Dublinbikes and Insurace

Zygnoth

Hey everyone,

I've a question that's been bugging me the last few days and have not found an answer yet. I currently cycle a Dublinbike to and from work every day. The bikes are extremely heavy and it is possible to get a fairly decent speed on them.

Recently, I've become worried about smashing into a car with the bike and wondering about my liability. I don't have much spare cash at the moment so wouldn't be able to afford to replace a whole door panel or something.

I've looked at Cycling Ireland for their insurance but it only covers cycling to and from work if it is part of your training for events. I think it would be difficult to prove that using Dublinbikes forms a decent training regime as well (except in a sort of Mr Miyagi punishment way).

Does anyone know of an insurance just for cycling on public roads for a non-event?

Z

Doctor Bob

Zygnoth wrote: »

Does anyone know of an insurance just for cycling on public roads for a non-event?

Yes. It's called cycling safely and keeping your wits about you.

Just because you can go at 'a fairly decent speed' doesn't mean you should, especially if doing so would mean 'smashing into a car'. Every road user is obliged to travel with due care and attention. No insurance policy would obviate this requirement.

Lumen

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Yes. It's called cycling safely and keeping your wits about you.

Just because you can go at 'a fairly decent speed' doesn't mean you should, especially if doing so would mean 'smashing into a car'. Every road user is obliged to travel with due care and attention. No insurance policy would obviate this requirement.

All true, but not much use when you slide on some diesel and drive 100kgs of Dublin bike and cyclist into the back of a €300k Ferrari whose driver has slammed on the brakes to avoid a dog/cat/pigeon/ped.

djbproductions

Looking at their website they explain what to do:

http://www.dublinbikes.ie/Safety/Road-Safety-Guidelines/Road-Safety-Guidelines

"Public liability insurance covering cycling related accidents is recommended to use the service."

In my opinion, I think it would work out very expensive to get seperate insurance just for this.

Lumen

I found this for the UK...

Public Liability insurance for cyclists
http://www.cycleguardroadcare.co.uk/home.asp?promCode=&affid=

In Ireland, cyclesure include PL insurance

http://www.cyclesure.ie/

...but possibly only as part of a (probably very expensive) package.

Doctor Bob

Lumen wrote: »

All true, but not much use when you slide on some diesel and drive 100kgs of Dublin bike and cyclist into the back of a €300k Ferrari whose driver has slammed on the brakes to avoid a dog/cat/pigeon/ped.

Has anyone ever actually been caught in a perfect storm? I command ~125kgs daily (me+bike+cargo) in city traffic and ride accordingly. No Ferraris have yet been harmed.

Chips Lovell

Lumen wrote: »

In Ireland, cyclesure include PL insurance

http://www.cyclesure.ie/

...but possibly only as part of a (probably very expensive) package.

I get a premium of €25 inputting my details (and a €100 bike value) and just ticking the box for public liability insurance.

Lumen

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Has anyone ever actually been caught in a perfect storm? I command ~125kgs daily (me+bike+cargo) in city traffic and ride accordingly. No Ferraris have yet been harmed.

I know several people who have cycled into the back of cars. Blorg went through the back window of a taxi, IIRC.

All accidents are avoidable, but they still happen.

edit: actually, the most likely source of a massive third party bill is a pedestrian. They're much more common than Ferraris, but probably about as expensive. And since they don't have insurance, it's more likely that you would get landed with a large bill.

Jawgap

Would your house insurance cover you?

My house insurance mentions something about public liability cover - I must check what exactly it says before I start playing dodgems with expensive Italian or German sports cars

seamus

Lumen wrote: »

And since they don't have insurance, it's more likely that you would get landed with a large bill.

Only if you're in the wrong or you have insurance. If you don't have insurance either then the judge will award costs based on who fncked up.

Lumen

seamus wrote: »

Only if you're in the wrong or you have insurance. If you don't have insurance either then the judge will award costs based on who fncked up.

Of course insurance is unnecessary for people who never make mistakes.

Jawgap

Lumen wrote: »

Of course insurance is unnecessary for people who never make mistakes.

I must tell my wife and teenage kid that:D

seamus

That's not really what I meant to be fair. I wouldn't necessarily be an advocate of insuring onesself up the ying-yang as this can be used against you.

I always tell the story from the late 90's of a client of my Dad's who ran a creche and was worried about his public liability insurance. A couple of times a year he'd get a letter from a solicitor detailing an accident in his creche and demanding a couple of K compensation lest they go to court. His insurance company would consistently pay it out and within five years his public liability insurance had trebled.
He couldn't afford to stay in business, so my Dad advised him to stop paying it - it's not legally required - and every time he got a solicitor's letter he was to write back and tell them he had no insurance.

So he did. And the payouts stopped. Every solicitor's letter got responded to in the same way, and every time the issue was dropped by the other party.

Possible not advisable, but I use it to illustrate how doing the "right thing" by insuring yourself can be used against you.

Personally I obtain public liability insurance for activities where I stand a reasonably high risk of causing substantial injury to someone else. So, driving. I have it as part of my CI licence, but if it wasn't included on that, I wouldn't waste my money getting it otherwise. I don't consider it a big enough risk to be worth insuring myself against.

Zygnoth

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Yes. It's called cycling safely and keeping your wits about you.

Just because you can go at 'a fairly decent speed' doesn't mean you should, especially if doing so would mean 'smashing into a car'. Every road user is obliged to travel with due care and attention. No insurance policy would obviate this requirement.

Sorry if I came off as an unsafe cyclist. What I meant is that the bikes can build up a considerable momentum and it would be possible to damage a car or pedestrian if they do something out of the ordinary. Anyone who cycles through Dublin centre knows that when pedestrians don't hear any 'traffic', they seem to assume the road is free. Also, people randomly appearing beside buses on O'Connell street is another one that worries me.

Thanks for the link to cyclesure - I'll give it a look. One of the problems I foresee with all the insurance is that the bikes are hired and not personally owned. This may have resultant issues as I can't be personally liable for maintaining the bike, which is what dublinbikes do.

I see the point of not getting insurance as well. Insurance companies are probably less likely to try to track down an individual and have to deal with solicitors and all that.

My worry comes from the fact that know personally of two people who have gone in the back of parked/stationary cars and required hospitalization afterwards. They both sorted it out with the owner for repairs but I think both cars were fairly reasonable. I don't want to think what a fancy car would cost to replace a windshield or something like that.

Thanks for all the responses though.

Lusk Doyle

Jawgap wrote: »

Would your house insurance cover you?

My house insurance mentions something about public liability cover - I must check what exactly it says before I start playing dodgems with expensive Italian or German sports cars

Not for that. Public liability in the house policy would cover damage to a third party on your property. Ie the robber who broke in but then broke his leg falling down the stairs...

Zygnoth

Just to follow up this thread for anyone looking in the future. Also, if a mod is looking would they be able to change my spelling mistake in the thread title to "insurance".

Got this reply from Cyclesure:

"Cyclesure bicycle insurance unfortunately does not cover the use of hire bicycles. We have been looking at the possibility offering public liability cover and personal accident cover for people hiring bicycles such as Dublinbikes. We hope to be in a position to offer this in the near future."

Carawaystick

Zygnoth wrote: »

Hey everyone,

I've a question that's been bugging me the last few days and have not found an answer yet. I currently cycle a Dublinbike to and from work every day. The bikes are extremely heavy and it is possible to get a fairly decent speed on them.

Recently, I've become worried about smashing into a car with the bike and wondering about my liability. I don't have much spare cash at the moment so wouldn't be able to afford to replace a whole door panel or something.

The main issues with them are
the brakes are terrible
the brakes are on the wrong side.