Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Dublin's bikes for hire

Sean MacConnell's Irishman's Diary in today's Irish Times is worth a read and makes for a good laugh.

He makes some terrible assumptions. He presumes that someone who lives in Dublin and owns a bike would not bother with the bicycles for hire. The man is downright wrong.

The bike for hire scheme is the best thing that has hit Dublin in a long time. Yes, he is correct in saying, that there are many dodgy 'cyclists' availing of the scheme. But so too are there dodgy drivers, riders etc. How many spivs have availed of the scrappage scheme and driving about in flash 2010 cars?

It is striking that it seems to be a middle class sport.

Dublin City Council intends increasing the number of bikes available at present.

It is a pity that there are no stands or bays at the main rail stations. There should be bikes available at Heuston and Connolly stations. I wonder why they are not there?

Seán MacConnell could well be in breach of age and sex discrimination laws in this piece! The bikes are great and Seán, I reccommend you jump up on one and take a trip around the city.

But he is saying something about the 'type' of people who are moving over to the bicycle. The Government 'cycle to work' scheme seems to have put a lot of undesirables on to saddles. One gets the impression that some arrogant show-off car drivers have moved over to bikes and are now as selfish and arrogant on two wheels as they were on four. Pretentious gits. Why don't you write about those idiots Mr MacConnell?

2 comments:

Female Biker said...

That article was sexist garbage and not funny at all. It shows the problem endemic in Ireland, reflected by its disgraceful media that is laughed at around the world: we are still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to gender equality and just about everything else.

Michael Commane said...

Thank you for your comment. When I began reading it it annoyed me. But as I read on, I felt it was tongue-in-cheek stuff. Maybe it was offensive re woman. But I at first felt it very offensive towards me as I use the scheme but also have my own bike and have been cycling all my life.
Reading your comment and reading the article again, I can see what you are saying

Featured Post

Channel 4 shows the lies told by UK Post Office bosses

Channel 4’s main evening news yesterday spent the first 20 minutes reporting on the UK Post Office scandal. They played audio tapes from 201...