Climate Action. Active Travel. Public Transport. Travel Behaviour.
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Cars were built for transport. Road deaths are not the objective. Guns and ammunition are designed (often in minute detail) to kill & injure. Lethal force is the purpose of firearms. PS: No sensible, civilised or educated person is surprised to know that the USA fails to regulate both effectively.
Another selection of the late Mr Kirk's calm reasonableness: bsky.app/profile/ripp...
Here is some of Charlie Kirk's 'reasonable, calm, factual and non-violent rhetoric' from various times before he was brutally murdered by an unknown assailant in possession of a high-powered firearm: 🧵👇 bsky.app/profile/clim...
"The €45 million spent to date on trying to build another ring road around Galway has left us with nothing but a history of failed planning applications and lost court cases, with no end in sight." Via @irishcycle.com irishcycle.com/2025/04/08/o...
The absurdity is apparent as schools return from holidays every year. Meanwhile, Councils & government agencies will spend tens of millions just on studying traffic management proposals, but only a small fraction of that on developing solutions for school travel. www.galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-f...
"We should lock down our schools." Charlie Kirk's answer to school shootings: more people carrying more guns. youtu.be/X9C3yM75JUU
Far right fruitloops respond immediately with inflammatory rhetoric: no big deal, no surprise, they're just being themselves. A centre-right political analyst says something less than pious: shame on you, resign immediately!
Speaking of all things bonkers, whatever possessed Boris Johnson to weigh in on this? bsky.app/profile/davi...
In the climate of craziness that is Trump's America, cognitive dissonance is the default mode. Coherence at any level is an impossibility. bsky.app/profile/meid...
It is (was) a nice piece of kit. youtu.be/KL7tRaorLQM
👇 bsky.app/profile/abby...
'Nick explains that he is a cyclist himself, and it's something he encourages people to do for their health. But he has real concerns about e-bikes: "What we've noticed with e-bikes is that the speed in which people are coming off is much higher and as a result, the injuries are much worse."'
👇 bsky.app/profile/just...
A huge proportion of shipping is fossil fuel transport, which in turn uses massive amounts of fossil fuel. Self-perpetuating economically, unsustainable environmentally. Methanol is very promising, but as always the big challenge is to be truly green and globally scalable. time.com/6189877/mari...
Phew. Not that Vaclav needs such reassurance. 😉 "I have never been wrong on these major energy and environmental issues," he says, "because I have nothing to sell." www.science.org/content/arti...
Biggest provocation: Vaclav Smil is wrong.
Good news on McGrath's Field. The path layout there, which has been in place for at least 20(?) years, is rather bizarre. See Google Maps screenshot. Ignore Google's suggestion that someone has set up a car detailing business in the middle of the park.
August Newsletter. If you'd like any further information on anything that I've summarised below, please email me at alan.curran@cgcc.ie. All these newsletters and other council updates are also available on my website: www.cllralancurran.com
Remarkably, most fossil fuel energy is wasted as unused heat. But the massive wastage is overcome by the energy density of oil and its derivates, and by the sheer volume available (ie economy of scale). Replacing all that with renewables is a massive technical challenge. bsky.app/profile/cosa...
It's a fascinating subject, yet most people probably don't give much thought to the sheer scale and importance of global shipping. Nor do they wonder how it can be sustained long term in a disrupted climate. The entire system, in every detail, is utterly dependent on oil. youtu.be/XXlsDKYVccI
Tankers are a different beast, carrying their cargo below the waterline. Their draft requirements are significantly greater, and there are ballast implications. Plus they require specialised port facilities. Result: size constraints. maritimepage.com/oil-tanker-t...
🧵 BOOK REVIEW: 'The Box' by Marc Levinson is all about shipping containers.🚢 No joke; it's the most interesting book about logistics that I have ever read. Its tagline is: 'How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger'. Here are ten takeaways from The Box: 1/n
Container ship size grew tenfold 1970-2024, often in big leaps. Larger ships cut costs per unit, but this causes big problems for ports & related infrastructure. There may actually be an optimal size for container ships, but the giant ones still exist... porteconomicsmanagement.org/pemp/content...
Perhaps the greatest challenge is breaking the link between shipping growth & emissions. Larger ships need bigger engines. New fuels like LNG, methanol & ammonia are being tested. There's talk of sails making a comeback in some form. Even nuclear propulsion. How will a globalised society adapt?
Inexorable growth in ship size puts pressure on countries and regions to adapt ports, canals, bridges and roads. Cities and regions that can keep up attract trade. Others fall behind or maybe fail. The economic and environmental implications are enormous.
Very interesting thread. A key characteristic of shipping containers is scalability. Since McClean's time, container ships have kept getting bigger and bigger, presumably due to competition between companies & countries. Just when it seems the limit has been reached, an even bigger ship arrives.
@georgeweeks2014.bsky.social 👀
Brian BS 2024: Ukraine is just trying to provoke Russia, but the Russians are patient and strategic and that's why they're winning! youtu.be/nM-5XGZkVVE
*2022
Brian BS 2023: Ukraine has NO CHANCE! Once Bakhmut falls, it's game over. youtu.be/ZZG-xwqt3Yo
Brian Bullshitter, 2002: 👇 youtu.be/wTYVSJuCvqE
More street theatre. 👇 Every honest Stalinist (and let's face it, 1000% of them are 1000% honest) knows that the Russian military never ever ever uses Tochka-U missiles. #TankieTalk bsky.app/profile/baba...
All paid actors of course, hired personally by Zelensky, who took time out during the early days of the Russian invasion to direct a fiction movie. 👇 Or something. #TankieTalk bsky.app/profile/unit...
Another AI-generated incident, fabricated by the CIA before AI slop even became popular. Or something. #TankieTalk bsky.app/profile/twmc...
Absolutely not a children's cancer hospital, and the highly accurate Russian Kh-101 missile which totally didn't strike it was in fact aimed at a secret military base, killing dozens of high-ranking NATO officers. bsky.app/profile/intl...
Nothing to see here. It's probably AI-generated. bsky.app/profile/wart...
Galway's Climate Carnival takes place on Saturday, September 13 as part of Galway Climate Inspirations Festival Go along to Fr Burke Park to meet local environmental groups and find out how you can help! More information 👉 galwayclimatefestival.ie
Situation normal.
IMO, Ukraine needs to switch its rail system from 1520 to 1435 completely. It would be lengthy & expensive process but a very important one because of both free connection with Europe [+ much better possibilities for updating the park of train cars & locomotives] and a physical barrier to russia.
"Construction is beginning on Monday September 8 and will last for approximately twelve months." Bóthar Stiofáin is 800 metres long. www.galwaycity.ie/news/2025/co...
22 km of railway built in a year, in the middle of a devastating war.
A "special military operation" targeting pensioners, many of whom, given the demographics of Donetsk, are likely to be ethnic Russians and/or Russian speaking. Meanwhile, the Stalinists and tankies prepare their stock responses and standard excuses. bsky.app/profile/vata...
Another massacre of civilians by Putin's fascist regime, this time in Donetsk. No doubt the Stalinist tankies will find some horseshit excuse to justify it. bsky.app/profile/bunk...
In 2016, @irishtimes.com published an article by a guy called Nicholas Pell. Ostensibly an explainer of alt-right terminology, it provided a foretaste of the horrors about to be unleashed. On social media, Pell delighted in warning libs that "your world is going to end". bsky.app/profile/karl...
'A simplistic approach that assumes “all roads are bad” and all non-road solutions are “good” is not a good basis for transport planning. [I]t is worth noting that [...] bus-based public transport relies upon the road network for its operation.' ~Hugh Creegan, CEO Transport for Ireland (NTA).
👇 bsky.app/profile/gtco...
Around 35 million women voted for this monster last year.
And it's everywhere, especially in County Galway. bsky.app/profile/cosa...
Why is this kind of chaos called "planning" in Ireland? Answers on the back of a brown envelope, presumably.
Debatable. Or maybe a poll showed exactly that? 🤔 Opposition to the proposed cycleway came from various quarters, some of them surprising. Emergency services. A nearby primary school. Mind-boggling really.
Just to clarify: it's a set of bike parking stands which was installed during the pandemic, or thereabouts. It appeared along with other public realm measures such as kerb buildouts. On this occasion, and perhaps at other times, it's being used to park a trolley full of flattened cardboard boxes.
#Salthill Park in morning sunshine.
A favourite parking spot for regular swimmers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that at least some of the resistance to the idea of a #SalthillCycleway comes from sea swimmers who regard car parking along the Prom as an essential part of the overall amenity. Almost as a basic right, in fact.
Bike parking, #Salthill.
Lake Urmia has been a "protected" site since the UN Convention on Wetlands was signed in Ramsar, Iran, 1971.
Gonzalo didn't like communists. Because communists didn't like Trump. Or something. youtu.be/79DtzkMeMiw
You mean the lamentable Gonzalo Lira? So you were a big fan of Coach Red Pill then? Sounds about right. youtu.be/SGYEqrA00iA
Legislation enabling 30 km/h zones was passed in 2004. Over two decades later, government is still dragging its feet.
GOOD: me driving fast where you live. BAD: you driving fast where I live.
"It is time to finish retreating. Not one step back!" ~Joseph Stalin. bsky.app/profile/madr...
Brite Rapid Charge Ultra in Galway is now live, & the largest public charging hub in the West. We stopped by to check it out, & detail what it has to offer EV drivers. www.irishevassociation.ie/news/brite-u...
👇 bsky.app/profile/ronf...
It’s wild living in the Information Age and the Dark Age at the same time.
By @pbump.com, 2012. 👇 grist.org/climate-ener...
"The Almighty Himself showed, as He so often does at these conferences, a sense of humour. Because, for almost the entire three days of the [UN Rio+20 Earth Summit, 2012], this hilltop, now bathed in sunset light, was concealed under thick fog, heavy cloud and pouring rain." youtu.be/EmmqmjQ4m1Y
One such government agency is Ireland's National Transport Authority. Asked (by email) for a definition of demand on 1st June 2025, the NTA eventually produced a very lame attempt on 25th August: travel demand is travel that is "required". A circular definition and therefore useless.
Transport authorities continue to describe socially engineered car dependence as "demand". Their policy remit, and/or their self-determined "vision", then requires them to accommodate that demand, even though they know that their methods, such as road construction, perpetuate the problem.
2014: "Our asset recovery regime is not fit for purpose. It is slow, cumbersome, depends on mythical cooperation from governments, is easily evaded and kicks in long after money has been laundered, not when it first appears. Moreover, nobody is in charge." blog.transparency.org/2014/03/10/r...
€1.7 bn in tax revenue, reportedly. "The Belgian government will use the cash to provide aid to Ukraine." www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/20...
At times one gets the impression that something big is brewing, such as a campaign of strategic missile strikes. 👇 But maybe that feeling is based more on hope than on any solid indications of operations in progress. bsky.app/profile/frho...
🇺🇦 AFU doing the Lord's work at quite an intensive level recently. 👇 Would you happen to know whether Crimea in particular is a happy hunting ground for 🇷🇺 radar systems? Might there be a concentration of radar in that oblast for some reason? Or would you say that it's all widely distributed?
Lots of dying. Not that Uncle Vova cares about such minor matters. bsky.app/profile/maks...
And dying of course. bsky.app/profile/joni...
You need to increase your patriotic donations, Stalinito. The comrades are struggling. bsky.app/profile/manc...
Literally something to lose sleep over. bsky.app/profile/smcg...
👇 bsky.app/profile/ecow...
According to the Met Éireann climatologist, nighttime temperatures are rising quicker than daytime temperatures "due to several reasons, including marine heatwaves". In fact the core reason is that increasing GHGs trap more heat at night, a key fingerprint of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
🤔 "It’s important to keep in mind that these are no longer $50,000 long-range drones being launched. The strike package used against the targeted site in Crimea likely cost up to $3 million, which makes it all the more important to ensure that future volleys count." bsky.app/profile/vrei...
"It’s important to keep in mind that these are no longer $50,000 long-range drones being launched. The strike package used against the targeted site in Crimea likely cost up to $3 million, which makes it all the more important to ensure that future volleys count." bsky.app/profile/vrei...
To borrow a choice quote from @razzball.bsky.social, "daffy AF but barely a ripple in the sea of daffiness".
“Pedestrians must feel safe on footpaths and shared spaces.”
"Garda speed vans" didn’t generate the €1.9m revenue. Speeding motorists did, with voluntary contributions.
🤩 bsky.app/profile/noel...
Happy 10th Anniversary of the #ThreadneedleBikeLane to all who celebrate.
Russia is using terrorist tactics practised in Syria and elsewhere. www.bbc.com/news/av/worl...
Strange how tankies are silent on the subject of Russian war crimes. bsky.app/profile/maks...
@galwayadvertiser.bsky.social 2020: "Galway’s current poor road infrastructure translates simply to a major loss of business opportunity..." www.advertiser.ie/galway/artic...
"The county performed particularly well for high availability of commercial properties to rent and high number of jobs available, suggesting that Galway provides strong opportunities for new businesses."
And if I laugh at any mortal thing, Tis that I may not weep. ~Byron, 'Don Juan'. bsky.app/profile/cher...
Cycling prevention.
👇 www.rte.ie/news/connach...
"Traffic congestion will ultimately result in the [Galway] region losing investment and employment, as companies opt to locate elsewhere." ~ Via Pat McGrath, @news.rte.ie, May 2024.
"They" bsky.app/profile/maks...
Should have gone to Specsavers. bsky.app/profile/maks...
Why would any sensible person support this insanity? bsky.app/profile/maks...
Typical vatnik talking points. Remarkable how the same vatniks are unperturbed by massive Russian losses for no apparent purpose, other than satisfying Putin's ego and psychotically warped version of history. bsky.app/profile/maks...
👇 bsky.app/profile/iris...
