Operation Transportation Diaries

Saturday, 15 June 2013

15th June Martha sets off for her first operation transportation cycle!

Martha's enjoys:

Cycling, tootling, talking,

Cycling, tootling,chatting

And a more peaceful neighbourhood

- apart from all the cycling tootling and talking....

According to Martha:

This evening after a rather hectic day, I tootled off to my local shop to put some kind of food into the house! The ten minute cycle elongated of course, with chatting! That's the great thing about the bike; meet a friend or neighbour and just tootle over at your own
ease.

Okay this isn't Martha or Ireland for that matter. But no matter where you are on a bike, it is very easy to pull over and chat, as Martha has been finding out. Image is from www.trendy-travel.eu

While I was talking, my bike was borrowed and taken for a spin around the estate by my friends husband. When retrieved, I still had not been to the shop. So more tootling and talking along the way.

I also noticed the difference the bicyle makes to the atmosphere of a place. When a car comes, all the children run to the foot path, disrupting their games and mothers start screeching after young children not to run in front of the car. When you are on the bike, everyone smiles and salutes you and you win brownie points by efficiently retrieving roving footballs. I think I'm going to really enjoy operation transportation.

Bikes don't splash people or disrupt play the way cars do,
although admittedly the boys in this photo may have wanted to be splashed, see: http://metro.co.uk/2008/07/07/car-puddle-soakings-new-youth-craze-252530/ for the source.

Friday, 14 June 2013

14th June Introducing Dan Boyle

Will Dan Boyle Walk the Talk or

Should that be "Bike for the Mike" ?

From The Editors:

Does Dan Boyle need an introduction?

The Dan Boyle who will be blogging about his Cycling expoits for the next ten days is the same Dan Boyle who has featured on many an election poster around Cork for the past 20 odd years...

Having served as a TD from 2002 to 2007, he became a senator in 2007 after losing his Dail seat and was part of the team that negotiated the Green party- Fianna Fail Coalition in 2007. He is currently Director of Green Foundation Ireland http://www.greenfoundationireland.ie/about-gfi/ amongst other things and if you google his name you'll find much news of a political comeback in the media..

But this blog is all about the cycling!!

And it seems that, although not listed in his linkedin skills, ( See: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/) he says he's rather keen on cycling...

14th June; Here comes Martha!

Martha goes from E-Cars to E-bikes
(and other more Low-Tech options...)

Martha was one of the Esb electric car ambassadors earlier this year.

See her photo below from when she met with the Lord mayor:

Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr John Buttimer with Cork’s ESB ecar
Ambassadors, Martha Doyle and Eoghan O’Donoghue with their electric cars outside City Hall.
From: http://www.esbecarsblog.ie/meeting-the-lord-mayor-of-cork/

As one of the three people chosen for a year long amassadorship, Martha is well used to blogging. Here is how the ESB described her:

Martha Doyle is a primary school teacher, living in east Cork with her husband and two sons. She is a keen environmentalist and has maximised the energy efficiency of their home in a number of innovative ways, for example collecting rain water which she uses to water her vegetables.

She has also facilitated six global action plan courses to raise awareness about environmental matters. Her hobbies include growing fruit and vegetables, music, reading, and writing.

Martha describes herself as "a keen bike user, but because of my children I haven't cycled regularly in some time."

She has a folding bicycle and an electric bicycle and of course an ordinary bicycle!
Before Operation Transportation she said:
"I currently walk my children to school everyday, but I might bring them in the bicycle trailer for the trial as my youngest is now big enough."

We are not sure yet what sort of trailer she'll be using, but we reckon that Martha would like the Eco- attributes of this one, which seems to be made from recycled polystyrene??

From: http://www.paulstoys.blogspot.ie/index.html#297853643222161709 where you can see a video about how the trailer was made.

14th June 2013, Shane McCarthy introduced

Cycle if You're LAZY? :

An Idea That'sNot So Crazy...?

Extract from Shane's Blog: http://mccarthyshane.com/operation-transportation-cork-bike-week/:

I was delighted to be asked to write about my experiences relating to cycling both in Cork and my hometown of Killarney for Cork’s Operation Transportation.

When I was in Cork during the college year my main motivation for cycling was far from any green ideologies which are very valid, but more due to necessity and laziness.

Laziness? That may seem counter-intuitive, but cycling halves the time it would take me to walk to and from UCC. It also allows me to sit down and gently glide in and out of the campus.

Is it a Bird? Is it a plane?

No it's Shane McCarthy gliding along on his cycle-machine!

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7967024@N02/favorites/?view=lg

Even if I did have a car I wouldn’t consider for a second using it to navigate through the city. The thoughts of traffic, fuel-costs and parking, immediately dismiss any notion of driving to college. It really would be my definition of a “nightmare”, but each to their own..

Traffic on Barrack Street, Cork from:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/proposal-to-bar-cars-from-citys-main-street-214933.html

14th June 2013, Dave O' Reagan Introduced

Dave O' Reagan Launches

Editor's notes:

Dave is very good at turning up to things.

(As you can see below,on June 5th, he came to the local Bike Week Promotion Photoshoot with the lovely Ali? )

Lord Mayor: John Buttimer with Dave O'Reagan and a colleague from Red Fm (Ali??)

Dave is not so good at sending in Diary posts.. ( so far)...

But he is so photogenic we can forgive him.. ( so far)...

So Dave: Keep Smiling, Keep Cycling and start sending in some posts!

14th June Operation Transportation Diarist Maurice Danaher Introduces the B-BIKE- and himself!

Dusting off and Pumpingup!

According to Maurice:

Friday near Ballincollig via mobile

National cycle week starts tomorrow 15th June and continues until Sunday 23rd June. So I have agreed to cycle for at least 10 minutes each day and to write a blog about it.

Today I wiped the dust off my bicycle and pumped the tyres.

Mr. Danaher cycles one of the Innergy Gazelle Bikes sold by one of Ireland's first E-bike merchants: Mr Howard Pearson of http://www.bbikes.com/index.html

Check out these bikes on: http://vimeo.com/8208219

I can cycle wherever I like, but there are several cycle paths near where I live that will be suitable.