The Dublin Community Blog

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!

While I am sure there are many drivers who will think this an awful plan, it seems to me appropriate that Dublin City Council is looking to ban all cars from College Green thereby making the city centre accessible only to public transport. The plans which you can read about in today’s Irish Times involve banning cars from entering Dame Street through College Green and will feature a public-transport only gate at Trinity College.

The plan is to allow preliminary work on the Metro North rail line to Dublin Airport. When the ban on  cars came into O’Connell Street I welcomed it and often wondered why it wasn’t extended so I think it is great that the Council is looking to do this.The plan is to be implemented from autumn and a three-week consultation process will begin next month.

What do you think, good move/bad move?

The funeral of Former President of Ireland (1976-1990) Patrick Hillery takes place in Dublin today in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral at 12 noon.

The President, Mary McAleese and Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, will both read at the mass. Brian Cowen is to deliver the graveside oration.

Some roads around the Cathedral and along the route to St Fintan’s Cemetery in Sutton will be closed.

Marlborough Street, Dublin 1 will closed to traffic from 10.30am to approximately 2.30pm. Butt Bridge will be closed to traffic from 1pm to approximately 2.30pm.

Gardai said motorists travelling along Pearse Street will be diverted from Tara Street onto Burgh Quay and along O’Connell Street.

Eden Quay will be closed to traffic from 1.30pm to 2.30pm and traffic will be diverted up O’Connell Street or southbound across O’Connell Bridge. Commuters have been advised to avoid these areas during these hours if at all possible.

The funeral mass can be watched live via the RTE website.

Irish Times
RTE

Just in time for rush hour today Pearse Street station has been closed due to storm damage and will remain closed for the rest of the day. Rail services are running as normal through the station so go to the next nearest station and travel from there.

Iarnród Éireann advises customers that due to storm damage to the roof of Dublin’s Pearse Station, the station has been closed for the remainder of the day.

Rail services will operate normally, through Pearse Station, but will not stop at Pearse Station.

Update: The station reopened this morning.

The Port Tunnel is reported to be closed all day and into rush hour tonight due to problems discovered with the Scada safety system this morning. This system seems to be responsible for all the safety features in the tunnel so any problems with it pretty much wipe out all the safety mechanisms in the tunnel.

As a result of this you can expect heavy goods vehicles in the city this evening adding to rush hour traffic jams just a day after massive delays caused by the temporary closure of Pearse St due to an unsafe building in Trinity. You may want to consider working late this evening

Anyone who commutes to work in and around Dublin will be all to familiar with the traffic jams, crowded trams or trains and delayed buses. They will also know the reason many people choose to drive to work is that there is no reliable, or in many cases simply no, public transport that they can use. The Dept of Transport today released a consultation document asking for input on the future of travel and transport in Ireland with large sections related to the vision of transport in Dublin by 2020. Improved public transport, more emphasis on cycling and walking,  and the possibility of congestion charging.

This document can be downloaded here and will be well worth a read by anyone who sees themselves still facing into the long commute to work in Dublin by 2020.

Well, Catherine mentioned about it come time ago and so…. it happed.

Maybe it was not extremely popular, but people who ‘got frozen’ were visible. And for one ‘freezing performer’ there was one photographer.

Cheers to all brave ones!

Yours truly had her car towed last Saturday. Visiting friends, I had parked partially in front of their neighbours gate. So, neighbour decides to phone a towing company, as advised by the Gardai, before knocking next door. Needless to say I was rather shocked when I walked out after two hours and discovered it gone!

Helpful Garda gives me the name and number of the towing company. Heres the bit that really, really, really bugs me. On phoning, I’m told they close at 1.30pm on a Saturday. This was 1pm. I was in Cabra. My car was on the back of a tow truck making its way to Donabate. This journey involves negotiating the M50 roadworks on a busy Saturday lunchtime and the M1.

Thankfully, I was lucky enough to get a lift from my friend and the nice(!) towing company people waited for me to arrive at about 1.45pm. My car was still on the truck when I arrived, 10 minutes after the driver!

How can a towing company be allowed get away with taking your car and then shutting up shop? Yes, some might say I deserve to be inconvenienced for inconveniencing my friends neighbour, however, am I not entitled to have the option of retrieving my car?

€181.50 poorer, thats one experience I’d rather not repeat!

So much for Operation Freeflow! Nothing much flowed around the Point Depot this morning after a truck overturned. This happened at 5.30am, yet it took a full 6 hours for the truck to be removed and caused total gridlock out as far as the airport. How can one incident have such a drastic affect on city traffic?

More info here:
eircom.net
RTE

In case you are not already aware, but there are gonna be some serious disruptions to Dublin Bus services in the morning. I am copying the notice that was posted on Dublin Bus’s webpage earlier. So check and make sure if your bus service is affected that you have other means to get to work.

Due to industrial action by bus drivers in Harristown Bus Garage, services operating from this garage will be disrupted on Monday 12th November 2007.

Dublin Bus wish to apologise for this disruption.