Gardai only fined 112 motorists for blocking cycle lanes in the same time period as officers stopped and fined bicycle users for 244 cycling-related offences.
The details of the numbers of motorists fined was released in response to a parliamentary question by independent TD Tommy Broughan. The time period relates to July 30 to September 30 of this year, the first two months of on-the-spot fines for cycling related offences, such as cycling past a red traffic light.
Fair cop or too easy on motorists?
You be the judge.
(Pic: William Murphy)
(H/T: John Gallen)
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This should be fun. Popcorn anyone?
cheers. malteser?
Oh yes please. Mmmm…
Only if the popcorn’s served Diner-style :)
Once they get past the stabilisers plus parental supervision stage all cyclists are doing something wrong most of the time, so surprised it wasn’t more than this.
In fairness, Broadsheet, you should blur the red 4×4’s licence plate.
why? The person in the “4×4” , if you can call a CR-V that, has no expectation to privacy in a public place. Are you implying that they were in the wrong? Why not blur out the taxi plate number and the Dunnes Stores sign behind it?
Blurring out plates is like some kind of meme that has no definable reason behind it.
I thought it was done on car trading websites to stop criminals from cloning registration plates. eg, Steal a blue golf, go to done deal / autotrader and search for “blue golf”, make up a fake reg from one of the cars you find, now your stolen car doesn’t attract the attention of the fuzz. Don’t see why it should be blurred here though.
That looks like a Uturn on Georges St. Only thing missing is the taxi plate. Don’t know how many times Ive been near creamed on that road by taxis.
Why?
Your website is very good Neil :)
Thanks Bertie
+1 (and thanks Bertie. Wouldn’t have clicked without you!)
Jaysus. Fair play.
If you’re happy enough pulling a u-turn on George’s Street, you’re unlikely to care much if someone sees your license number on the internet
Parking in cycle lanes, breaking red lights, passing cyclists closer than a train passes the platform, failing to signal – so many easy fines that would make the streets safer, but gardaí are just not interested.
Gardaí aren’t omnipresent. A few cameras at junctions and associated automated fines would be nice though. People are selfish ladyparts. Hit them in the pocket because appealing to their humanity is a waste of time.
You’d make a fine guard Bertie
Selfish whose parts???
“At many junctions where bicycles are given “advance stop boxes”, a space for bicycles only to wait before other traffic, this space is blocked by motorists once nearly every traffic light sequence. However, the parliamentary answer revealed that only 16 motorists were fined for invading a bicycle advance stop box ”
That is, every light sequence there is an offender… think of the money Gardaí, think of the money to be made EVERY TIME the lights change ! :)
+1.
I cycle more often than I drive, but seriously, it’s not difficult to stop a car in the correct place if you’re paying attention. You shouldn’t be behind the wheel if you’re not going to drive with due consideration.
That being said, the long term solution is to have more segregated cycle paths.
+1 for segregated cycle paths.
if you segregate, then it becomes us and them –
we all need to share whats there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iOVroDmWcs
the best solution is to ban cyclists.
Why not ban drivers? Why should private persons be allowed to use up our finite supply of fossil fuels to drag their obese carcasses around in single vehicles using an engine and three tons of metal per person? This is an obsolete use of technology, and should be ended, other than for people disabled by illness or age. A working public transport system would be far more sensible.
Iv lost count of the amount of times idiots in cars have gone completely into or stopped two wheels half way across the cycle lane. Or they’ve sped up when it’s amber when iv already come to a stop and just about miss hitting me.
56. I have had someone follow you with a notepad.
Are you high?
Ha! Your gas
all together.
It’s my gas, actually.
There’s a special place in hell reserved for half wits who want to save three seconds by veering into a cycle lane as they are too impatient to wait for a car turning right off.
Fining is too good for the idiots!
This is a really bad use of numbers its basically every fine issued for a motorist blocking a cycle lane compared to every offence fined by garda on cyclists. Its the typical i will misuse numbers to prove my point.
I see your point, but the enforcement, and / or lack of is important too.
I don’t disagree, i just really hate people misusing the facts to try and prove their point. I am a cyclist a pedestrian and a motorist their are people from all of these walks that constantly break the rules of the road but a cyclist getting upset because there is now punishments for cyclists offences is ridiculous. Just follow the number one rule of the road “Be Courteous and don’t be a D**k”.
two wheels good, four wheels bad?
Nope. “I own the road ” and “Must Get In Front” syndrome = bad.
Drive with due care and consideration = good.
Very few motorists completely (ie totally) ignore red lights or go the wrong way down one way streets or go up on footpaths, ie commit acts that must be construed as dangerous and flagrant breaches of traffic laws. I see cyclists do this sort of thing reasonably frequently. Without a hint of irony, the Irish Cyclist seemed to have subconsciously noted the difference in the offences in question…
“The details of the numbers of motorists fined was released in response to a parliamentary question by independent TD Tommy Broughan. The time period relates to July 30 to September 30 of this year, the first two months of on-the-spot fines for cycling related offences, such as cycling past a red traffic light.
The answer from the Department of Justice revealed that 112 motorists were fined for parking in a cycle track during its period of operation in the two months in question — cycle tracks is the legal name for cycle lanes or cycle paths.”
So basically cyclists are going through red lights, while cars are not parking correctly. Do we understand how one of these is probably a worse offence than the other??
“Very few” yet the report says that drivers disobey the rules at EVERY light……
Note: this is not a defence of cyclists, just a clarification.
“disobey the rules” regarding going into advance cycle boxes etc. Yes. Go through a red light 15-20 secs after it has gone red? No. I see cyclists do that quite often. As i said, we’re comparing what i would see as very dangerous offences (cyclists going through red lights) with less dangerous offences (bad positioning/parking). Its a bit like comparing drunk and disorderly with a serious assault.
15-20 seconds being the time after a light goes red at which point it becomes an offense.
Which is just as well, as you see very many cars go through 2-3 seconds after
bad positioning and parking forces cyclists into lanes they are not expected to be in. this puts cyclists into danger from cars who do not expect to see them or make assumptions about where they should be.
I have seen cyclists break red lights and it is usually after looking around to make sure the coast was clear. and ensuring a safe passage across is possible.
How do you see the parking as the less dangerous of the two?
I see parking as the less dangerous because it is a stationary object which people (cars, cyclists, pedestrians) can reasonably safely navigate around. A moving cyclist, going through a pedestrian crossing when the green man is visible, is a lot less easy to avoid. I’m thinking particularly about cyclists going initially illegally on the footpath on the East side of Stephens Green (as they do not want to have to do the long circular legal navigation required), eventually crossing, again illegally, across the junction with Leeson St and onto Earlsfort Terrace. Genuinely experience some form of complete (ie wrong way stuff, not just arriving late to a red light) cycling illegality at this set of junctions around 20% of the times i use it.
I think I know where you are talking about and it could do with a bit of better planning to sort that out. Or maybe just some manners.
I suppose it is all relative. The worst offenders I see are the pedestrians just south of O’Connell bridge. They just keep walking long after the man goes red. I have seen many times where busses just drove through because the crowd wouldn’t stop.
I am sure there is a name for it but it seems like in some places everyone breaks a certain law and so everyone else does too.
@Owen C cars do do it. Every single fupping day. Rush hour in Dublin, both morning and evening and you see around 3 cars chance their arm and ignore the fact that the lights are long since red.
“Go through a red light 15-20 secs after it has gone red? ”
Interesting that it is only 15-20 secs after it has gone red that there is an issue. Someone should tell the gardai that the camera they have in Stoneybatter for people breaking the lights at the luas line shouldn’t be there or that the merrion gates come down too quickly so the people that crash into them after breaking the lights are actually completely in the right.
Oh God. My point about “15-20 secs” is that its not someone going through a light at the orange-to-red, just-turned-red stage, its someone going through a full-on red light. Cars don’t do that, cyclists do on occasion. And re “suicidal cyclists”, they generally tend to do it when its red all directions and pedestrian crossing/green man is in operation, or when one road clearly has no cars coming down it despite a green light. The point is they completely ignore the fact that its a red light.
Cars do do it. Otherwise they would be hitting the luas or merrion gates ffs.
So your saying You see cyclists drive directly into traffic everyday, must be a lot of suicidal cyclists where you drive. 15-20 sec would be directly into traffic No?
Do we understand how one of these is probably a worse offence than the other?
Yes. They are equally bad, because each is a breaking the rule.
Parking in a cycle lane causing a bike to go out into oncoming traffic and what not….. you think this is a minor thing.
That only demonstrates that you don’t understand the dangers of said parking.
they are not “equally bad because each is breaking a rule”. As i suggested above, there would be a difference in how we interpret violent crime statistics: disorderly behaviour, assault, aggravated assault, rape/murder. No one in their right mind would suggest these are all “equally bad”.
Me being pushed out of a designated lane and into oncoming traffic is as equally bad in my book.
For example… there’s no difference in danger between what you call “very dangerous offences (cyclists going through red lights)” and say a cyclist being pushed into oncoming traffic. None. Nada. Zilch…. when you are the cyclist.
Cars kill people, bikes do not.
Any offence a car commits is 1000% more dangerous.
Trev, did you see the story i posted above about a cyclist killing a person? Perhaps you shouldn’t be so absolutist in that opinion.
Let me get that for you Trev… *ahem*
It’s a Fill In The Blanks….
Cyclists hitting people on the road – 0.00X% die
Motorists hitting people on the road – XX% die
There’s a difference there of more than a 1000%.
(All stats and/not numerical work done were independently looked at and sniffed by the dog before publishing)
Parking on a contra flow cycle lane (which I see done on most contraflow cycle lanes, most days) *is* very dangerous. Stopping in advance stop box *is* dangerous. Overtaking a cyclist too close *is* dangerous.
Notably, these are all things that I would see done in a way dangerous to me most days when I was a cyclist in Dublin.
Imagine if this was a motorist who had committed this and caused someone’s death. A €450 fine???
“On a winter’s afternoon in 2002, he was cycling up a one-way street in Dublin 4 on the wrong side of the road, when he hit a pedestrian who had stepped out in front of him. Roger Handy (56), a respected auctioneer, had looked in the direction of oncoming traffic, but never saw O’Hegarty who was coming the opposite way.
O’Hegarty claimed that he offered to help him, but the man refused. Some question this claim on the grounds that Handy had suffered such serious injuries, it was unlikely he would have been able to respond to an offer of help. Two weeks later, Handy’s wife, Jane, allowed his life support machine to be switched off.
O’Hegarty received a €350 fine for reckless riding of a bicycle and a €100 fine for cycling on the wrong side of the road.”
That’s a ridiculous point. That’s nothing to do with what we’re talking about, the cyclists part ok, but that verdict is down to another loopy judge (imo) giving a way to lenient sentence
No, its down to very easy sentencing guidelines and legal standards for cyclists. They are essentially considered pedestrians on wheels, at least up until recently. The point i’m trying to make is that cyclists very often show complete disregard for road traffic laws BECAUSE they don’t see themselves as being a danger to other road users. This belief is wrong in my view.
Agreed.
Jesus, thats sobering, The penalty, although applying the law, seems very lenient. It is probably set by the perceived seriousness of a cyclist hitting a pedestrian vs a car hitting a pedestrian. I would hope it is rare for a cyclist to kill a pedestrian. RIP Mr Handy.
There is a certain one-way street in north inner-city Dublin where I cycle the wrong-way most evenings on my route home. Have to rethink that.
But at the junction of Bolton St and Capel St there is counter-flow cycle lane. Pedestrians often cross the street there thinking only of the north-direction cars and forget about cyclists coming in the opposite direction. It is an accident waiting to happen.
Mike, indeed. The point i’m really trying to make is simply as follows:
1. Cyclists, rightly, want to be able to use roads in the same way and with the same respect that is given to motorists. They require additional protections as they are more at risk in a collision than a motorist is.
2. Cyclists, previously, were treated more like pedestrians when it came to collisions, breaching of rules etc. As a result, they took a generally loose attitude to full adherence to the rules, in the same way we all know pedestrians do.
3. The problem is that cyclists, though like pedestrians, are not pedestrians, and are in control of a vehicle which can cause damage to a pedestrian in the event of a collision. Further, they are using roads and traffic junctions for much of their journey, so need to follow the rules of those roads and junctions, for the sake of users of the roads.
4. The government/garda/council are trying to level the playing field on all sides by saying cyclists should be given dedicated lanes, space at junctions, more parking spots etc, but in return must follow more or less the same rules as motorists.
5. Cyclists are struggling to adapt to this new regime, and many still view the rules of the road a bit too loosely.
how many cyclists did the clampers get?
Clipped two with the van.
My commute is public transport and walking. I have bigger problems with cyclists on pavements or trying to run me down while I cross with the green man than I do with motorists. I think the general standard of motorists is higher than cyclists, with the obvious exception of commercial van drivers.
I saw a lad almost get run over by a car on the quays outside CHQ today. The lady then beeped at the man for being in the way even though he had a green light.
People are idiots.
What a waste of Garda time. Blocking a cycle lane with your car?! Going through a slightly red light when it is safe to do so on your bike?! These are not crimes, just minor annoyances or victimless transgressions of the rules. Everyone should just chill a bit and let the Guards get on with stopping crime.
ah slightly red. Good stuff.
Nearly Green in fairness
Something got you started?
Blocking a cycle lane for a motorist is one offence. Whereas the number of cyclists fined was for the full gambit of offences they can commit which i believe is around forty?
Should have only included the number of fines for cyclists blocking motor lanes!!!!
Speaking as a cyclist, I see about 10 bikes without any lights for each motorist I see blocking a bike lane.
If we’re going to start posting stories of tragic traffic deaths, there are many, many more pedestrians, cyclists, other motorists and self-drivers killed by bad driving than there are by bad cycling. Each of them with a life as valuable as that of the respected auctioneer.
Of course many many many more people die from cars hitting them than bicycles. The issue is that cyclists want all of the benefits of road usage, but seem less than willing to accept the rules they are supposed to adhere to or the penalties which arise from non-acceptance. A car driver going the wrong way down a one way street, killing a man, would not be given a €450 fine.
Zigimantas Gridzuiska was allowed to walk free from court after killing Shane O’Farrell and leaving the scene. There are many cases currently of drunk drivers trying to get out any punishment due to a technicality. Like you, I will not extrapolate that all drivers want to be able to do what they want on the road without being willing to accept the rules they are supposed to adhere to or the penalties which arise from non-acceptance.
In the case of the cyclist killing the pedestrian above, there was no technicality. The law was administered as it was supposed to be. The issue, as I have said, is that cyclists used to get treated as pedestrians in the eyes of the law, and did not bear much responsibility for any of their illegal actions. Thankfully this issue is now being cleared up, but many cyclists still seem astonished that they are forced to adhere to the same rules as cars.
Try an online search for
driver fined fatal
You may be surprised.
Were they going the wrong way down the road when it happened? I really can’t stress enough what I’m trying to say here: flagrant breaches of road rules, as opposed to just simple old fashioned bad driving, illegal parking etc, resulting in highly dangerous road behaviour, are what I’m getting at here.
everyone should have guns.
there, i said it. we were all thinking it though..
You’re on form today Scottser :)
well i have most of the shopping done and i’ve already made my mind up to come into work hungover tomorrow. it’s the thursday giddies – enjoy them now, cos i’ll be a poisonous b@stard tomorrow :)
oh, and i’ll be driving in, so watch out..
Enjoy!
As a daily city cyclist it appears to me that the Guards are using a reasonable amount of common sense around the biking fines. On any given day in Dublin, there are AT LEAST 40,000 examples of us cylists “breaking the lights” Thats 2 x 20,000 cyclists per day. Thats about 2.8 million examples of “light breaking” during the period in which the 244 fines were handed out, or one fine for every 12,500 “indiscretions”.
I reckon therefore that most (not all) of the fines are for indiscretions at the upper end of the spectrum (ploughing at high speed through a pile of pedestrians on a red light for example).
Yup. I saw two cyclists being ticketed for small infringements, but a rule broken is a rule broken.
One guy was right beside me at the lights, and he pulled off just before I did. Something in me just said ‘don’t go yet’… and yes, he jumped the light, just barely. And then… nee-naw, nee-naw… motorbike cop pulled him over.
Nothing coming either way, but if he waited, literally 2 seconds, he’d be what…. €80(?) richer.
The biggest danger to cyclists are themselves. Traffic light don’t exist in their world. Can’t we just confine them to staying indoors?
Traffic lights are to cyclists, as grammar is to Charlie.
Must be my Nordi upbringing.
I know people don’t like talking politics on this site, but I will let you know when party I am a member of:
https://australian-cyclists-party.org/
Yes, it is a thing. Maybe, Ireland needs something similar.
In Oz, we have a democracy, or something closer to it than in Ireland. We elect our Senators. Due to the quirks of the Aussie Federal Election system, where you can choose to specify a single entry in your Senate voting paper, but the party you vote for, can do (has to) preference deals with other parties, the last Senate seat in each State can go to a minority party, that has ‘gamed the system’ or lucked in, to be the party that gets over the line. In Victoria, a ‘Motoring Enthusiast Party’ candidate got elected, at the last election. We are hoping a cyclist can do something similar. At a minimum, it should encourage the major parties to to try to placate cyclists, before the party gets too strong. Yes, Aussie politics hasn’t had to deal with a recession in 25 years.
Many Aussies have a bad attitude towards cyclists, just like in Ireland. Click bait media doesn’t help.
I commute 100km on the bicycle, each week. I can choose back roads and cycle paths for about 90kms of it. I recommend more separation and I recommend that cyclists avoid busy roads, if possible. In Winter, I light up like a Christmas tree. I also use a Fly6 rear camera, so I can record anything bad which happens from behind.