From planes and trains to boats and bikes

RADIO REVIEW:YOU NEVER FORGET your first bike, plane or – perhaps even – train ride. They provide one of the first rites of passage. With mobility comes independence. Moncrieff (Newstalk 106-108, weekdays) talked bikes and planes on Tuesday, but it felt like an incomplete journey . . . even for a snappy news magazine show such as this one.

Seán Moncrieff interviewed Robert Penn, author of It's All About the Bike. Penn got his first bike, a Viking Racer, on his 12th birthday. "That's when I knew that I was destined to have a love affair with this simple machine," he said. It has two wheels, a frame and handle bars, but the engineering magic of the modern push bike is anything but simple.

He said the chopper put a lot of kids off cycling as it was more of a toy than a mode of transport.

“You were always looking over your shoulder to see if a dead pig wasn’t attached to the back of your bike.” Aside from such forays into passing trends, Penn said, “The bicycle really hasn’t changed shape fundamentally since 1885.”

Penn told Moncrieff that he’ll consider having a basket on his bicycle. A word to the wise: detachable baskets in Dublin don’t last long: they are either snatched, although they may then be discarded as the (sometimes drunk) thief wonders what to do with it, or else they become a lucky dip as civic-minded pedestrians decide to use them as dustbins.

A tie-in about how DublinBikes appears to be working without vandalism and the co-operation of many carbon monoxide-spouting motorists might have been more relevant to the listenership.

Cycling is good for your heart, but it’s dangerous on roads designed for horse and carts rather than Dublin buses with limited rear-view vision.

Reporter Henry McKean got a tour of Terminal 2 at Dublin airport which, weirdly enough, included the ladies toilets. “Everybody has to use toilets coming through an airport,” Dublin Airport Authority spokesman Vincent Wall said. Not if you go before the “Fasten Seatbelts” sign comes on, you don’t. “It’s shiny,” McKean said of the terminal. “It smells of new runners.”

Terminal 2 was expensive, at €600 million, and there are questions about the wisdom of its location in the airport. Not to mention the lack of any rail transport: getting to the toilets may be the least of their problems. DublinBikes could set up an out-of-town bike station at the arrivals hall. It would also encourage passengers to limit themselves to carry-on luggage.

Mary Wilson on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) was intrigued by another prospective journey, that of 14-year-old Laura Dekker, who was given permission by a Dutch court to sail around the world solo in a bid to be the youngest person to complete that adventure. The court previously imposed a guardianship order when she was 13.

Isabel Conway, an Irish journalist in the Netherlands, said, “It’s caused an enormous debate in the Netherlands about parental responsibility. Should parents support their children’s risky adventures?”

The court ruling said it was up to the parents to decide. However, she had to show she could withstand long periods without sleep, along with many other criteria.

Dekker was born on a yacht off the coast of New Zealand when her parents were on a seven-year around-the-world cruise and has already sailed solo at the age of 11.

“Any of us with teenagers think, ‘Would you be prepared to let them off around the world with a crew?’ ” Wilson said. Or allow them up to the shops on their own for a pint of milk, for that matter.

Back home, in a week when the Government announced €39 billion in infrastructure spending and the €660 million Limerick tunnel under the River Shannon was opened, the residents of Navan were not happy. “Limerick may be getting its tunnel but will Navan ever get its train line?” John Murray asked on Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio One, weekdays).

“It would appear the local train won’t be arriving anytime soon,” Murray added. (He wasn’t trying to rub it in.) The last passenger train left Navan in 1958, so they’ve been a long time waiting, according to RTÉ northeast correspondent Richard Dowling, who vox-popped people who all told us that they felt . . . well, they can speak for themselves.

Fine Gael councillor Ann Dillon-Gallagher, who is also chair of Meath County Council, said, "It's very disappointing." William O'Reilly, president of Navan Chamber of Commerce, added, "We're disappointed." Meath Chroniclenews editor John Donohoe said, "There's huge disappointment and anger and not only in Navan but in other villages along the route."

On Morning Irelandpeople are merely disappointed, on Livelinethey are devastated . . . which is a small mercy. But a case study of how the rail link would help the commute would have provided something more than just disappointment. The Luas made Dublin fit for grown-ups. No more waiting for buses like it was 1999. For the good people of Navan, a rail link would do just the same.