Dublin Roads Win Again

I left salsa class tonight and walked out to the signpost where I'd locked my bike. I was initially pleased to see that both tyres were still intact, because my U-lock just hadn't been able to accommodate the pole, frame and tyre. I went with the frame and the pole, and hoped for the best. I think the fact that my tyres are balding helped to divert any would-be thief. I'm relatively certain they're not worth the effort stealing them would require. After strapping on my helmet and turning on my taillight, I took a moment to study my Dublin map and mentally prepare a route home. I took careful note of the one-ways, as those have wreaked havoc in my cycling plans previously.

Once I'd committed the path to memory, I cycled off. It didn't take long for my plans to go awry. My map hadn't shown that all traffic was diverted into a left-hand turn at an intersection where I'd hoped to go straight. Laughing to myself because any trip on my cycle of course, of course, had to be like this, I went with the flow. I wasn't quite sure where I was, but somehow I found my way back to St. Stephen's Green. From there I knew the way. Or I would have if I'd turned on the correct street.

Again, I blame Dublin's obscured and camouflaged street signs for the turn I made down a cobbled alley. Rather than speeding down a smoothly paved road (well, smoothly paved by Dublin road standards) to the street that would take me to Rathmines, I reached a winding, dusty, broken-up street that went past loads of parking ramps and dumpsters. After escaping that portion on foot, I found my way to the road on which I should have turned. Unfortunately the lanes were divided by a median, and I couldn't turn right as I needed to. I hauled my bike up onto the pavement and took to foot again.

I went back to the bike and the road at the intersection, confident that I could manage the straight road that would lead me the rest of the way home. Suddenly, however, I came upon another all-traffic-must-turn-left intersection that again was not marked on my map. This caused simple annoyance rather than confusion, however, because I was well aware of where I was now. I'd walked in the area many times. I had to make a square to go around the one-way section of the straight road from which I'd been diverted, and then I was finally able to maneuver into the cycle lane that took me the rest of the way home.

Wish me better luck next week. I planned a new route given what I now know about one-ways, and I'm hoping it will allow me to triumph over the labyrinthine Dublin road system at last.