The Dublin bus strike has turned the spotlight on cycling as a mode of transport for the average able-bodied short-distance commuter, as evidenced by booming business in the cycle shops.
Commuters in the suburbs are taking to the saddle in droves. A poster in the window of The Cycle Shop in Blackrock says it all: "Beat the bus strike blues - buy a bike!". It's been all go since the strike action began to bite in its second week and people looked round frantically for alternatives to the missing DART.
In Glasnevin Peter Byrne of Tracks Bikes at Hart's Corner is equally enthusiastic. "People are resurrecting anything they can wheel out of the cycle shed," he said, and bringing it for repair.
Ken McDonald, whose family owns cycle shops in Wexford Street and Rathgar, said their business, too, had experienced a sharp upturn since the busmen took to the picket line. "It has had a terrific impact," he said. "We're renting out bikes at £10 a day, and the demand is fantastic."
Similar experiences are reported by Hollingsworth in Templeogue and Kilmacud.
The bicycle has at once become the weapon to beat urban gridlock and a designer answer for bus and train strikes. The trend was already upward, said a Green Party councillor, Eamon Ryan, of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, with new cycle lanes and the Dublin Transportation Office's efforts.
The number of cyclists in Dublin had seen a steady decline since the early 1990s, when it was 10,000. By 1998 it had dropped to 4,300. But this year's monitoring in Dublin reveals an 18 per cent increase last year.
"We want to see a doubling of the number of people on bicycles within five years," said Mr Ryan. Such an upsurge would have a phenomenal impact. Next Monday sees the opening of the new cycle lane through Ranelagh, when up to 700 commuters on their bicycles are expected to join the Lord Mayor and city manager there, to let them know that cyclists matter.
The Dublin Cycling Campaign is bullish about the Ranelagh cycle lane, which will link up with Belfield on one side and the Dodder-side route through Milltown and on to Rathfarnham on the other.
It is particularly good news for the 3,000 or so employees at Ericssons, Smartforce and Eircell in Clonskeagh, as well as UCD.
Official enthusiasm for cycle lanes in Dublin has evolved slowly. It was not a concept that road engineers readily took to, said Mr Ryan. Some of the early cycle lanes were not well designed, but this had now changed.
The DTO chief executive, Mr John Henry, expects 200 km of cycle lanes will be in place by the end of the year. The interim period can present some real safety hazards for the unwary, he agreed. "If we invite somebody to take to the road on a bicycle, we must look after them," he said.
There are many road hazards for the unwary, Mr Henry conceded, especially where cycle lanes run out and the bike is forced into busy traffic, often on to narrow, uneven surfaces such as the road from Templeogue village to Terenure.
The norm he is attempting to impress on the Dublin local authorities is the 10-year-old cyclist. "We have to get into people's minds that if we allow cyclists a right of way, they must feel safe."
Negotiations can sometimes be difficult. The installation of cycle lanes on a wide road presents few problems but can be a major headache on narrow thoroughfares. The local authorities have problems, too, in getting agreement for cycle lanes from local residents, but, "they have persisted with the battle and generally are winning their way through." In spite of the hazards, cycling can be worth it. The careful commuter cyclist can wend his or her way through gridlock in all weathers, impervious to bus strikes.