Cycling Two Abreast

Ronan McDonnell — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:29:56 +0000

Anyone who cycles a fair bit knows the routine.

Image by Flickr User Thundershead and used under a Creative Commons licence

…the crowds at Dutch Corner on the Alpe, the gentle swoosh of a light breeze… the obnoxious bollocks driving too close…

You are out on the bike. It’s great. You are training, touring, or generally dawdling, usually not digging too deep. You are cycling alongside a friend, deep in conversation about the most effective way to lose that last .0025kg and yet keep your fearsome and explosive power. You are surrounded by the freshness of the countryside, the smell of wild garlic, the splashing of a stream as you pass over an ancient arched bridge, the haze kicked up by the thunderous hooves of a horse that runs along a dusty track in its field beside you.

You notice more sounds – the sheep baaing like the crowds at Dutch Corner on the Alpe, the gentle swoosh of a light breeze… the obnoxious bollocks driving too close as he (and it is invariably a he) passes you either blaring the horn, or winding down the window so he might exchange pleasantries,

“Single file you stupid {name of body part} in your {crass homosexual synonym} lycra. Obey the law or get off the road you {human waste or emission}”

You momentarily feel truly awful. Here you are after all, practically trespassing on his private road. You are figuratively defecating on all that this poor individual holds dear. He is the foul-mouthed victim here, wronged at every turn. You are breaking all of his rules.

Only thing is, those are not the rules. Unless he is a Garda.

That Old Chestnut.

Cars do not own the road. As much as a van, truck, car or otherwise, the bicycle is a mechanical vehicle and the rider is a driver. Ireland signed up to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and thereby accepted the bicycle’s status on the road being equal to that of any other road users.

Now we get to the core issue; two cyclists riding abreast. The righteous indignation some driver maintain over this is a baseless fiction. They have no more over-taking or road positioning rights than a cyclist does. A cyclist does not have to be squashed in against the road’s left-hand edge, fearing for their lives for every moment. They do not have to fear the capital retribution of a delayed motorist. In 1964 the Irish legislation told us:

“Driving two abreast
29.—(1) A pedal cyclist shall not, save when overtaking other pedal cyclists (and then only if to do so will not endanger other traffic or pedestrians) drive a pedal cycle on a roadway in such a manner as to result in more than two pedal cycles driving abreast.
(2) Pedal cyclists on a roadway shall cycle in single file when overtaking other traffic.”

In 2012 this was once again made explicit, and cyclists’ rights to cycle two abreast were enshrined in the Irish Statute book:

“Pedal cyclists
47. (1) A pedal cyclist shall not drive a pedal cycle on a roadway in such a manner as to result in more than 2 pedal cyclists driving abreast, save when overtaking other pedal cyclists, and then only if to do so will not endanger, inconvenience or obstruct other traffic or pedestrians.”

There are any number of reasons why this was done and has been sustained. To encourage responsible road use? We are more likely to enjoy this sustainable mode of transport when cycle together. Safety perhaps? A group is more visible than a solitary rider. Obligation? Through the Vienna Convention we have, correctly, recognised the cyclist’s right to be on the road.

Does it matter? Next time someone blares the horn because you have dared to venture onto their road, just relax. They are just dickheads.

S.I. No. 332/2012 — Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2012.

The Inquisition’s Gift to You

Click here to download a business card sized piece of this legislation. Print it out on card, laminate it, put it on a jersey, stick it to their windscreen or their face. Do whatever you want with it.

The Gardai

Now, what if a Garda drives alongside you and admonishes you for your audacity, your bare-faced willingness to abide by the nation’s laws? What if they ask you to cycle single-file?

You must do as bidden:
“Signals and directions by Garda Síochána to override these bye-laws

3. A driver or pedestrian to whom a pointsman has given a signal under bye-law 24 of these bye-laws, or to whom a member of the Garda Síochána has given a direction for the purpose of preserving order or regulating or controlling traffic, shall comply with the signal or direction, which shall, if it is inconsistent with any other provision of these bye-laws, override that provision.”

So suck it up.

Cycle Tracks?

In 1964 the law also said a cycle track must be used, if provided. In 2012 the wording was changed to “A pedal cycle shall be driven on a cycle track”. So, applying the logic that an unclear wording is a deliberate attempt at preventing a single reading of the law, cycle on the track only if you wish to.

Bibliography
Dublin Cycling Campaign’s notes on rights as a cyclist
The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic
The Irish Statute Book’s 1964 statutory instrument
Rules of the Road – a little vague
Ireland’s Cycling Manual Online

Original content created by: The Inquisition

Indoors / Outdoors (Defuse)

Ronan McDonnell — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:31:09 +0000

This is a talk given by The Inquisition at Defuse, on Wednesday 7th November 2012, as part of Designweek in Dublin, Ireland

Mobile communications are changing the way we consume and create information. No doubt. We will do things outside, that we once only did inside. We have crossed this divide before.

Lets start at the beginning. We went inside. This change was ultimately to be permanent, so we started to decorate the place, make ourselves at home, graffiti it a bit, and prove ourselves capable of higher order thought.

That was for the living. The dead went outside, for reasons of hygiene, because populations were mobile and also to set their spirits free. This tradition has also been relatively permanent.

This is Catal Huyuk, one of the earliest known agricultural settlements. These people liked their dead so much they brought them inside, keeping them literally under the floorboards.

It caught on, to an extent. In Jericho they went further, keeping their dead indoors for display. They plastered and decorated their fleshless skulls.

Here in the west we have brought our dead inside too. Saints’ relics are kept on display. It may be done less frequently now, but for centuries bits of them have been paraded in reliquaries designed to stop them decomposing while on the move.

For most of its history, art was an indoors craft. It moved outside. Monet was the most famous to ditch his studio to work en plein air, not representing the world but painting an experience of it.

Rembrandt shows the breaking of conventions here by having Susana bathe outside. But this outside is a very enclosed space, making the elders seem to be the ones trespassing.

Roman art had already broken the boundary. Emperor Augustus’ wife Livia brought the outside in. In the stifling summer heat she could lounge in this sheltered space, imaging herself outside.

Roman performance also brought in the greater outside world. Circuses were sometimes filled with water for special events called Naumachia, or sea battles. These were more often than not victory celebrations.

We go inside to feel safe. Henry Moore here recounts being down in the depths of the London Underground during the Blitz. Bodies are cadaverous and the scene itself is sepulchral.

Sometimes inside is not safer. Doctors drove people indoors, out of the miasma, during the Black Death. This inflated contagion rates, ultimately making the plague worse.

Indoors used to be a sign of luxury, of a pampered life of leisure, away from the common duties of being outside working. Paler skin meant less exposure, as in the case of Boucher’s Mademoiselle O’Reilly.

Now, the converse is true. Being bronzed and outdoors is the modern signification of having plenty of constraint-free, wealth and leisure time.

Now we control the world we can turn it inside out for our purposes. Open-top mining, involves tearing or exploding a mountain top open, to bring the core out, where excavation can move from inside out.

We are all familiar with the idea of battery farming, especially with regard to poultry. What we may not realise is that there are a growing number of farms where larger animals such as cows never seen the outside world.

We are even beginning to protect the outside world by bringing it inside. In Svalbard the Global Seed Vault is dedicated to protecting all flora in seed form, to be used in the event of a global breakdown.

Our control has become ridiculous. We now have apline-style skiing indoors, in the Middle East. Indoors can give us control over our environment that we cannot have outside.

Sometimes the outside world can seem daunting, scary even. Monica Bonvicini certainly thought so when, with some one-way glass, she brought our most solitary time out into the quasi-open.

George Michael’s paean to his favourite indoor pastime brought outdoors similarly failed to bring about vast societal change. And that’s a good thing.

Original content created by: The Inquisition