last couple of weeks amount of teenagers going home 5 ish without any high vis or any lights is nuts , do schools not teach how important lights are any more ?
It's not like a binary seen with lights/unseen without though. In most cases you will see an unlit cyclist or vehicle, albeit not as well as a lit one. That doesn't prevent one from pointing out the hazard of being unlit.
Just saying. Jesus.
Also, I hardly ever drive as I have other options including cycling.
It was a freezing cold, slippery, dark night.
Just amazes me that people cycle with no lights or visibility aids still when led cycle lights are cheap,.light weight, portable and batteries last ages and ditto for high Viz material / strips.
I carry 2 in my bag/pocket to clip onto the bike when I do need to cycle and I don't want them stolen. Easy.
Maybe a clip on for bikes to attach a mobile phone to would be a good idea. To at least have that in a pinch.
We can discuss this business idea later 🤣
Anyway over and out
You're lucky you're alive to post here today.
Cars generally come with lights included. You really need statistics for that? 🤣
I doubt those complaining about teens without lights have actually tried to get them to use lights. The majority won't even wear a coat when it's raining or snowing.
Theres a law for cycling without lights. You need the Garda to enforce that. Because the Garda don't do that. People don't bother with them. It's not just teens. You see it all over the place. To be honest it's not just with this issue. It's a problem with enforcement in general.
We as a culture don't take road safety seriously.
https://youtu.be/9FEO-XKo4cw
Drove past two drivers in the dark tonight, both with one headlight out, both winking at me in the distance. No hi-vis panels on their dark coloured cars, nothing.
Well, if we have to prioritise what we teach in schools, surely we would focus on the high risk matters relating to driving, rather than the low risk matters of cycling?
I agree with you though, it would be great to get teens into the habit of wearing crash helmets in the car, given that's where the vast majority of head injuries happen.
I may have driven past adults, couldn't tell , too dark, does this make my comments invalid for this thread ? 🤣
Mod Note
This is the Cycling forum. The topic of the thread is teenagers cycling with no lights. Any more attempts at derailing the thread with chat about high-viz, helmets, or whataboutery about motorists will be dealt with by the moderational equivalent of a swift kick up the arse.
I should have also quoted your earlier line about motorists failing to maintain their lights, apologies
Considering the sidestep, though, I'll assume you have no statistics to back up your assertion that
There are plenty of motorists who fail to maintain or at times, turn on their lights. There are however a greater number of cyclists without lights on their bike.
Completely agree with this, driving home the last couple of weeks i've been astounded at the amount of cyclists with no lights or any reflective material whatsoever.
Yes i've seen them, but that's cos being a cyclist i watch out. Even back in the early nineties when hi-vis was for golf balls i wore a reflective armband for the commute to college as well as the lights.
What's the effing point in dying cos some motorist should have seen you?
If those teens keep doing it. Then they aren't dying from it.
There's an irony in complaining about teens not following advice when posters on this thread are ignoring boards rules posted earlier.
It would be interesting to hear from anyone with teens that cycle and use lights how they achieved that.
Prioritising academic studies in school is what would be the best focus. Teachers are not for baby sitting, or raising children and teens. Parents need to encourage safe riding habits which despite your facetious reply, I know you too consider to be important.
What makes you say driving is the high risk and cycling is the low risk matter? They are equally dangerous. This year, 7 cyclists died and 83 drivers or passengers died on our roads. Something like 75% of commuters are by car and 5% by bike.
Oh and the majority of head injuries is by falls, not car crashes.
Odd really that you can buy a bicycle without buying lights. 🤔
I've honestly no idea what point you're trying to make here.
The OP specifically mentioned hi-vis in their post, some seem not to have read it.
You must be kidding. Sometimes its proper to ask for published stats, but sometimes its just a weak way of trying to undermine a point made which can't be countered. Take a look at every car on the road and let me know when you spot one without built-in lights. Hint....you won't find any. Have a look at most bicycles and you'll see most don't have any lights. Teenagers are less likely to follow the rules and so are even less likely to have and use lights on their bikes. Do you have trouble accepting these things, or do you need stats to prove the bleeding obvious?
The school thing wasn’t my idea, but if we’re going to do it, we should certainly prioritise the big dangers- motorists.
I say driving is high risk because of basic physics. The danger of 1-5 tonnes of metal doing 20-150 kmph is not in the same ballpark as a 10-20 kg bike doing 10-30 kmph. That’s why we drivers killing 2-3 people each week, mostly other drivers and passengers. Cyclists kill 1 person each decade.
There is no argument that the vehicle is more dangerous than the bicycle. The main point is that the driver and cyclist colliding is generally only going to see the cyclist injured or killed. So while the driver must be careful, the cyclist can radically reduce the risk of injury or death by making themselves more visible among other things.
Wrong. The cyclist can radically reduce risk of injury and death by keeping a firm focus on the major source of danger on the road- driver behaviour.
You're never going to educate every motorist to be a perfect driver, advocating martyrdom in pursuit of that isn't going to change it.
You're complaining about teens not following the rules while you yourself are not following the rules of this forum.
The legal requirement is lights. The Garda aren't enforcing it. End of. Incidentally lights are the most effective way to be seen at night. That's why it's the legal requirement. Any discussion should start and end there.
Oh and include teens. How do you get teens to do what they are told.
Your theory is that the teen cyclist having lights will prevent them from being hit by a car. I'm curious what research or studies have you read to that teen cyclists not having lights was the main cause of their injury or death.
He's pointing out victim blaming isn't going to fix it. You just can't take it in.
Segregated infrastructure is what's needed. Which is why you're seeing car lanes being removed.
That's some level of equivocation.
Well that's what's happening. People not following the rules. Including this thread.
It's really about understanding human nature before you can change it.
I can't get no sleep 😉
MOD VOICE: Banned from this thread, post again in it and your banned from the forum, the mod warning was an hour before your post
You’re never going to educate every cyclist to be the perfect cyclist, but many on this thread seem happy to take a victim blaming approach instead of dealing with the actual source of danger.
If you actually want to reduce road deaths, focus on getting drivers to slow down and put their phones down, rather than targeting niche issues of negligible impact, like the proposed focus on cyclists lights.
Cyclists should have lights after the hours of darkness. I’ve done the Dublin Cycling Campaign winter light giveaways a few times. I’m a big fan of dynamo lights. But this issue is very low on the list of priorities on the road.
Except that you didn't say that there are more bikes without lights than cars without lights. You said there are more bikes without lights than cars without properly maintained lights.
It's nothing to do with the 'bleedin obvious', it's to do with people simply making claims to back up what they are saying that are either unprovable, or untrue. Fact is, you've no idea of the figures either way. Neither has anyone else here.
You'll no doubt come back and tell me again about how all cars have lights, but it's just deflection.
I've checked one eyed bandits a few times, it's always seems to be around 5% of motorists. Repeated sample size of 200 on national secondary roads at commuting hours
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