Kathriona Devereux: 'Every time I get on a bike, I cycle as if I'm about to be in an accident'
Too often, cyclists are framed as reckless or inconvenient - thinking that was reinforced last week when Judge James O’Donoghue remarked that “cyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin”.
In making that comment, the judge leaned into an unhelpful ‘them versus us’ trope that has long dogged discussions about transport and active travel in Ireland.
It may have been off-the-cuff, but coming from a member of the judiciary, it does real damage to the efforts to make our cities safer, cleaner, and more liveable.
The reality is simple: this country needs as many people as possible to cycle.
We need cyclists to alleviate traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, improve public health, make urban spaces more liveable, and cut carbon emissions.
These are core local, national, and European objectives. Framing cyclists as a “nightmare” undermines that goal and inflames already tense relationships on our roads.
I say this as someone who is both a cyclist and a driver. I experience, and witness, poor behaviour behind the steering wheel and behind the handlebars regularly. No mode of transport has a monopoly on bad behaviour.
It is true that driving in Dublin requires your full attention. Growing numbers of cyclists now share road space with cars, and at pinch points, where cycling infrastructure is poorly designed, badly maintained, or absent altogether, that can feel stressful for everyone involved.
But context matters. What can look like erratic cycling is often defensive cycling.
Cyclists frequently must swerve to avoid hazards that drivers may never notice: car doors flung open without warning, pedestrians stepping out between parked vehicles, potholes that appear suddenly in poor light, broken surfaces that make maintaining a straight line impossible...
I’ve been beeped more than once cycling along Proby’s Quay in recent months. To the driver behind me, my weaving might look reckless. Actually, I’m dodging spoke-breaking potholes on a pockmarked road surface. (I will genuinely rejoice when it is resurfaced).
I assume drivers haven’t seen me. I watch indicators like a hawk. I anticipate doors opening. I do this because if I, or a driver, makes a mistake, I am the one who will come off worse.
That said, there are of course careless cyclists who endanger themselves and others by not obeying the rules of the road, and that can be very frustrating to witness and experience.
But respect cuts both ways. I’ve had heated exchanges with drivers who have passed dangerously close or failed to yield. I’ve also, as a driver, rolled down my window to tell a cyclist or e-scooter user dressed entirely in black, with no lights, that they are effectively invisible and putting themselves in grave danger.
When that message is said with concern and empathy rather than aggression, people are usually receptive.
The car has been the dominant force on Irish roads for decades, but that dominance is changing. Space is being reallocated, and that can feel uncomfortable.
But the alternative is gridlock, pollution, and cities designed around machines rather than people.
Cyclists are not a nightmare. They are parents, workers, students, children, and older people - many of whom would otherwise be driving. Treat them carefully, and kindly, and we’ll all reap the benefits.
In November 2023, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced that she was leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, after 14 years on the platform.
Her statement from the time is worth a read, a clear articulation of all the problems with the social media tool.
X, she said, was once a “groundbreaking medium that initially made information accessible to the greatest possible number of people”. In recent years, however, it had “become an impressive tool for destroying our democracies”.
The range of abuses, Hidalgo argued, was “endless” - disinformation, harassment, open racism, vicious attacks on scientists, climatologists, women, environmentalists, and liberals.
At the time, Hidalgo had 1.5 million followers. Relinquishing a powerful channel of communication with an audience of that size was not a trivial act. But it made sense.
Hidalgo’s warnings now almost seem quaint when set against what has followed. The platform no longer merely tolerates abuse; it actively facilitates harm. The introduction of generative AI tools such as Grok has enabled the creation and circulation of nude and sexualised imagery of children and adults.
To me, the only rational response to the latest controversy is for all users to deactivate or mothball their accounts.
Ireland’s Minister for Communications, Patrick O’Donovan, and the Minister with responsibility for artificial intelligence, Niamh Smyth, have both done so. More public figures, and ordinary users, should follow.
I haven’t posted on X since October, 2024, when I sensed that Elon Musk’s takeover was not going to be a force for good. The most common argument for staying on X is that if responsible voices leave, the platform is surrendered entirely to extremists and bad actors.
But when a platform’s algorithms actively reward outrage, harassment, and misinformation, and when its owners purposefully dismantle safeguards, the presence of ‘good people’ isn’t going to do much anyway.
X is not a public sphere worth defending. It is a scuttled ship, spiralling into an abyss of disinformation, abuse, and AI-generated sludge.
The only sensible response is to stop pretending it can be saved and walk away.
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