Dublin Bikes

I'm not going to bore you with facts and figures or try to prove my point. In the fine tradition of tabloid journalism I'll just say stuff and maybe fire off an email to Joe Duffy or something.

A while ago, Dublin City Bikes started operating. I predicted that most of them would end up in the Liffey at the hands of Dublin's finest. To prove me wrong this has allegedly gone on to be the most successful scheme of its sort in Europe. Fuck you Dublin City Bikes.

What concerns me is that with a rise in cyclists using these bikes, using them by and large without helmets there must be at least some rise in road traffic accidents involving these cyclists. It would be practically impossible for there not to be. This hasn't been publicly discussed. Hasn't even been mentioned. We have no idea how may new hospital admissions are down to these bikes. How many families are fatherless? How many people will never make it to the office....

The why of this is because everybody loves the idea of it. Like recycling which isn't powered by the beauty of clouds, which uses bleaches and energy and requires massive volumes of water or Hybrid cars which are purpose built to destroy the environment, as long as an idea is palatable enough we'll ignore any facts that may exist. I'm not saying they do, this isn't that type of blog.

On the other side of the coin, Head Shops and the Psychoactive Substances Act and all that shit was rushed through the legislative process without concern for these pesky facts or peoples' rights to ingest whatever the fuck they like (with certain provisos that should be accepted). It's not facism or anything like it. People just accept the nice pretty things like more bikes and would prefer to get rid of the junkie exercising his rights by being out of his bin at 2 in the afternoon and swaying gently on O'Connell St.



Fuck you Dublin Bikes.