They dont mind you cycling on the footpath either Noctor but over here ye get lifted out of it. On a side note, You can also bring your dog into restaurants in Berlin, no tolerance for that here because we’re not very tolerant I guess.

You can also lose you driving licence for drink cycling in Saxony, now do we really want that kind of thing

“I’ve cycled in amsterdam as well”, Ever got caught in a tram track?

hah, no, thank feck. :) You need your wits about you though for those sneaky trams. Crossing the road is an adventure when you’re new to it. I remember my mum totally oblivious to a bicycle bell stepping out in front of it. watching the tram, ignoring the pedestrian lights. Proper Cork style road-crossing doesn’t work well there.

There’s a new cycle track that’s divided from the footpath and the road by a curb running down alongside the Grand Canal in Dublin. It’s the only one I’ve seen like it around the city, but it’s bloody brilliant and hopefully it’ll catch on. It’s so nice to be able to cycle and not have to be constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re not hit by a bus.

@Damocles: in Dublin that is called getting luased.

Probably because the fine is less than the price of a set of lights for the bike so it ain’t worth the paperwork…

Sorry, I don’t get your point!
The fine is ?80, same as speeding.
Gardai have no issues writing them up.

“They are deadly”, So you’re quite keen on them?

Think you’ll find a car driving through a red light is far far more deadly then anyone on a bike….of course thats not saying its ok but its none the less a fact that cars breaking red lights happens alot.

Also pedestrians jay walking is also very dangerous but look how much it happens,

of course its worse for a car to do it, and pedestrians shouldn’t be jaywalking, that doesn’t absolve the cyclists that do it, never mind the danger to themselves the can cause serious injury if the hit a pedestrian. some sort of penalty system needs to be implemented (and I’m a cyclist)

I both, walk, cycle and drive regularly so I can see things from all perspectives. When weather permitting I cycle everywhere where possible and have found cycle lanes and motorists attitudes to cycling in dublin a joke, the cycle lanes in many places are so narrow and full of broken manhole covers, bus stops and car parking space, thus making it much more dangerous to have to constantly swerve into traffic to avoid these obstacles, then there’s the drivers who think they have more of a right to the road than a cyclist, which if they check the rule book the two share equal right to the road except in cycle lanes where a cyclist has more of a right.

I’m sick of drivers who never ever check their blind spot before moving off, they regularly block cycle lanes which means I have to move off the road, they rev up at traffic light to try and get a head start before me, they pull out at junctions right in front of me causing me to either swerve or slam on my breaks before they or someone else ploughs into me – cycling in Dublin is just so dangerous. I’ve become so angry with the lack of decent cycle lanes and the lack of decent safe drivers than I often cycle on the path, I know that’s breaking the law technically but when I cycle on the path I always remember the pedestrian has more of a right to the path than I do so I go very slow, hold back at narrow points to let pedestrians pass and I dismount if it’s very busy – I don’t like cars ploughing me down on the road and the same goes for pedestrians not wanting to be knocked down by a cyclists, so it is so so important to respect pedestrians if using a path for cycling. I would love to cycle on the road all the time but it’s just so so dangerous in some places and I don’t intend on ending up dead before I’ve finished my daily commute. So if this survey says most cyclists admit to breaking the law then that would be considered cycling on the path even, and is it any wonder when the roads are so dangerous

As a side note has anyone seen the new cycle lanes in Galway – they’re fantastic – they’re a safely designated area up on the path where motorists can’t drive in them and where they do cut onto the road they are marked by a white solid line and then there’s loads of signs up everywhere telling motorists to watch out for cyclists and that cyclists have as much a right to the road as they do! Dublin has a very very long way to go before cycling become a safe form of commuting!

Bicycles kill and maim millions of people around the world every day. These deadly devices should be banned immediately. Or maybe not.

I soooo agree, i’ve been hit twice by cyclists and had countless near misses, both times was by cyclists illegally cycling on footpaths. My 3 year old’s buggy was crashed into by a boy on a bike, he was about 12 but big, much bigger than me anyway, i’m 5′ 4″, the buggy saved her, it deflected him, otherwise i think he’d have killed her. It is so dangerous to ignore the rules of the road because you are on a bike. What will it take before cyclists start to have some respect for other road users?

Who thumbed down my comment? Whoever you are you really put the psycho into cyclist. Anyone who thinks it is on for cyclists to hit pedestrians and endanger babies and small children in buggies makes me sick.

Exactly. Those pyscho cyclist baby killers zero in on the helpless pedestrians innocently walking on the pavement. I reckon they specifically pick on women with children and old folk. The death toll in Ireland alone is in the millions.

The main problem with cycling in Dublin is the absolute contempt some motorists have for cyclists here. Given that, we probably need above average facilities to accommodate, what do we get? If we’re lucky we get faded road markings, that double as parking spaces, car lanes, taxi lanes and BUS lanes. If there’s one thing that’ll make you shit yourself while cycling it’s a bus whizzing by you at 50km.

I have a work colleague that catches his daily bike commute on a Helmet cam and reports dodgy bus and taxi drivers when necessary. Might be worth the investment for any heavy cyclists out there.

Dublins road network is designed for the car, narrow looping one way streets that heavily incentivise cyclists to travel up one way streets or via footpaths so as to avoid going 6 times the distance with the traffic and without a cycle lane. Im not saying its ok but i can see why some cyclists will continue to do it. Bike theft is pretty prevalent too, we need far more secure parking facilities for bikes.

The one thing that makes me optimistic is that there’s been some improvements in the last few years ie Canal route, some added spaces. Even though its small compared to what needs to be done, I hope it continues eg the plan to shut down parts of the North Quays to cars to allow a proper cycle path from Heuston in to the City seems like a great idea.

I was with you up until your rant on Trinity

@Paul, my mind can be changed is someone can prove the survey unbiased, i.e. that it was more then students that were surveyed. I will apologise then.

I think they’d get due respect if they also gave due respect but when im driving 30km through a green light and a cyclist plows through a red light putting themselves, myself and my kids in the car at risk and in chance of an accident caus i have to emergency stop or swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting them, thats their fault for not obeying the rules not mine but as usual the cyclist is the one to throw the finger and ask what the hell im playing at! Some of them, not all but some are complete idiots giving the rest a bad name

Aaron, same would be said for Motorist and Pedestrians. [See my comment below]

Aaron, you didn’t read the comment did you?

Garda are allowed on the phone, that law doesn’t apply to them, for situations where the car radios breaks fails, or directions, etc..

Well he was driving up to another garda who was directing traffic. And anyway, hands free kit?

I don’t see much difference between earphones and a radio in the car.

Steven, a radio in the car shouldn’t drown out all other noise around you, whereas earphones would.

i would have the radio on in the car, i would never have earphones on while cycling…you are much more vulnerable on a bike than you are in a car you need to be able to hear as well as see, and while my radio is on, i can still hear a horn beeping me, or that…

Keep an eye on the Dublin Cycling Campaign for cycle training. They have qualified cycling instructors (to UK standard, there isn’t an equivalent here) and may well run training in the near future. I also have a look to see if we have a soft copy of the Galway Cycling Campaign safety leaflet for adult cyclists (covers some of what you’re asking).

She should be done for speeding!

It’s not villifying, there seems to be a trend of cyclists ignoring lights, I don’t remember it so much before but it seems like the minority of cyclists obey the rules anymore.

if you “go around a red light” its still breaking the lights.

Don’t think anyone is vilifying them, it was a survey of cyclists that admitted to braking the Rules or the Road. For every Cyclist I see on my Journey to and from work that stops at red lights, I see about ten that do not. I see alot less cars driving through red light then cyclists.

I give Cyclists all the room they need on the roads when I come up to them.

Your attitude says it all, that you don’t care if they go carefully around a red light and then in the next line say that all dangerous road users should be punished… It does matter how carefully you go around a red light its still breaking the law, no matter what way you look at it.

The lights are there because of cars.

Cyclists intermingle safely with pedestrians all over the world. Ireland seems to have unique problems. Why?

It certainly is nonsense, especially when we want more people cycling not lesss….bringing in nonsense like points will only put people off.

I would have thought making cycling safer would encourage more people to cycle, this means better infrastructure and better awareness for cyclists and motorists alike. they can fine you for not paying for the luas with no licence.
if they go about it with the goal of making cycling safer and more popular it would be great but I fear it might be closer to like you’re thinking and they’d just use it to create more revenue and squeeze more people away…

if you dont break the law you have norhing to worry about , right ?

We can make it safer by banning cars.

Cycle lanes in Mullingar are a joke. Pot holes, rubbish and broken glass and old road grit from winter are never cleaned out of them plus it’s hard to go more than 100m without finding a car parked in them.

Oh but cycle paths next to footpaths are perfectly fine for pedestrians!

Darren I agree to a point but as a pedestrian myself 50% of the time, does it really bother you that much if the cyclist is going slowly on the path and holds back to let you pass at the narrow points! I was recently nearly run down by a cyclist on the path who was going so fast and nearly swerved into me when a car started to slowly reverse out of a drive, it is those sort of cyclists on paths that annoy me, not the cyclists that respect the pedestrians and go slow on the paths, as I do to avoid being killed on the road. When I’m in pedestrian mode I don’t have a problem with cyclists using the path in a respectful manner, road conditions and driver attitudes don’t leave them many other safe options.

I am not too keen on going through green lights beside a cyclist glued to his mobile.

big time. I’ve been cycling for years in Dublin and in the passed three years the amount of people on the road cycling has gone through the roof. White van man and trucks and buses and of course taxis are lethal on Dublin roads. I think cyclists are an easy target as there are less of them than any other road user. Saying that though of course some of them break the rules of the road but I’d do it for evasive action like me mucker above points out. Spot on.

What about pedestrians? There are plenty that don’t understand the rules of the road. How can we track down those jaywalkers, or the eejits who step into the road without looking just because the pavement is blocked?

oh and the man with the suitcase was wavering all over the road so you couldnt safely pass him :/

Tom, cycling in this fashion in groups is actually safer because

A) you’re easier to see
B) its easier for motorists to overtake

If a large group were to cycle single file it would take cars ages to overtake the group, slowing you down more, frustrating you more and increasing the chances that someone will get run off the road.

Cycling two abreast is much much safer.

@John, I agree in part. However when you are on a narrow road that 2 cars would have bother passing side by side I think cyclists should drop to single file when they hear a car behind them just to make it a bit easier for the driver to overtake. I do this when cycling and often get a beep of thanks when cars pass.

@Jason agreed. down small little back roads it can get quite tight dropping back to single file is the sensible thing to do and the beep is always appreciated :D

I’d do the same myself and / or try get as tight to the side as possible without endangering myself or others. It’s always nice to cycle in a group that’s sensible enough and experienced enough to know this.