A Safe Lane Change

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Yesterday.

Liffey Quays, Dublin.

Hundreds of cyclists took to the  streets to highlight the need for a safer cycle infrastructure.

Kieran Ryan of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, writes:

The event, organised by Dublin Cycling Campaign, involved more than 500 cyclists of all ages and abilities riding their bikes from the start point in the Phoenix Park all the way to the Point Village in Dublin’s Docklands.

Cycling has been in the news for the wrong reasons recently with five cyclists losing their lives on Irish roads in the first three months of this year.

A further ten cyclists died in the Republic of Ireland in 2016 and this worrying trend of cyclist fatalities has highlighted the need for proper, safe cycle infrastructure such as the proposed Liffey Cycle Route.

Dublin Cycling Campaign’s vision is for a vibrant, living city where everyone can safely enjoy everyday walking and cycling.

FIGHT!

Dublin Cycling Campaign

Last week: Cycling This Sunday?

Pictures: Aisling Finn

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61 thoughts on “A Safe Lane Change

    1. Anomanomanom

      So what about the people who live facing the liffey. How do they get their cars in and out.

      1. Leopold Gloom

        Do you wear a helmet walking about, or as a passenger on a bus, or driving a car? Didn’t think so.

        1. Increasing Displacement

          I don’t walk about on the road weaving through traffic.
          Ye naughty pants.

      2. brownsyndrome

        Helmets dont provide any safety from road traffic, go to holland and educate yourself

        1. Increasing Displacement

          I got knocked off my bike on the Quays in 2003, guy in an M3 drove by me and cut in front of me going left, i hit his left side, left the bike and rolled over his bonnet onto the ground landing on my bag and hid my helmeted head. The helmet was badly cracked….My head wasn’t.

          But I’m sure falling and hitting your head with a helmet is the same as falling and hitting your head without a helmet.

          I’m not saying they’re 100% going to work, but they help if you get clipped etc. I’m not talking full on crash at 50kmph+

          But yeah helmets provide no safety. At all. Fact.

          1. ZeligIsJaded

            Knocked off your bike on the quays.

            What about a segregated cycleway?

            It would be good, would it not ?

        2. Spud1

          Helmets provide excellent safety from road traffic here in Ireland that don’t pay enough care and attention to other vulnerable road users like cyclists, unlike those in The Netherlands.
          Also, the cycle network is far superior, thus minimising the risk for serious accidents.
          Did you know that they even are thought to open the door with their opposite hand to give a better view? It’s called the ‘Dutch Reach’ but it’s just part of the good practice there, they don’t have a name for it.

          Perhaps you should go there and educate yourself….

  1. Boj

    C’mere to me, safety this, vulnerable road user that, blah blah blah.
    How many of those super safety conscious bike riders campaigning for safer cycle lanes are NOT even wearing a bike helmet?

    1. Mr. Camomile T

      More pedestrians have been killed than cyclists. Should we all wear body armour when out for a walk? How many car occupants suffer fatal or life-changing head injuries? Should we all don helmets every time we sit into a car? (By your logic, we should.)

      1. Morgan

        Cycling is not dangerous.
        Getting hit by a car is dangerous.
        Wearing a helmet will not stop you getting hit by a car.

        1. Liam

          There are two philosophies on helmets. My own view is that you should wear one in case you have a collision. The other view is that helmets don’t prevent accidents – what prevents accidents is (a) better road design, (b) more care from drivers and (above all) large numbers of cyclists on every road, which will eventually give you (a) and (b). If cycling is presented as a risky activity, for which you need a helmet, then that puts people off. Cyclists in Holland don’t wear helmets. I don’t completely go along with this second philosophy, but I accept that some people choose good not wear a helmet on principle.

      2. Boj

        Lets go on a protest campaign for road safety and everyone driving up the quays with no seat-belts eh?

    2. Owen

      +1 Should be the law to wear one. Anyone who thinks its not an increase in safety to wear a helmet is a clown.

      1. ZeligIsJaded

        Your concern is admirable, but to wear or not to wear a helmet is an irrelevance compared to pressing issues like segregating cyclists from heavy traffic.

        1. Owen

          Ah yeah, sure its easier to fiance, develop and build a city wide cycle masterplan. No need for the helmets in the mean time. Way easier then changing a law that would probably quickly gather support, and actually put attention on other issues relating to cycle safety.

          Are you a politician?

          1. ZeligIsJaded

            No I’m a cyclist who cycles about 30 KM every day.

            Wearing a helmet crops up in conversation once in a while, usually with my mother or GF.

            I myself don’t feel any particular need to wear a helmet.

            I don’t think about it much.

            What I find myself obsessing about every day, and becoming angry about every day is the fact that I spend a lot of time cycling about 2 feet from a double-decker bus, speeding cars and 5 and 6 axle lorries.

            Red lights and helmets are brought up every time there is suggestions of segregated cycle ways.

            Its a silly distraction. But it seems an effective one.

            And you ask me if I’m a politician.

  2. Scundered

    I took part and it was funny to see a couple of taxi drivers and a bus driver drive aggressively right behind some participants while blaring the horn, I hope someone had it caught on camera and reported them, tailgating bikes like that is incredibly dangerous.

    Well done all who came out.

      1. Scundered

        Are you:
        (a) Taxi Driver
        (b) Bus Driver
        (c) Poo stirrer
        (d) You can only select one of the above.

    1. rotide

      Driving behind the participants taking up all of the bus lane and making it incredibly slow you mean?

      1. ReproBertie

        Tailgating is covered under Sec 51(a) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 (driving with reasonable consideration) which carries a fixed charge of €80 and 2 penalty points. You’d do well to argue that tailgating was justified by the speed of the cyclists.

        1. rotide

          I went looking for an exact wording of this and according to the 1961 road traffic act:

          51.—(1) A person shall not, in a public place—

          (a) drive or attempt to drive, or be in charge of, an animal drawn vehicle,
          while he is under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a drug to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the vehicle or cycle.

          http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1961/act/24/section/51/enacted/en/html

          Have you got a link to the correct section?

    2. Boj

      This reads as, cyclists get pleasure from causing delay to other legitimate road users out trying to earn a living. No wonder people think cyclists are self entitled mongos.

    1. Owen

      100% agree. Ban them from public roads….. by developing the infrastructure to support their safe use, separated from cars and buses.

      I think you are actually asking for the same thing as all those in this video

  3. Mourning Ireland

    Cars, trucks and buses should be banned from the city centre on security grounds. Have we learned nothing from the Westminister Bridge, Nice and Berlin tragedies? Terrorists using fixies as weapons is unheard of.

    1. Turgenev

      Some US figures on this:

      A typical motorist who drives 12,000 annual miles imposes $840 in roadway costs, pays $516 in roadway user fees and $224 in general taxes spent on roadways.

      Non-drivers tend to travel less, people who rely primarily on bicycling for transportation typically ride 3 to 6 miles per day or 1,000 to 2,000 annually. If their costs are an order of magnitude smaller than automobile travel (0.7¢ per mile), a typical cyclist imposes $7 to $14 in roadway costs, and pays $224 in general taxes toward roadways, a significant overpayment.

    2. Scundered

      bicycles were on the roads before cars, and don’t destroy them like cars do, so if you break it, you can pay for it.

  4. Bort

    There are a lot of bad drivers out there but they have the bonus of being in a metal car, cyclists here need to learn how to drive defensively and carefully.

    1. Nigel

      No, their cloven hooves slip off the pedals, their horns won’t fit under the helmets and the demonic hellfire flickering around them melts the tyres and obscures the road with smoke.

  5. Owen

    I’m all for cycling being promoted and better infrastructure being developed. There is a lot of work to do in Ireland on the issue, and I’m all for it.

    But I am sick to death of the double standard of cyclists in Ireland. I cycle. I stop at lights. I don’t go through them or hop the curb to avoid them. If you want to be respected on the roads, respect the laws of the roads.

    1. ZeligIsJaded

      What double standards?

      Why are people so intent on raising these absolute nonsense arguments?

      Its utterly bizarre.

      What has anything you refer to got to do with segregated cycle lanes on the Liffey?

      I can give you a hint – F…..A…

    2. Turgenev

      “The double standard of cyclists” a) has nothing whatsoever to do with the need for safe infrastructure, and b) since you’re talking about cyclists going through red lights, would be virtually wiped out by safe infrastructure in which cyclists were physically separated from motor vehicles.

    3. Nigel

      Pretty sure drivers in cars break disproportionately more road laws than cyclists but that didn’t stop anyone building them a bunch of motorways.

    4. Owen

      Geeze lads, we’re all cyclist here. The post is about better infrastructure, promoting safer cycling. Cyclists also need to burden the mission themselves. Obey the laws of the road, not only being safer, but gaining more respect for the argument presented.

      Nigel. Your post is exactly my double standard point. 12% of lights broken are by cyclists, 88% by cars. There are 300,000 cars in Dublin and 15,000 commute by bike. Therefore, only 4% of commuters are by bike, but manage to record 12% of all broken lights. That is staggering.

      1. Nigel

        88% of lights broken are by motorists but let’s keep focusing on how cyclists are the problem and don’t deserve safe infrastructure.

        I’m also not sure how cyclists are being held to double standard since literally every post about them will include an endless litany of complaints of this sort while, eg, Hot Wheels posts are curiously free of them. Drivers are being held to no standards whatsoever by comparison.

          1. ZeligIsJaded

            You have no point.

            Besides the idea that if cyclists wear helmets and less of them break red lights, then a segregated cycle way on the Liffey would have a better chance of proceeding because the public would respect them more.

            Just bizarre stuff.

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