Online Road Safety Video Teaches Cyclists & HGV Drivers How To Share The Road Safely

Victor

http://www.rsa.ie/NEWS/News/Video_Teaches_Cyclists_and_Heavy_Goods_Vehicle_Drivers_How_to_Share_The_Road_Safely.html

Online Road Safety Video Teaches Cyclists & Heavy Goods Vehicle Drivers How To Share The Road Safely

The Road Safety Authority (RSA), in association with the Department of Transport’s Smarter Travel initiative, the Irish Road Haulage Association, Cyclist.ie and Dublin City Council, today launched their first ever road safety online video. The aim of the video is to help cyclists and Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers become more aware of each other as they navigate Ireland’s busy roads.

The six 1/2 minute video was produced to provide an educational resource to Goods vehicle drivers and cyclists on how to safely share the road, particularly in urban areas. Research has shown that over the period, 1998 to 2008:
•144 cyclists were killed on Irish roads.
•Of these, 33% were involved in a collision with a goods vehicle.
•30% of the collisions occurred during evening rush hour.
•The highest number of fatalities occurred in Dublin accounting for 30% of those killed.

Speaking today, Mr. Noel Dempsey TD, Minister for Transport, wholeheartedly welcomed the video, saying it is a “really useful learning aid for cyclists and HGV drivers alike. We all share our roads, but we can sometimes forget that different types of road users have different characteristics and needs. Cyclists will welcome not only the opportunity to see the challenges that can face HGV drivers in negotiating the urban environment due to the size of their vehicles but also the commonsense safety advice that this video contains. HGV drivers will welcome this reminder of the need to be ultra cautious where there are likely to be cyclists about. And all drivers need to be ever more aware of cyclists as the Government delivers on our policy of securing a fivefold increase in cycling by 2010”

The Minister continued, “This is a very worthwhile initiative led by the Road Safety Authority. But I am particularly heartened by the collaboration that has taken place between the RSA, Cyclist.ie, the Irish Road haulage association, Dublin City Council and my Department in delivering the video. This sort of teamwork convinces me more than ever that Ireland can, and will, work together to deliver not only our cycling targets but a sustainable Smarter Travel future”

The video follows a HGV driver as he travels through Dublin’s busy streets, typical of those found in other major cities and large towns in Ireland. It highlights the concerns goods vehicle drivers and in particular HGV drivers have in urban areas in relation to cyclists, illustrates the vulnerability cyclists may feel when sharing the road with goods vehicles and offers commonsense advice to HGV drivers. It also advises cyclists to be aware of the “blind zone” which prevents HGV drivers of seeing cyclists positioned to the left or close to the front of a HGV.

Noel Brett, Chief Executive, RSA, said, “We are delighted to launch this viral video as it will aid cyclists and goods vehicle drivers to understand the difficulties they face when interacting with each other on the roads. Through this viral video, we hope to encourage them to work together to make our roads a safer place not only for themselves, but for all road users”.

The film is available to download from YouTube and the following websites, Road Safety Authority, Department of Transport, Dublin City Council, Local Authorities, Irish Road Haulage Association, cycling.ie and all cycling club websites throughout the country. The clip is available to all third level colleges and those who wish may use it on their website.

Please follow the link to download the film clip HGV and Cycling Safety Video. You can download Pedal Cyclists Road casualites 1998 to 2008, from the RSA website or by Clicking on the link.

Ends
For further information, please contact:
The Communications Office, Road Safety Authority – 096 25008

Notes to Editor:
A Goods vehicle is a road motor vehicle designed, exclusively or primarily, to carry goods.
It is a vehicle with passengers accommodation for not more than 8 persons and having a design gross vehicle weight (GVW) over 3,500 kg.

tomasrojo

Important hazard to highlight. The most important for cyclists. Good illustration of blind zones.

Brief visual nod to RSA-approved business of helmets and hiviz at the beginning, but nothing over the top.

cdaly_

Good video.

Interestingly, I notice that I find it easy to fall into a mindset that trucks are these big, slow lumbering beasts that it's easy to out-manouvre. Better keep that one in check...

dubmess

I think this video puts a bit too much of the onus on the cyclist, it's all well and good having some idea of where blind spots are but in real life you don't have a nice drawn out diagram in your head.

Also, where's the mention that HGV drivers should have blind spot (cyclops) mirrors installed? As mentioned (although it almost falls out the bottom) in this article:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0211/1233867931746.html

And if the cyclist gets in the truck to realise 'oh my, it's so big and scary, and I see what you mean about blind spots' etc. etc. why isn't the truck driver shoved on a bike and barreled down the quays at rush hour so he can 'empathise'? What's good for the goose... education and awareness happens on both sides, not just the truck driver saying 'yeah I'll look out for bikes'.

Grump over.:P

tomasrojo

dubmess wrote: »

And if the cyclist gets in the truck to realise 'oh my, it's so big and scary, and I see what you mean about blind spots' etc. etc. why isn't the truck driver shoved on a bike and barreled down the quays at rush hour so he can 'empathise'?

That's a fair point. I hadn't thought of that.

But on the other hand, it didn't fall into the standard RSA "blood, disability and grieving families" trap that would potentially put people off cycling, so I think it's overall pretty good.

victorcarrera

I give it 50%.
Good because it informs cyclists who don't drive about blind spots and how not to get into them.
Bad because nothing about how a cyclist can be put into a blind spot by a HGV driver and carelessly forgotton. Out of sight out of mind syndrome.
Unfortunately this happens all to often when HGV driver attempts to overtake cyclist and for a variety of reasons is unable to get past before pulling in.
This can occur when HGV driver unerestimates the speed of cyclist and attempts to overtake too close to the next left hand bend on the road. They very often put the cyclist in the same death trap when an oncomming vehicle appears round the next corner.
The transport company managers and coordinators are not blameless either due to the unreasonable demands placed on drivers.

Lumen

victorcarrera wrote: »

I give it 50%.

I lost concentration as soon as it became apparent that even the truck driver was wearing hi-viz, inside his truck.

I think they need a Euro version involving spliced footage of pro racers bunnyhopping roundabouts and crashing into dogs.

cdaly_

dubmess wrote: »

I think this video puts a bit too much of the onus on the cyclist, it's all well and good having some idea of where blind spots are but in real life you don't have a nice drawn out diagram in your head.

The onus pretty much is on the cyclist. The HGV driver can do as much as possible to remain aware but they remain with blind spots regardless. If I as a cyclist am made more aware of where these blind spots are, I stand a better chance of staying out of them...

monument

It might be worth posting this as an image:

davidsatelle100

thought is was okay. but if your anyway used to cycling in the CC its nothing new.

thought the advanced stop line bit was ludacris, i've never seen one empty unless i'm the only one stopped at the lights

damoz

Just wondering - why arent there auxillary mirrors on a HGV to show the "blind zones" when its stationary and not turning. Theres plenty of room for a convex lens under the current mirror.

Im sure there is a reason, but just not one i can think of right now.

For the future, mirrors could be phased out and replaced with or complimented with on board camera units which would cover all areas around the vehicle. Similar to parking cameras.

Maybe i just think too much.

EDIT - maybe i should google first :

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/blind-spot-mirrors-to-be-fitted-to-uk-hgvs-19927


So maybe the question is - what is the European legislation in relation to blind spot mirrors on HGVs, and what isnt it implemented here.

I am not saying they will solve everthing, as both the driver and cyclist must take responsibility for their own safety, but they may prevent alot of turing accidents.

dubmess

There's another good diagrammatical representation, and description by a HGV driver, of blind spots on the London Courier forum.

http://www.movingtargetzine.com/forum/discussion/598/diagrams-of-hgv-blind-spots-from-nozzer-these-could-save-your-life/#Item_0

As for why they don't have blind-spot mirrors here, or even mention them in that video, god only knows

blorg

damoz wrote: »

Just wondering - why arent there auxillary mirrors on a HGV to show the "blind zones" when its stationary and not turning. Theres plenty of room for a convex lens under the current mirror.

They are mandatory on all new trucks sold since 2007, and trucks registered after 2000 must be retrofitted.

Interesting article here pointing out that they were common enough in the 1970s but for some reason stopped being fitted.

damoz

Interesting. But are they on all HGVs in reality - maybe you city slickers can enlighten me. I cant comment really, living where i do, and cycling the routes i do, i rarely encounter any HGVs.

blorg

Not all, there are derogations for pre-2000 HGVs and the requirement for trucks between 3,500kg and 7,500kg is a little murky, the RSA seem to be simply not testing that class while in the UK you only get an out in that class if the mirrors cannot be fitted due to a low cab.

Here are the annual test rules from the RSA.

anoble66

To be honest, I didnt think much of that. To me, it just looked and felt like a RSA box ticking excersise. If they were really serious about this they would of done a condensed 2min video, that they could of put on during the TV ad-breaks instead of this 6min version which is very repetitive in its information and will only be watched by a small minority of people.

Just my opinion!

SerialComplaint

Very dissapointing to see that they haven't got an option for subtitles or captions on the video, and there is no sign of a transcript on the website. Deaf people cycle too. The transcript would help the search engines to pick up on this content. This is probably a breach of Section 27 of the Disability Act.

concussion

Seems like they took the Transport for London video and re-shot it in Dublin, script and all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uf5WVfY_RY

tomasrojo

It's like that Gus van Sant frame-for-frame reshooting of Psycho.