Louise Hogan 

Monday March 29 2010

IT'S official -- cycling is back in vogue.

The number of people hopping on their bikes to avoid traffic gridlock has soared to its highest level in the past 10 years, according to new figures.

Yet, despite the downturn and the apparent increase in people trading in four wheels for two, there has also been a rise in the amount of cars travelling into the capital city in recent years.

The building boom did nothing for our activity levels, so we need to get out there and redesign our environment, writes SYLVIA THOMPSON 

MORE TEENAGE girls drive to school than cycle in Ireland. This shocking statistic was cited at a seminar in Dublin last week on finding ways to improve the built environment to encourage physical activity.

“We need to rethink what we’ve done to become modern and sophisticated because the environment we’ve built and the policies we have put in place have made us inactive,” said Prof James Sallis, director of the Active Living Research and professor of psychology at San Diego State University, California, who addressed the seminar.

The controversial 30km speed limit in Dublin will remain in place after a motion to scrap it failed to gain enough support among city councillors.

RTE News 

JOE DALY, who has died aged 89, was the founder and owner of the famous bicycle shop in Dundrum, Co Dublin which bears his name.

Bikes were his life. He sold and repaired them, talked about and cycled them, and fraternised with and supported the professional and wider cycling population, having first set up business in 1951.
 

FRANK McDONALD

Councillors must put safety ahead of the motoring lobby by holding their nerve with the new 30km/h limit

THERE IS is almost nothing quite so pathetic as the sight and sound of public representatives buckling under pressure from powerful lobbies or vested interests. We are seeing more of this shameful spectacle, as the elected members of Dublin City Council reconsider the 30km/h city centre speed limit – an initiative less than a month old.

Dublin Cycling Campaign is a nominated 'stakeholder' in the 'Vision 2030' consultation process. The fifth stage of the process is now complete -read on to see some of the impacts proposed for cyclists. 

Dublin city commuters and students are increasingly using bicycles with a 74% increase over the past four years according to the latest traffic figures.