On yer bike around the city
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MORE and more Dubliners are travelling on two wheels. Whether because of the recession, or in the hope of beating the gridlock, or both, the number of cyclists in the city has risen to its highest level in 10 years.
A more remarkable statistic tells us that the number signed up for the Dublin bike scheme has risen to more than 25,000, compared with only 2,000 last September. It seems that innovative ideas can be put into practice, not just in Amsterdam or Stockholm but in the chaotic Irish capital.
All this is good for cyclists' health as well as their pockets. But as with so much else in human life, the picture is not perfect.
Not every cyclist wears a helmet. Not all of them have lights on their bikes. Some wear dark clothing on murky nights. Some seem to have forgotten the rules of the road -- if they ever knew them.
And not all are conscious of the risks they run from their exposure to cars and trucks. Thankfully, the number of heavy vehicles on the streets has fallen since the ban on trucks in the city centre. But curiously, the number of cars using the same streets has increased instead of falling.
The oddest, and most discouraging, figure in this report from the Dublin City Council is that the number of pedestrians has gone down by 18pc to a mere 15,000. The streets should belong to pedestrians, not drivers or even cyclists.
