— Data from bicycle-mounted radar shows many motorists exceeding 30km/h in the park.
— Motorist reacts angrily to being told to drive back the way he came.
A user of Phoenix Park filmed a Park Ranger cutting off and blocking a motorist from illegally driving the wrong way on the new one-way system on North Road in the park, but he said that this dramatic moment is one of the few signs he has seen of enforcement of the new rules in the park.
It’s not fully clear from the video if the motorist was driving down the two-way cycle lane or if he was going westbound on the eastbound-only traffic lane. It seems like the motorist is using the cycle lane before pulling alongside the Ranger’s pickup.
North Road is currently one-way in the eastbound direction for a six-month trial, as part of a host of measures planned for the park.
Phil Wright, a park user who captured the video on his bicycle camera, said: “This is the first enforcement I’ve seen since the changes were introduced almost a month ago. A lot more is needed.”
Wright has also posted data from his bicycle-mounted radar showing many motorists are exceeding the 30km/h limit announced by the OPW for the park.
He posted the video that shows a Park Ranger overtaking and cutting off a motorist who was using North Road in the wrong direction.
In the video, as Wright gets closer to the car and the Ranger’s pickup, the motorist is shouting out his window at the Ranger and seems to gesture just beyond the recently implemented one-way system. But the Park Ranger instructs the motorist to turn around and he calmly tells the motorist that “You can deal with me or the [Garda] Traffic Corps”.
The motorist says “bollocks” while turning around, and the Park Ranger tells him to “have a good day”, and then the motorist tells him to “fuck off” while turning around.
There are people cycling along the cycle lane in the video, including the non-segregated two-way cycle lane within the trial one-way system for motorists, just as the motorist in the video reverses.
Originally tweeted by phil wright (@ukwrightphil) on March 27, 2022.
On motorists exceeding 30km/h in the park, Wright said last night: “Some of the speeds I was overtaken at tonight would be considered excessive when Phoenix Park speed limit was 50kph. OPW and Garda Traffic seem OK with the current state of affairs — folks doing more than twice the 30kph limit.”
He said that the chart data below was recording using a Garmin Varia and the yellow line represents 30km/h.
The red plot lines are the speed at which each of the 102 motorists who overtook him were travelling at. So, all the red bars above the yellow line represent motorists exceeding 30km/h. He said that the first and last few mins were recorded outside Phoenix Park.
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For some reason I always thought this type of talk by drivers was reserved for cyclists. I was wrong, it seems to be there for anyone who stands up to their shenanigans. Enlightening.