UPDATE: There was a strong response to this — with at least 40 people contacting us — that’s probably enough. Thank you to all who responded.
RTE’s Prime Time are seeking new footage showing the conditions people cycling in Ireland have to tolerate.
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It’s for a programme which is due to air at the start of February.
Prime Time can take footage from people who already use cameras when cycling and the programme is also looking to provide GoPro cameras to people willing to use them for a few days.
If you’re interested in helping them, you contact [email deleted] and we can give you the contact details of the producer working on the story.
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Interesting to note that RTE Primetime sought similar helmet-cam footage a few years ago. Not much came of it.
I imagine this is basically going to a long montage of close passes, left hooks and people pulling out in front of you. Unfortunately I can see two reactions to a show like this:-
“Look at those arrogant cyclists, putting themselves in danger like that (by using the roads) and letting out a torrent of abuse whenever they don’t get things all their own way (for letting out a startled ‘fuck’ when some in a car shoots past too fast and too close).”
and
“Cycling is so dangerous (not bad driving makes cycling dangerous). I could never do that.”
Hopefully they include (or entirely focus on) less dramatic examples.
The way cycle lanes are routinely blocked. Every morning South Richmond Street is blocked by one or more busses diagonally across the lane trying to make a lane change. The Lidl in Cork street perpetually has people parked in the clearway during its active hours forcing cyclists to pull out in to traffic while taxis coming up behind are doing the same thing. People everywhere seem to think they make good overflow parking, two (maybe three) car sellers use the cycle lane on the N7 as a free extension to their show room forcing cyclists to bump down a high kerb.
The way cycle lanes are badly maintained. The path near Fairview Park is like a set from Jumanji. Sludgy piles of leaves, rubbish including broken glass, potholes and decayed surfaces are endemic.
The way cycle lanes are badly designed (unless you assume they are designed to get cyclists out of the way of motorists in which case the only problem is that we aren’t forced by law to use them any more). Examples abound of cycle lanes that take you off the road and then end less than 100m later or that force you to cede priority at every side road or that place you in danger on the outside rim of a roundabout or inside left turning traffic.
Every one of those cycle lanes is assumed to be ‘perfectly good’ by motorists who are annoyed at ‘arrogant cyclists’ that are in their way.
I hope they also show how efficient and pleasant cycling can be when things go well, which they do most of the time. From my window in work I can see traffic get blocked up starting at around 4pm. That’s when the horn honking really gets going as people get frustrated. Yet there is a constant stream of cyclists slipping past, getting home more quickly and with less frustration. I think I can probably make it all the way home five kilometers away while some of those motorists are still stuck on the road outside my office. Even on rainy and cold winter days I would still rather cycle than deal with city centre traffic.
Hopefully they will show the positive side. At the end of the day, numbers would not be growing if there was a constant threat to safety. For my part, most drivers have a good awareness and give me plenty of space. The number of scary moments are relatively few, maybe once a month.
I would like to see the discussion around safety move away from helmets and high-viz, and instead to get better infrastructure, and segregation between different road users: motorists, cyclists, pedestrians.
Good point Hugh — being able to illustrate cyclists safely travelling via segregated cycle paths would be a decent “good news” clip, to balance out the close passes etc.
Last night’s edition of Prime Time (Feb 13th) had a piece on cycling safety, and interaction with other road users. Damien O’Tuama was there on behalf of cyclists, I thought he did a very good job. Cllr Mannix Flynn was there as a counter balance. I really don’t understand where he’s coming from. He seems to be anti-everyone.
Was shocked to hear a statistic from the 2016 census: only 800 Irish schoolgirls cycle to school. That’s 800 in the entire country!