The above images shows an ad campaign run awhile ago by Metro, LA’s transport authority.
It’s aim is to drive the message home that cyclists sometimes do need to keep away from the kerb, they can’t always use bike lanes, and that they need to move out into the middle of a lane (aka “cycling in the middle of the road”) so they can switch lanes and to turn.
Would an ad campaign like this be useful in Ireland?
WHY WE SHOULD SOMETIMES FOLLOW THE US: We have stressed the point that Ireland should stop following UK cycling design principals — mainly shared space footpaths, which is a flawed and failed design here and in the UK. So, it might be surprising that that we sometimes recommend following examples from the US.
The city of LA in some ways are ahead of us: They have bike racks on buses*; bikes have been allowed on their metro and commuter trains long before bikes were allowed on Dublin’s Dart and Commuter trains; they had bike lockers at train stations before us; they’ve had cycle route maps before us; their new off-road paths generally have a higher degree of segregation from pedestrians; and when the city holds large-scale cycles on their streets there’s a large police escort.
* Regardless of how useful bike racks on buses could be in Dublin, some people are still dismissive of following LA, or most cities in the US and Canada which have bike racks on buses. Unlike many cities in Europe, both LA and Dublin have strong car cultures and public transport mostly based around buses — like Dublin, LA has an extensive bus network (LA surprisingly also has a far more developed rail network, including an ever growing metro system).
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