Brutkey

Dave Mathieson
@d_mathieson@mastodon.ie

All views my own and don't represent my employer, family, friends, colleagues, ancestors, descendents, people I make eye contact with.


Notes
1036
Following
0
Followers
0
Dave Mathieson
@d_mathieson@mastodon.ie

This will be really good. Train between Galway city centre and Oranmore is very quick and direct but frequency (and intervals between trains) isn't good. Has huge potential to service people living east of the city but better connectivity to station is also vital. e.g. Roscam to train station is 1km as the crow flies, but 3km walk, cycle or (most likely) drive.

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/galway/news/phase-one-of-galway-train-station-works-will-hopefully-signal-increased-service-in-the-future/a1218310743.html

Dave Mathieson
@d_mathieson@mastodon.ie

Amazing that a long article on the impact of climate change on holiday destinations doesn't mention that the act of travelling to those same destinations is part of the problem. Not a single mention of "flying" or "flights"....

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250808-why-the-best-time-to-visit-no-longer-applies

Dave Mathieson
@d_mathieson@mastodon.ie

This is what we're up against. "Hounded" and "balance needed". Easy to see him as an outlier, but this viewpoint is probably a lot more common than many people want to let on.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41682374.html

Dave Mathieson
@d_mathieson@mastodon.ie

Great letter in Irish Times about billionaire businesspeople calling for Metrolink to be cancelled from @ccferrie@mastodon.ie

Sir, – What is it about Irish billionaires/multi-millionaires and MetroLink, and with our eagerness to listen to their “pearls of wisdom”? First Michael O’Leary’s rant and now Dermot Desmond, with his outlandish claims that self-driving cars will make public transport redundant. Setting aside the serious safety concerns with autonomous vehicles, especially in urban areas, we would do well to learn from the experience of Uber and other rideshare platforms which made similar claims about congestion reduction. Study after study has shown that they in fact increased congestion in cities where they operated and had almost no impact on car ownership. Any privately operated AI-driven autonomous vehicle service will have the same commercial pressures to increase car dependency. I do, however, share Mr Desmond’s optimism about the possibility of significant reductions in car ownership. This will be achieved, not through futuristic technology, but by investing in our public transport and active travel infrastructure which will make cars redundant in our cities. – Yours, etc