The Dublin Community Blog

Being snowed in can have it’s advantages. After doing the laundry and cleaning the living room, I will no try to summarise the year 2009 on the Dublin Community Blog.

Gloomy January showed us that the recession is in full swing, as Dublin indie institution Road Records was forced to close its doors (which thankfully re-opened later due to massive support from many a successfull Irish musician) and Dublin Bus announced massive cutbacks, laying off 200 staff. Add some snow causing massive disruptions to traffic and you had a very bleak start into the new year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ah parking. Everyone in Dublin has their clamping horror stories. Mine is when our car was clamped outside our house even though we were fully paid disc holders. To add insult to injury no-one answered the phone when we rang to have the car unclamped. Steam. Ears. You can imagine. Three months later I got my fine back. This happened over 5 years ago. I’m not bitter.

Parking is usually not something I worry about being a committed city cyclist. However, of late, I have had occasion to drive instead of cycle especially as I’m carrying a precious cargo. I had planned this post to be aimed at expectant fathers in the Dublin region but I discovered that Brandon beat me to it in a post in June. Seriously he’s right: Dads-to-be get your ParkingTag on! (Me I’m planning to cycle to the Coombe when the time comes.)

However since then I’ve actually started using ParkingTag.ie so I thought I would share my experience. After a few initial hiccups where their site continuously refused to take my payment details and therefore refused registration I finally managed to register after giving up but returning at a future date. I’m nothing if not persistent!

Firstly I really like the site and their understanding of how people use their cars. Like many families living in a city we only have one car so either of us could be out and about in it. Therefore it would make no sense if we could only register one mobile to the account. This means that either me or Himself can pay for parking from our own phones. Similarly if we ever own two cars (hah!) we could register both plates to the one account.

This last fact is very clever for business accounts in particular. You could register all those in the company to the one account with their mobiles, keeping trips to the meter to a minimum. It also allows you to download an Excel of parking costs from the “Recent Transactions” section which would allow the company to track payments made outside of work hours (if the boss was very pernickety!)

However it was when I was viewing this that I noticed a few figures that I didn’t expect and that were unexplained. I was charged 20c for every reminder SMS to tell me that I had 10mins left on my parking even though this service is not optional. I found this detail at the very bottom of their FAQ. Personally I would prefer to stick a reminder in my phone that doesn’t cost me a cent. The other fee was a 50c service fee which I suppose is fair enough – it’s a very handy service but surely a public service like Dublin City Council should factor these costs in to their arrangement with Payzone but that’s just scabby ol me and the taxes I’m already paying…!

When registering one has to give payment details for a credit or debit card and a regular top-up amount is debited from your card. However as an infrequent user the minimum top-up amount of €20 is a little high for me and I fear that there will be a surfeit of my cash languishing in the ParkingTag bank account over time.

The other bugbear I have (and I’m sorry to moan but I would prefer you not to panic when parking as I did) was that I followed the instructions carefully to activate my ParkingTag only to have my first few attempts rejected! Not a happy experience when you’re rushing for an appointment and I did the unthinkable and left my car unpaid for!

However, good news for those for those of you who prefer free parking*. Dublin City Council announced a free parking scheme in the run-up to Christmas to encourage shoppers to the city centre.

Under the scheme, on-street parking spaces will be free from 2pm every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday until December 27th.

Oho it’s a far cry from Operation Freeflow and my poor mammy spent three hours getting out of the College of Surgeons’ Car Park one Christmas Eve!

*I was also hoping to find a Google Maps Mash-Up of Free Parking in Dublin City but could only find this.

Photo right owned by thms.nl (cc)
So you better watch out! Seriously folks: Dublin is about to become a lot more hazardous for all its citizens. The Dublin Bikes scheme rolls out across the city centre at 11am today September 13th. Daragh has all the facts in his previous post. Mind you this morning at 2am as I was ferried home in the “safety” of a taxi there was narry a bike to be seen at the stations so don’t be too disappointed if you roll up today and there are no bikes.

As I have already written here on my love of cycling in Dublin I thought I would share some pearls of wisdom with those of you who are thinking of lepping into a saddle next week when the Dublin Bikes scheme launches.

(Note: Dublinbloggers take no responsibility for injuries sustained as a result of following Roseanne’s advice. You’re a cyclist not a sheep!)

1. If you are planning to use the bikes regularly do pick up some decent raingear. Even though I have “proven” that it rarely rains in Dublin with my longitudinal photographic record of the weather at about 6 of a workday(!) that’s not to say there might not be the odd torrential shower. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a cape is a good idea. They are not. Trousers and a jacket are your best bet. If you can get a jacket that zips from the top and bottom all the better and better again if you can get a jacket that has ventilation zips under or near the armpits.
2. Layers are always a good idea on the bike as it can be shweaty work even within the relatively flat city centre. Sorry to be crude but only thinking of your comfort. I would also advise you to bring a pair of lightweight gloves even in September. Check my little handy out only last week!
3. Tough day ahead or behind you and need to do some thinking? Pick up a bike and do a chunk of your journey on two wheels. Your problems will be thought through by the time you reach your destination. That or at the very least you will forget about them for 20 minutes as you navigate Dublin’s peculiar perils!
4. PAY ATTENTION! While you may be thinking things through you do need to pay attention, especially at junctions. Not so much for yourself but you have to second guess all the other eejits on the road. Seriously you will be amazed by the number people who seem to desire an ignominious end under a two-wheel vehicle by wandering off the footpath and into the cycle lane.
5. I understand the Dublin bikes have bells. The answer to the age old knock, knock joke “Is a bell on a bike really necessary?” is yes indeedy! Use them bells well, my children. A sharp “Get the [bleep] out of my way” is also affective but will upset the zen like state you are reaching in point no 3 above.
6. Do NOT break red lights. Apart from the legal and safey issues you are doing bicyclists no favours. It’s the first thing anti-bikers mention when they are trying to justify their gas-guzzling, air-polluting idiocy. Don’t give them the satisfaction.
7. This is one for the ladies: you can liberate your Loubotin heels once you have mastered the art of cycling! You may not be able to walk in them but it’s far easy to cycle in them. Starting and stopping is trickier, especially on an incline. Thanks again to those dudes who picked me up beside the canal on my way up to Emmet Bridge. However pencil skirts are a no-no so on with the leggings and roll up do sciorta (less creases) and stick em in your backpack. On that subject, a backpack is really the best option on a bike, especially when carrying a laptop, so invest in one you like that has a sophisticated system for keeping your back ventilated.
8. The Dublin Bikes do have a basket which while it may not appeal to the boys, my son regularly asks me “Why does Dad not have a basket? It’s so handy!” and he’s right. Ridiculous, hard-coded and imaginary gender issues aside, baskets are gift but beware of overloading them as the bike will topple as the basket pulls the front wheel to one side. I’m not sure which kind of stand the Dublin Bikes have but ThinkBike in Rathmines fitted my bike with a two sided stand so neither the presence of a child on the back or a heavy basket up front will topple the bike. If the Dublin Bikes have a traditional one-sided stand watch out for this toppling. The other thing to watch out for when you have items in a basket are potholes because as you go over the hole everything leps up in the air and all over the road. Bye-bye iPod etc.
9. Dublin Transport Office have a cycle journey planner which in my experience is to put it bluntly, pure nonsense. Imagine I was a TD (hah!) and I wanted to get from my house in Crumlin to Títhe an Oireachtais for work. I put in my street address as starting point and Kildare st as ending point and the system tells me: “Unable to find a cycle route. Hopefully this walking route will be of use.” I think the reason for this is because there are a number of one-way streets on the route they propose. If only they could add in a social layer, I could indicate the actual route that I take which would then be saved and used to extrapolate for other similar journeys by others. Two nice features that they have added since I last used this is a “CO2 Avoided” widget and a “Calories burned” widget where you can add in your own weight. Nice!
10. My final word is a warning and please take this seriously: Avoid the corner of Stephen’s Green where Earlsfort Tce. and Leeson St. meet. It is a death-trap. I’m mildly tempted to tell everyone to aim for it on the offchance that one of you might be injured. This is pure evil of me, I am aware, but at least it might draw attention to this ridiculous piece of road planning. With the extra publicity of Dublin Bikes the powers that be might actually pay attention. Your sacrifice will be for a greater good. Does that make me sound kind of fanatical?

We’d love to hear about your experiences of using the Dublin Bikes so tell us your tales in the comments below or post your pics to a photo sharing site and add the links below in the comments. I’ll feature my faves in a post in a few weeks time. Happy cycling!

I’m Roseanne Smith, a newly recruited blogger to the Dublin Community Blog. Actually I’m not that newly recruited having been moved to volunteer when Red Mum was collecting the blog’s award at the Irish Blog Awards in February and mentioned that they were looking for some actual Dubliners to blog. So I’m an actual Dubliner. You can find out more about me on my own blog because I’m here to talk about what’s going on in Dublin not in my head (as a general rule…). I’m hoping once I get into the swing of things and have lulled you into a false sense of security to contribute the odd blog in Irish. Enough of the intros, here goes!

I am a cyclist. I wouldn’t say avid or fanatical while I’m just sitting here at my laptop. Not at all.

But get me onto the saddle and I become something else. Half woman, half bike: melded with my machine, senses heightened, coordination controlled, I’m a dynamic dynamo and I’m getting there faster than all of you.

Well except for anyone who’s running. Really I’m a very average cyclist. I always stop at red lights. I wear nerdy hi-viz clothing on all my limbs and a helmet. I have front and rear lights and I move at a leisurely pace.

I do cycle everywhere. I cycle to and from work, the kids’ school and creche, to meetings, out at the weekend; come rain or shine. I even sometimes bring our bikes on holidays. I do lots of  thinking on the bike when I’m not avoiding potholes or pedestrians. I find it’s a great way to start the day.

Dublin is a grand place to cycle. Okay it’s no Amsterdam or even Groningen. It’s fairly flat, there are new bits of bike lane all the time. (I’m trying to accentuate the positive here, folks! It’s my first post – I don’t want to come across as crabby on Day 1) As you will see I live close to the canal and there’s nothing like zipping along the canal no matter what the weather.

One of the main reasons people often give for not cycling is the weather: they are worried that they will get drenched on their way to work. As another cyclist puts it on his blog “it’s the prospect of getting wet that puts people off.” Well I’ve been doing a little experiment since January. Everyday I get stopped on Sally’s Bridge on the canal on the way home. It’s just not possible to get from one set of traffic lights to the other at my pedestrian pace. So every day I take a snap and post it to my Flickr account. You can see the set here. Or better still:

Now I’ll admit straight off that due to the fact that I was in Santry for work recently I failed to take a photo between the 20 and 23 May when there was some torrential rain. This is also just snaps from weekdays and there’s some days when I’d be so deeply in thought that I would forget to take a photo.

So even adding in, say, about five wet days that I missed, that is not a lot of wet in nearly six months. And, as your mammy would say (and I am a mammy so I know about these things), there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad dressing. A good set of raingear will get you to and from work dry as a bone. Although I will admit to getting a bit cheesed off lugging my raingear around and unlike my other half I haven’t gone as far as gaiters so I keep dry footwear under my desk for days that I am caught on the hop.

So why have I chosen now to out myself as a wannabe fanatical cyclist? Next week is National Bike Week. Two years ago we took part in the Dublin City Cycle and it was a great day. As proof of my very average cycling, I was the very last back to the finish – I blame the youngest for my poor performance as he fell asleep which slowed me down something rotten! Here are a few of my snaps.

So I was delighted when I read that the activities have been extended to not only a full week but they have gone national. Among the events are free bike check-ups, charity cycles, cycling workshops and family fun days. I love the idea that Parnassus theatre company have: show your bike light at their production of Abigail’s Party in the Samuel Beckett Centre in TCD and you’ll get 33% off on the 16th, 17th and 16th June. Bargain! And it’s a very entertaining play so win-win!

This year the Dublin City Cycle takes place on Wednesday 17 June and while it may not be so family oriented it will draw more Dubliners’ attention to the cyclists in their midst. This was actually my biggest gripe with the Dublin City Cycle two years ago: it happened on a Sunday so there was no real impact on the rest of the citizens. I think a city cycle like this should remind other road users that cyclists are really there.

So keep an eye out for me at the Dublin City Cycle or taking pics on Sally’s Bridge of an evening!