— Divisive “daily radio discussions pushing” people who drive and cycle “against each other” criticised.
Dublin City Council was praised for its 35-minute response time, but after a warning was posted on social media about the screws drilled into a cycle lane on the Old Cabra Road, a resident had already removed them.
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A local councillor had said that the council should refer the issue to the Gardai, and a commuter group linked the action of booby trapping the cycle lane to divisive media coverage. Locals who use the road said the protected cycle lanes are used by school children.
Dublin Commuters, a group which advocates for sustainable transport, this afternoon warned on Bluesky and X: “Cyclists Beware!!! There are reports of sabotage in the cycle lane on the Old Cabra Road inbound near the Maple Centre. Someone has drilled Torx screws into the cycle track, and it’s damaging tyres. Be careful if you’re cycling in the area.”
IMAGES: Dublin Commuters posted these photos of the screws in the cycle lane with close-up images of the screws.
Dublin City Council’s road maintenance division had somebody on site to remove the screws a short time after it was reported, but according to a local councillor, it seems residents had already removed the screws.
Cllr Feljin Jose (Green Party) said: “A local resident has kindly removed the screws from the cycle lane on Old Cabra Road. The 35-minute response time from Dublin City Council was impressive, but the early bird gets the screw!”
Cllr Jose told IrishCycle.com: “It was a reckless and nasty thing to do, and Dublin City Council should refer it to the Gardai for investigation. Somebody could have been killed.”
He added: “I called the council this afternoon, and to be fair to them, they came out within about 35 minutes, and by then someone had removed it, thankfully. They did take it seriously and sent someone down.”
IMAGES: Posted by Cllr Jose shows a council staff member on site, but the screws have already been removed.
Jason Cullen, chairperson of Dublin Commuter, said: “The Dublin Commuter Coalition were deeply concerned to discover that screws had been placed in the centre of a busy cycle track on the Old Cabra Road, seemingly to sabotage cyclists on their daily commute.”
“It comes in the wake of growing discontent between vehicle drivers and active travel users, much of which is propagated by daily radio discussions pushing the two groups against each other,” he said.
He added: “Everyone is experiencing frustration as they go to and from their homes each day, but that should be aimed at continuous Governments who have failed to fund and deliver transport infrastructure for everybody, not the people just trying to get to their destination.”
Research shows that even normal media coverage of collisions tends to blame cyclists, often making drivers “invisibilise”, with little or no reference to drivers being involved, and blames this on “motonormativity”, basically a society where motoring is dominant. One of the most recent bits of research on this is from Switzerland, but similar results have been shown in the UK and the US. This website and others have highlighted that the effect is also evident in Irish media coverage.
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