I have made a submission as part of the public consultation on the Rathgar Road to Grand Canal section of the Tallaght Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) scheme. My main comments relate to the proposed design whereby cycle lanes would be marked within general traffic lanes - see my earlier post ‘Half-and-half cycle lane’ for details.
The text of my submission follows: (more…)
An official World Record attempt for the biggest table quiz ever - sounds good to me! It’s happening on 16th September 2004 in the RDS.
Yesterday I handed our appeal against the Scully’s Field decision into An Bord Pleanála. The appeal itself is no masterpiece, but I’m making it available here for what it’s worth.
Text of appeal to An Bord Pleanála re Scully’s Field (PDF format - 96k)
This article from Wired News indicates that the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) are “in the process of drafting new standards for electronic voting systems.” Worryingly, the article suggests that the IEEE committee working on this has been dominated by the voting machine companies:
The committee has, in the past, been dominated by people who oppose adding a paper trail to e-voting machines and by people who oppose examining commercial off-the-shelf software used in voting machines
More encouragingly, however, David Dill of verifiedvoting.org is also a member of the committee.
One little-reported aspect of Sunday’s referendum in Venezuela is the fact that where electronic voting was used, a voter-verifiable audit trail (VVAT) was provided in the form of printed ballots. A diagram explaining the voting process is available on the web site of the company who provided the electronic voting system.
I’m hoping to organise an appeal by the Green Party against the Scully’s Field decision, further to the objection to the original proposal lodged by Claire Wheeler, John Gormley, Ciaran Fallon and myself.
The Scully’s Field River Park Action Group have issued a newsletter with details of how to appeal the planning decision, and how to make an observation in respect of an appeal.
Read on for the full text.
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I’ve uploaded the planner’s report on the granting of planning permission for 92 apartments on Scully’s Field. Download it here (Microsoft Word format - 135k).
The deadline to lodge an appeal against this decision is 24th August 2004
The Guardian’s Society section carried an article recently on the UK’s National Cycle Network, which is nearing completion:
The number of cycle journeys in Britain has fallen since 2001, despite government strategies intended to increase bike use nationally fourfold by 2012. Fewer people in Britain, it seems, are prepared to get on their bike, even though more than 25 million live within two miles of where the network passes.
This map of the proposed Rathmines section of the Tallaght Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) shows a 1.5 metre cycle lane within a 3.0 metre traffic lane. Is there any point to this design? If cars and bikes are to share the same roadspace on this section, why bother painting a cycle lane?
A call for papers for the Velo-City 2005 conference has been issued:
Abstracts of papers are invited for Velo-city 2005 on the themes set out in the Conference Themes. Abstracts should contain no more than 300 words that clearly set out the essence of what will be presented in the final paper. The abstract should be submitted online before 1st October 2004, for review by the Technical Committee. Successful authors will be notified in December 2004.
Dublin City Council have granted permission for the larger part of the proposed development on Scully’s Field. Scully’s Field is a site adjacent to the River Dodder between Milltown and Clonskeagh, and the local community have been fighting a long-term battle to have the site made available as a public park or natural amenity. This planning permission is a major blow to the campaign, but it will be appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
Another planning application is still being considered, for 18 apartments on a portion of the site in different ownership. If this is granted it will have to be appealed separately.
I’m going to try to get my hands on the planner’s report, but in the meantime a summary of the planning application is available.
