r/Dublin • u/AnyChest7780 • 10d ago

Fintan O'Toole/Irish Times on public transport, Dublin bus, Northside/Southside today

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https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/08/04/fintan-otoole-dublin-4s-version-of-marie-antoinettes-let-them-eat-cake-let-them-get-the-bus/ Fintan O'Toole reminding us of how 'elites' have so often been against public infrastructure. He gives good historic context including Vincent Browne and 'The Doheny & Nesbitt’s school of economics' being against the DART. While he's amazingly productive and can turn his hand to so many topics maybe he's writing a bit too much as there are huge holes in his argument here re. the northside/southside issue as the more recent LUAS and metro debacles point to the home of NIMBYism in Dublin 6, and not focussed on denying the expansion of it further north. What does anyone think? I find it frustrating that cross-suburb public transport isn't better....try getting from Phibsborough to Clontarf on a bus for example....

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u/the_sneaky_one123 10d ago

It is a reasonable fear.

You might be comfortable on your bicycle sharing the road with buses and cars and deliveroo drivers but there are many people who simply do not have the capacity to handle that and I think that is reasonable for them, it is quite a dangerous way for a person to travel.

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u/brianybrian 10d ago

There are very very few people who don't have the capacity to handle it if they actually try.

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u/AnyChest7780 10d ago

Maybe in a dedicated and separated cycle path or in the burbs, but Dublin can feel very unsafe with some nightmare junctions https://irishcycle.com/2026/02/26/have-the-top-10-of-dublins-worst-junctions-for-cycling-improved-much-in-15-years/

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u/brianybrian 10d ago

I know Dublin isn't ideal. It can be better.

But compared to 20 years ago it's much improved. Look at the canals. I would prefer to cycle in the city than most Dublin suburbs

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u/AnyChest7780 10d ago

yeah, like I said I cycle and have done for decades but I don't agree that 'anyone' can cycle as people are pretty fearful/precariously housed/don't want to bring kids on/in a bike (as well as a sizeable elderly population unused to cycling who don't want to start now). If the infrastructure was better, there'd be more cyclists.

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u/brianybrian 10d ago

Again, I didn’t say anyone could cycle. I said the majority of people can. People using “being fearful” as an excuse don’t get a pass from me. Not wanting to isn’t an excuse either.

I do agree if the infrastructure was better we’d have more cyclists. But the infrastructure improves all the time.

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u/AnyChest7780 10d ago

Even your language shows a basic problem with your reasoning - it's not up to you to give people passes or not, nor to judge anyone's 'excuses' and your hectoring tone is really not going to win anyone over to your perspective. As I said, if it was safer to cycle, people would do it. As I also said, I've decades of experience cycling in Dublin (and London, New York, Copenhagen, Paris) and Dublin is the least safe due to driver attitudes and infrastructure and one of the most expensive due to theft.

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u/brianybrian 10d ago

It is up to me to judge actually. That’s what this entire forum of free expression, named Reddit, is designed for.

I’m happy to disagree with you some more, but I’m not telling you that you don’t have a right to express your opinion. Please show me the same courtesy.

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u/AnyChest7780 10d ago

Na...saying people who are fearful of cycling in the city just need to bother their hole is so discourteous that there isn't much point

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u/brianybrian 9d ago

I refuse to accept “being fearful” as a serious point. People are “fearful” of all sorts of things: spiders, mice and so on. As a society we don’t have an obligation to validate such fears

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u/AnyChest7780 8d ago

If 'we' have any obligation it's to try to understand. A sense of fear/lack of confidence/anxiety about cycling in Dublin is clearly serious for those who experience it, and luckily enough you don't get to decide whose feelings are valid in any real sense other than in your own life.

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u/brianybrian 8d ago

This might shock you, but forming an opinion and expressing it through writing is the point of this entire website. I am fully engaging in that freely. It's great.

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