’ Hospital
All along Gardiner Street, and continuing onto Dorset Street Upper & Lower Drumcondra Road.
Had a spill?
Report it here.
Meanwhile…
“As a general rule, if the cycle network is not safe for a child to cycle on their own, then it fails to meet the required standard” – see more of our #Cycling Manifesto for #GE2020, launched this morning by @1GaryGannon and @SarahDurcan https://t.co/NgUATZTuN0 pic.twitter.com/KvuhhI9qzi
— Social Democrats (@SocDems) February 2, 2020
This hypothesis seems rather sketchy since there doesn’t seem to be any incidents actually in grangegorman, only in the LARGER area surrounding it. It also fails to explain what appears to be an incident hotspot along lord edward/dame street. If this hypothesis were plausible, then surely the esb site on lower fitzwilliam street ought also to be a hotspot, which this chart doesn’t seem to indicate?
Good use of data and visualization. Not sure about the hypothesis- and that is all it is — so fair enough. I think buses spilling oil etc at bus stops could be an issue?
Also the number of cyclists passing through the blackspot areas (%) relative to other areas needs to be taken into account. There are other construction sites in Dublin….
or construction vehicles have larger blindspots pitching the blame equally between cyclists and motorists.
Aren’t these the kind of risks cyclists should expect? How big is the factor of many people being sold unsuitable racing bikes under the bike-to-work scheme? If you’re out with 700c X 25 tyres on Dublin roads you need your head examined – though the bike retailer won’t give a rats….
There’s just too many variables unaccounted for in this study, on reflection.