Cycling News

IMO decision raises spectre of tourist boycott.

Shane Foran, Safety Officer Galway Cycling Campaign -Feachtas Rothaiochta na Gaillimhe c/o Galway One World Centre, William St. West, Galway.

Released 25th April 2001

Cyclists have reacted with a mixture of disappointment and approval to several positions adopted by the Irish Medical Organisation at their AGM last weekend. The IMO endorsed proposals including a call for a ban on bull bars on 4x4 vehicles, another for 20mph speed limits in built up areas and also a controversial motion calling for compulsory helmet wearing legislation for cyclists. The proposals on speed limits and bull bars have been welcomed by the cyclists who view them as critical in promoting the safety of both cyclists and pedestrians. Ireland now has the highest child pedestrian death rate in Western Europe at 1.31 per 100,000 in 1997 and the use of lower speed limits is viewed as critical to reducing these deaths and improving safety for all road users.

However, the IMO's controversial call for compulsory cycle helmet legislation is viewed as a backward step. The main effect of such helmet laws elsewhere has been to discourage cycling without showing any improvement in the rates of death and injury among cyclists. Cycling is already known to be the safest form of transport. The British Medical Association has found that all things considered, the health benefits of regular cycling significantly outweigh any increased risk of injury(1). In Denmark it has been found that regular adult cycle commuters show a 40% lower mortality than their non-cycling peers(2). Ireland has among the highest levels of heart disease and obesity in the EU and is facing a public health crisis as about 13,000 Irish citizens die of heart disease and related conditions annually. In this context any measure that would discourage people from cycling would be a public health disaster. In endorsing compulsory helmet laws the IMO delegates rejected the considered advice of the European Cyclists Federation and the British Medical Association. In effect the IMO have chosen to reject science and endorse superstition and commercially driven hype.

The position taken by the IMO also has strong negative implications for the Irish tourist industry, already hard pressed by the foot and mouth crisis. According to Bord Failte, cycling tourists have the highest per capita spend of any specialist tourist groups. A study has found that cycling tourists generate more revenue per head than golfers, anglers, hillwalkers or equestrians. European cyclists have taken a strong stance against mandatory helmet laws both as a community and via their national and international representative bodies. An attempt by the Spanish authorities to impose a compulsory helmet law resulted in widely disseminated calls for a boycott of Spain as a destination for cycle tourists. Any similar legislation in Ireland would almost certainly trigger the same reaction.

1. Cycling Towards Health and Safety, Hillman et al, British Medical Association, Oxford University Press, 1992. 

2. All-cause mortality associated with physical activity during leisure time, work, sports, and cycling to work. Andersen LB. Schnohr, P. Schroll, M. Hein HO. , Archives of Internal Medicine. 160(11):1621-8, 2000

Additional Note: Revenue from cycle tourism 1995

Revenue per head specialist visitors 

• Cycling IR£ 456 

• Golf IR£ 442 

• Equestrian IR£ 418 

• Angling IR£ 375 

• Walking/Hiking IR£ 352

In 1995 it was estimated that cycle tourism, between specialist cycling visitors, 39,000 persons, and visitors engaging in cycling (hiring their equipment in country), 138,000 persons, resulted in a total gain to the state of IRP 90 million in that year.

Source: Bord Failte Research Quoted in, "An all Ireland Cycle Network", Report No. 529. Sustrans/Dublin Cycling Campaign, January 1997

<Read letter to the delegates to the AGM of the Irish Medical Organisation 19/4/01- 22/4/01>