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In Dublin, cycling to work has effectively become an extreme sport in recent years

The government spends only 10 per cent of its transport budget on walking and cycling Pic: Don Macmonagle

‘If there’s one thing that gets my goat,” a colleague declares, “it’s when cyclists use the footpath. It’s just. Against. The law.”

A tense silence ensues. We could just let it pass. And yet . . . another colleague shifts in her seat.

“I see your point,” she begins. “It’s just that . . . on some roads, there’s nowhere else safe to be, is there?”

And we’re off. Cyclists versus pedestrians versus ...