Red Light Jumpers in the Sunday Times

Chips Lovell

Dangerous cyclists get an easy ride. Wouldn't mind looking at the stats a bit more as I suspect its more proportional than the piece suggests.

zzzzzzzz

That article wrote:

The department also wants to legalise the overtaking of slow-moving traffic on the inside by bicycles.

Is that not legal already?

gzoladz

Nothing will improve until consideration for cyclist is examined as part of the driving license test, and not limited to suggestions and recommendations.

The situations cyclist are put into due to careless drivers and dummy pedestrians are in most cases much more dangerous than a cyclist breaking a red light, I am not justifying it though.

Captain Havoc

There's plenty on cyclists in the theory test. We share the road with everyone and no civilian vehicle should legally be superior to another. Like everyone else we have to lookout for ourselves.

Stark

While they do not have to wear a helmet, cyclists must display lights front and rear, and a reflective band.

I didn't think there was anything in law about wearing a reflective band?

markpb

Stark wrote: »

I didn't think there was anything in law about wearing a reflective band?

The bike, not the person presumably.

That article wrote:

The department also wants to legalise the overtaking of slow-moving traffic on the inside by bicycles.

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

Is that not legal already?

I thought so too, especially if you're cycling in a marked cycle lane.

tomasrojo

There's nothing in law, as far as I remember, about bike or person wearing a reflective band. The bike has to have lights front and rear and a red rear reflector. The bike is also supposed to have pedal reflectors, but I understand that some bikes are exempt on that.

This bit of the article gives the impression that the journalist meant reflector rather than reflective band:

Last year, 93 cyclists were prosecuted for having no front light, 86 were charged with failing to display a rear light and 23 for having no reflector.

The legality of passing on the inside is a bit dubious, and they're looking to disambiguate it, is the impression I've got from the cycling groups.

tomasrojo

Also, the first sentence in the article says "they are promoted as the most virtuous of road users".

Huh? Who said that? They're promoted mostly as the least polluting and least demanding of road space of road users. It's got nothing to do with virtue; that's the way bikes are, not cyclists.

rubadub

Last year, 28 cyclists were prosecuted in Dublin for failing to stop at traffic lights. In contrast, 1,847 motorists were awarded penalty points for failing to obey traffic lights.

How many pedestrians were done for jaywalking last year? If cyclists are considered "above the law", then where does that put pedestrians?

Its astonishing how they ignore this elephant in the room, reminds me of discussions of these headshops and point blank refusing to acknowledge alcohol is a legal high.

The last thing we want on the road is a divisive ‘them and us’ attitude,” he said.

This is the main reason, with booze & pedestrians there is no "them" to point a bigoted prejudiced finger at, because for the most part everybody is "US".

IM0

timesonline wrote:

The last thing we want on the road is a divisive ‘them and us’ attitude,” he said.

ROFLMAO - its already there mate :rolleyes:

Dowee

Just another bag of arse article written from a drivers POV.

But after the introduction of a 30kmh speed limit in Dublin city centre last week to facilitate them,

The speed limit wasn't just brought in to facilitate cyclists!!

Last year, 28 cyclists were prosecuted in Dublin for failing to stop at traffic lights. In contrast, 1,847 motorists were awarded penalty points for failing to obey traffic lights.

This statistic is meaningless. In his own article he points out that cyclists amount to about 4% of the traffic on the road. Of course prosecution numbers for cyclists would be a fraction of that for motorists.

Last year, 37 cyclists were prosecuted for offences relating to careless or dangerous riding, including cycling without “reasonable consideration”, suggesting that hardly any were sanctioned for cycling while drunk or on the phone.

Isn't it wonderful that motorists have cleaned up their act in this regard and never break these laws.

For the record I cycle everyday but am also a motorist (not one who drinks and drives or uses his phone while driving I might add though!!)

DirkVoodoo

Dowee wrote: »

The speed limit wasn't just brought in to facilitate cyclists!!

This is the common perception, if motors is to be believed.

petethedrummer

The sooner they do away with all the traffic lights and all the lines on the road the sooner we can stop worrying about articles like this.

petethedrummer

Last year, 28 cyclists were prosecuted in Dublin for failing to stop at traffic lights. In contrast, 1,847 motorists were awarded penalty points for failing to obey traffic lights.

That's shocking!!!! Motorists are 6596% more guilty of breaking traffic lights than cyclists. They should be put off the road.

ednwireland

todays indo

"Reckless drivers let off the hook on points
Legal loophole allows 17,656 to escape sanction "

"THOUSANDS of the country's most reckless drivers are escaping penalty points because of a legal loophole.

Motorists convicted in court of some of the most serious road traffic offences are not having points applied to their licences, the Irish Independent has learned.

This is because court clerks are not recording the guilty drivers' licence numbers and sending them to the Road Safety Authority (RSA), which is the body charged with applying the points.

The reason why the clerks are not recording the numbers is because there is no legal requirement for them to do so. However, a small number do pass on the information to the RSA.

Figures obtained from the RSA show that, since 2003, 18,383 drivers have been convicted of any one of 10 offences that involve a mandatory court appearance. But the Irish Independent has learned that just 727 of these had the points applied"

cuts both ways i think


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/reckless-drivers-let-off-the-hook-on-points-2052950.html

doozerie

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

This is the common perception, if motors is to be believed.

Worse still, it is a perception that is reinforced by the likes of Gerry Breen (Fine Gael Dublin City councillor) who is quoted in a recent Metro article as saying "Over the past year, I have seen the cycling extremists take centre stage in the traffic affairs of the council" in the context of him complaining about the introduction of the 30kph limit.

It is the Metro, mind you, so you might have to take with a huge pinch of salt anything it says, including supposed quotes, but there will be many people that will read that and will happily take is as some sort of proof that it is primarily cyclists that sought the new speed limit.

rubadub

BTW did anybody else think this thread was going to be about some sort of high-viz sweatshirts?

Jip

tomasrojo wrote: »

Also, the first sentence in the article says "they are promoted as the most virtuous of road users".

That first sentence for me set the article up as being anti-cyclist, poor choice of words. Unfortunately this attitude seems to becoming more wide spread and there's yet another cyclist thread full of morons over on the motoring forum. I blame the 30kph limit

garlad

rubadub wrote: »

BTW did anybody else think this thread was going to be about some sort of high-viz sweatshirts?

I did aswell. Had the Credit Card out and ready to buy. Was thinking could wear it at Christmas time too. Pity

buffalo

Jip wrote: »

That first sentence for me set the article up as being anti-cyclist, poor choice of words. Unfortunately this attitude seems to becoming more wide spread and there's yet another cyclist thread full of morons over on the motoring forum. I blame the 30kph limit

Maybe we should work on getting it repealed to earn motorists' respect?

Jip

Sounds like a plan !

tomasrojo

doozerie wrote: »

Worse still, it is a perception that is reinforced by the likes of Gerry Breen (Fine Gael Dublin City councillor) who is quoted in a recent Metro article as saying "Over the past year, I have seen the cycling extremists take centre stage in the traffic affairs of the council" in the context of him complaining about the introduction of the 30kph limit.

Yeah, Bill Tormey is at it too. I think it's a politician/demagogue thing.

As a politician, you see something you think is turning out very unpopular and you very visibly oppose it to raise your profile and make you seem a stout fellow (see also Eamon Gillmore on that point).

As a demagogue, you make sure that you do what you can to associate the unpopular measure with an unpopular social or ethnic group, even to the point of suggesting that a secretive cabal of such individuals is behind many recent decisions. Make out that that unpopular group is unfairly advantaged by the current system, even if the claim is patently ludicrous.

eightyfish

The Department of Transport has promised to update the laws that affect cycling, including ending the compulsory use of cycle lanes and making it an offence to park in one.

Is it not already an offence to park in a cycle lane (during hours of operation)?

markpb

eightyfish wrote: »

Is it not already an offence to park in a cycle lane (during hours of operation)?

I think you can stop in a bike lane for up to 30 minutes for "loading".

Not that it matters because the Gardai in Dublin have handed over parking enforcement to the clampers and the clampers don't bother leaving the city centre.

buffalo

markpb wrote: »

I think you can stop in a bike lane for up to 30 minutes for "loading".

Not that it matters because the Gardai in Dublin have handed over parking enforcement to the clampers and the clampers don't bother leaving the city centre.

Not always - a friend of mine was clamped at 10pm on a Tuesday night, in Sandyford.

tomasrojo

The two-way facility on Inchicore Road would be a turkey shoot for clampers. Mind you, you'd have to face the ire of the taxi-drivers, and those guys do good ire.

BostonB

Cyclists are meant to stop at lights?