The horrific death of another cyclist at Dublin's O'Connell Bridge last week is an indictment of a slipshod traffic management policy that continues to prioritise vehicle traffic over cyclists and pedestrians.
Evidence that the German woman was crushed beneath the wheels of a lorry at rush hour after hitting a pothole is particularly shocking. Overall, the accident underlines the incompetence with which the city has overseen a glut of sloppy infrastructure "improvements" inflicted on the city.
The woman is at least the third to have met such a fate in the same place; only months ago another woman, Olivia Potterton, was run over at the same intersection. But such violent accidents come as no surprise to those of us who regularly brave the city streets on bike or foot.
We must make our way through a maze of pock-marked streets that have sunk to a state of decrepitude unmatched by any other major European city. Our city byways are hideous networks of dangerous holes, lumps of tarmac, and metal plates. So bad are the streets, cyclists cannot adequately focus on both the traffic and the unpredictable state of the road before them. This situation has brought me terrifyingly close to catastrophe too many times to count.
Because contracts for such work frees Dublin Corporation from liability, its officials shrug and say it is not their problem. Or worse - I had one corporation representative laugh and wish me luck when I asked how to go about seeking compensation for a cracked axle and broken wheel rim received from a vicious pothole in O'Connell Street. Only with luck was I able to keep from being pitched off into the street.
The hole was of such depth that I sprained my hand with the force of the impact.
One has only to look at recent street "enhancements" in Dublin to see that the corporation has no consistent policy on creating even nominally safe bicycle lanes through the city. For example, millions are being spent on revitalising O'Connell Street, with the oft-stated goal of making it more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
But the corporation has just extended the pavement in front of the GPO, reducing traffic into two lanes, with no provision for bicycle traffic.
Cyclists are forced right alongside traffic on this heavily travelled thoroughfare. And cyclists are not protected from turning motorists - the cause of at least two deaths in the area this year.
The quays, from beginning to end a de facto speedway, are nonetheless a necessary route for many cyclists due to one-way streets. Yet pavements were extended alongside Sunlight Chambers at Parliament Street, and at the Ha'penny Bridge, removing any space for bicycles.
Cyclists are thus deposited into traffic at exactly the point where motorists on the quays often accelerate dangerously to make the light. Why hasn't the corporation at least taken the basic step of sequencing lights to pulse traffic through at a safe speed?
New bike lanes across the city have only brought marginal improvements.
Rarely do lanes extend for more than a few streets, and often run only for a few hundred yards before ending abruptly. In many areas, such as Ranelagh, the lanes are filled with parked cars except during rush hour.
In most cases, bike lanes are actually the bus and taxi lanes too, leaving cyclists duelling for space and cycling alongside parked vehicles.
Car doors are a major fear for bike-riders, since a door opened into an oncoming cyclist, even one pedalling at the most leisurely of speeds, sends the cyclist head-first over the handlebars and into traffic.
Other bike lanes, such as those on the Stillorgan dual carriageway, or around Fairview Park, are more dangerous than opting for the shoulder of the road.
They meander over kerbs and across people's driveways, pedestrians walk on them, and steel signposts stuck into the cycle path mean a moment's inattention could result in a fatal collision. And crucially, most major thoroughfares lack any lanes at all: Dame Street, Westmoreland Street, O'Connell Street, Dorset Street, Baggot Street, and 99 per cent of the quays.
Cyclist deaths such as the one last week tend to galvanise drivers, cyclists and pedestrians into bitter complaints about each other's disregard for safety - witness Joe Duffy's Liveline callers all week long.
But the real problem is not that walkers often cross streets before lights favour them, or that cyclists (legally) move up the inside of vehicles at intersections, or that drivers turn without signalling and cut off cyclists.
Poorly designed and neglected streets force all three groups into frequent and unsafe contact. The city needs to rethink its traffic policies and aggressively pursue contractors that leave our roads in a state of disrepair.
Otherwise the accident and deaths statistics will continue to mount.
Karlin Lillington writes about technology for The Irish Times