Journalism and cycling

Fighting Tao · 14-09-2017 12:24pm

average_runner wrote: »

True but either two of them could of cause a train driver life to be ruined.

Maybe think of some one else here.

Having crossed Merrion Gates countless time the lights flash ages before the gates go down. They flash amber and then red, giving time for a number of cars/cyclists to pass before the gates are too low. Then it takes another 2 minutes and sometimes more for a train to pass. My guess would be seeing as it's a straight stretch of road the cyclist knew the sequence very well and took the opportunity to cross because he knew that no train would be along anytime soon. Was he right to? Not really. Was it dangerous? Not necessarily. Did he ruin anything for anyone? No.

check_six · 14-09-2017 12:33pm

Moflojo wrote: »

I believe your understanding of a witchhunt is flawed. The suspect is generally hanged, dunked, or burned alive first, with their guilt or innocence only definitively proven depending on the outcome.

Ah, yes. How quickly we forget the good old days.

buffalo · 14-09-2017 12:47pm

average_runner wrote: »

True but either two of them could of cause a train driver life to be ruined.

Maybe think of some one else here.

Yes, but I think you'd agree that the van driver was the worst of the two?

Moflojo · 14-09-2017 12:52pm

buffalo wrote: »

Yes, but I think you'd agree that the van driver was the worst of the two?

We are here to establish the cyclist's guilt so stop trying to raise the red herring of what the van driver did. That's a totally separate, unrelated incident, not linked to the cyclist in any way by how Irish Rail presented the incident to the public.

average_runner · 14-09-2017 12:57pm

buffalo wrote: »

Yes, but I think you'd agree that the van driver was the worst of the two?

Of the course the van driver was the worst, he totally damage a crossing that could lead to another accident.

But i am amazed of the attitude to the cyclists, from what I can see here, it's ok for a car to go through a red life if he/she doesn't cause any harm to anyone.

Lets scrap the rules of the road.

Moflojo · 14-09-2017 12:59pm

average_runner wrote: »

But i am amazed of the attitude to the cyclists, from what I can see here, it's ok for a car to go through a red life if he/she doesn't cause any harm to anyone.

Oh, hey, you dropped your Strawman mate. Here, let me pick it up for you. I'd hate for you to lose it.

average_runner · 14-09-2017 1:02pm

Moflojo wrote: »

Oh, hey, you dropped your Strawman mate. Here, let me pick it up for you. I'd hate for you to lose it.

It's ok, I will go through a red light for it!

Chips Lovell · 14-09-2017 1:03pm

buffalo wrote: »

Correct, but only one of them caused criminal damage to property by driving dangerously at speed through closing level crossing barriers and then fled the scene after causing the damage.

Indeed. But the point was more that the destruction of the gates paled in comparison to accident either could have caused.

what_traffic · 14-09-2017 1:14pm

Read the IRISH Rail tweet, both the van driver and cyclist are clearly in the wrong but you would come away thinking it was the "crazy" person on the bike that caused all the damage.

RayCun · 14-09-2017 1:18pm

what_traffic wrote: »

Read the IRISH Rail tweet, both the van driver and cyclist are clearly in the wrong but you would come away thinking it was the "crazy" person on the bike that caused all the damage.

Not really.

I mean the video is right there.

14-09-2017 1:37pm

Moflojo wrote: »

We are here to establish the cyclist's guilt

Are we?

As a thought experiment, how would we feel if a pedestrian arrived at that scene, looked both ways, and jogged over the track?

Weepsie · 14-09-2017 1:45pm

average_runner wrote: »

Of the course the van driver was the worst, he totally damage a crossing that could lead to another accident.

But i am amazed of the attitude to the cyclists, from what I can see here, it's ok for a car to go through a red life if he/she doesn't cause any harm to anyone.

Lets scrap the rules of the road.

Nobody is defending the cyclist. They are giving out that Irish Rail have called the cyclist crazy, but have not given any sort of derogatory adjective to the driver. Both cyclist and driver are wrong, one clearly more wrong than the other, but it's the cyclist who is typically described worst.

In your OP you at least reserved the crazy for the driver

buffalo · 14-09-2017 2:02pm

Baron de Charlus wrote: »

Indeed. But the point was more that the destruction of the gates paled in comparison to accident either could have caused.

So we've established that they both could have caused an accident, but only one did. I don't understand why that makes the person who didn't cause an accident not less culpable?

Eamonnator · 14-09-2017 2:15pm

Weepsie wrote: »

Nobody is defending the cyclist. Both cyclist and driver are wrong, one clearly more wrong than the other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1zoX5Ax9U

If you don't have patience, from about 50 seconds.

average_runner · 14-09-2017 4:46pm

what_traffic wrote: »

Read the IRISH Rail tweet, both the van driver and cyclist are clearly in the wrong but you would come away thinking it was the "crazy" person on the bike that caused all the damage.

Not at all, I think you would come away thinking the van driver was a lunatic with no regard for anyone's life and should be banned from the road forever and the cyclist show no regard for the rules of the road or his/her life.

what_traffic · 14-09-2017 4:50pm

average_runner wrote: »

Not at all, I think you would come away thinking the van driver was a lunatic with no regard for anyone's life and should be banned from the road forever and the cyclist show no regard for the rules of the road or his/her life.

True if you watched the Video - but if you just read the tweet it is skewed the other way.

TheChizler · 14-09-2017 10:48pm

Maybe the cyclist was crazy for consciously taking a risk, whereas the van driver was just an oblivious idiot?

mcgratheoin · 15-09-2017 9:33am

We're all forgetting the legions of law abiding, level crossing respecting, cycle loving white van drivers tarnished by the hashtag labelling of one lunatic by Irish Rail - #justiceforwhitevanman

what_traffic · 15-09-2017 10:34am

mcgratheoin wrote: »

We're all forgetting the legions of law abiding, level crossing respecting, cycle loving white van drivers tarnished by the hashtag labelling of one lunatic by Irish Rail - #justiceforwhitevanman

Would #justiceforwhitevanpeople be the PC version?

Kav0777 · 15-09-2017 11:04am

mcgratheoin wrote: »

We're all forgetting the legions of law abiding, level crossing respecting, cycle loving white van drivers tarnished by the hashtag labelling of one lunatic by Irish Rail - #justiceforwhitevanman

#notallwhitevanmen

zurbfoundation · 15-09-2017 12:07pm

Genuinely curious as to what is considered Journalism for this thread - a tweet? a posted 20 second video?

Fighting Tao · 15-09-2017 12:14pm

zurbfoundation wrote: »

Genuinely curious as to what is considered Journalism for this thread - a tweet? a posted 20 second video?

Were getting close to random posts and photos from Facebook about people's dinner!

Grassey · 15-09-2017 12:17pm

Fighting Tao wrote: »

Were getting close to random posts and photos from Facebook about 20K spin-bikes people's dinner!

15-09-2017 12:21pm

Giant-Castelli team have had their bikes nicked overnight at the Tour of Denmark.

Other teams pitching in to ensure they can compete today.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/thieves-take-bikes-from-giant-castelli-at-tour-of-denmark/

Moflojo · 15-09-2017 12:38pm

zurbfoundation wrote: »

Genuinely curious as to what is considered Journalism for this thread - a tweet? a posted 20 second video?

The tweet was picked up by numerous national media outlets and articles or online posts were generated about it. Given the tight bond between PR and journalism in this country, this PR story by Irish Rail quickly made its way into mainstream media.

average_runner · 15-09-2017 1:52pm

Moflojo wrote: »

The tweet was picked up by numerous national media outlets and articles or online posts were generated about it. Given the tight bond between PR and journalism in this country, this PR story by Irish Rail quickly made its way into mainstream media.

Especially on a quiet news day!

I love Sean nos · 15-09-2017 1:55pm

zurbfoundation wrote: »

Genuinely curious as to what is considered Journalism for this thread - a tweet? a posted 20 second video?

In this country and with our national media, you could have ended your sentence at the word journalism. Take a look at the various websites and see what content they host.

Chuchote · 17-09-2017 11:08am

zurbfoundation wrote: »

Genuinely curious as to what is considered Journalism for this thread - a tweet? a posted 20 second video?

I started the thread (look back at the first posts) to show the way that cycling and cyclists were being covered by media - mainly Irish but also foreign. It's expanded a bit, but remains "publicity of attitudes to cycling" and "new news on cycling" mainly.

Chuchote · 17-09-2017 4:46pm

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2017/sep/17/the-miracle-pill-how-cycling-could-save-the-nhs?CMP=share_btn_tw

Snippage:

Imagine if a team of scientists devised a drug which massively reduced people’s chances of developing cancer or heart disease, cutting their overall likelihood of dying early by 40%. This would be front page news worldwide, a Nobel prize as good as in the post.

That drug is already here, albeit administered in a slightly different way: it’s called cycling to work. One of the more puzzling political questions is why it is so rarely prescribed on a population-wide level.

There is a credible argument that encouraging bike use to Dutch or Danish levels could do more than perhaps any other single intervention to save the NHS from collapse. It could even greatly mitigate the crisis in adult social care.

At the heart of the issue is what public health experts routinely describe as a pandemic of preventable illness connected to physical inactivity.

Study after study has shown far too many Britons live almost entirely sedentary lives. Research last month showed 6 million middle-aged people in England don’t even take a single brisk walk longer than 10 minutes in an average month.

This has enormous health implications, with inactive people significantly more likely to develop cardiovascular problems, type 2 diabetes, and various cancers.

One estimate is that about 85,000 Britons die early each year because of this. A study in the Lancet put the global toll for inactive lifestyles at around 5.3 million people a year, about the same as from tobacco.

mr spuckler · 18-09-2017 1:07pm

the cyclist who knocked down and killed the pedestrian in the UK got 18 months.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/18/cyclist-charlie-alliston-jailed-for-18-months-over-death-of-pedestrian

Journalism and cycling

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