Cyclists and the Traffic Regulations

Mary Holland (Opinion 24th April <Read it Here>) highlights non-compliance by cyclists with the traffic regulations. She raises various issues including compliance with one-way street/no-entry restrictions, traffic signals and road safety education.

One-way streets are used as part of traffic management schemes that focus only on managing the flow of motorised vehicles. There are usually no traffic management or safety justifications for imposing one-way street restrictions on cycle traffic. The Irish authorities may be unique in Northern Europe in routinely applying these restrictions to cyclists. Doing so often causes problems for cyclists in the form of unnecessary detours and additional trip length. Negotiating extensive one-way systems is difficult for cyclists, requiring frequent lane changes and weaving manoeuvres, in Ireland this is often amid cars being driven at illegal speeds. Those European cities that have successfully encouraged cycling have been notable for tackling the issue of one-way streets. Some towns such as Ferrara (Italy) and Groningen (Holland) have actually opened up all one-way streets to cyclists. Current EU advice is that the introduction of new one-way streets should be reduced to the strictly necessary. EU policy recommends that one-way streets on minor roads and secondary major roads include provision for two-way cycle traffic.

Solutions vary, cyclists may simply be exempted from no entry restrictions or alternatively a "false one-way street" may be created in which entry to motorists is physically blocked while allowing cyclists to pass. At higher traffic speeds/volumes warning markings advising of oncoming cycle traffic or some form of traffic lane might be used, including contra-flow cycle lanes (if parking restrictions can be enforced). The Irish traffic regulations do provide for a plate granting an exemption to cyclists passing no entry signs. However the current regulations do not provide that cyclists may cross no entry markings unless it is to enter a cycle track, some imagination may be needed in finding solutions for Irish one-way streets.

Banned left and right turns are a similar issue to one-way streets. Again there is rarely any traffic management justification for applying these restrictions to cyclists. Nevertheless cyclists find themselves included in such bans and forced to make long detours. Cyclists often find that trying to comply with the law also puts them in extreme danger. In Galway City all traffic leaving the city's main cinema complex, main toyshop and largest computer/electronics outlets is equally subject to a ban on right turns. Regardless of the desired direction of travel, cyclists, including children, are directed without warning onto the notorious Headford road roundabout, which has 5 entries and three circulation lanes. Again, solutions are available. The Irish traffic regulations provide for a separate plate that creates an exemption for cyclists. At some locations "cyclist only" turning reservoirs or bypasses could be used or cyclists can be facilitated by using signalised "toucan crossings" (combined pedestrian/cyclist crossings).

Identical considerations apply to the use of pedestrian zones and vehicle restricted areas. As long ago as 1983 it was established in Germany that forbidding cycling in pedestrian areas should be avoided and measures were identified by which potential conflicts could be avoided or defused, official guidance has been available in the UK since 1986. Again, EU policy recommends opening pedestrian zones to cycle traffic. Galway corporation recently spent large quantities of EU funds on a controversial and much criticised "street enhancement" scheme in the city centre. In defiance of longstanding European practice and EU policy, Galway Corporation chose to adopt a scheme, which includes a ban on cyclists using the Shop street/Mainguard street corridor. As any native Galwegian could testify, this route has always been, and remains, the natural route across the city for cyclists, including many schoolchildren, who are now apparently meant to use the city's docks.

Traffic signals apply equally to all traffic including cyclists. However, the issue of cyclists running red lights is complex and not given to simplistic condemnation. Many signal installations are vehicle-actuated via induction loops buried in the road surface. Cyclists are rarely taught how to trigger these and when they are, they have no assurance that the detection loops have been tuned to detect bicycles. In off-peak traffic this leaves the cyclist with the choice of waiting for a car to come along or running the light. (Under Irish and British law dismounting and walking against a red light isalso an offence). Many cyclists also argue with some merit that they should automatically have a free left turn at traffic signals and certainly in the US a similar policy is widely applied to all (right turning) traffic. Similarly motorists would be unwise to assume that all cyclists who run red lights do so unthinkingly. A cyclist has vastly superior view of the prevailing traffic conditions and superior acceleration between 0 and 5 mph. Many cyclists would argue that they are safer clearing the junction in the pause between alternate signal phases and in some countries cyclists are facilitated in this with a dedicated "four-way green" during the signal cycle. These are arguments I recognise but with which I would not agree in the current environment. At some locations cyclists are simply placed outside the law. In Galway City there are combined cycle-path/traffic signal installations where the layout and road markings clearly suggest that the lights do not apply to cycle traffic, and where cyclists may not actually proceed unless the lights are red. If Galway cyclists are confused about traffic signals then the blame rests squarely with Galway Corporation. The issue of cyclists jumping queues is a bugbear for many motorists but again like is not being compared with like. For a motorist in off-peak traffic the relative position in any given queue does not affect the overall journey time. For cyclists any time spent not moving is added to the overall journey time, it is not realistic to expect cyclists to wait at the back of every queue. In more enlightened jurisdictions this is recognised and cyclists are provided with reservoirs adjacent to the junction. These reservoirs or "advanced stop lines" are extremely popular with cyclists although safety issues can arise if traffic engineers attempt to use them in conjunction with cycle lanes. Finally, Irish motorists themselves contribute to queue jumping by cyclists. If waiting motorists decline to indicate their intended direction, cyclists cannot identify safe slots within the queue and can feel obliged to jump the whole thing.

Ms. Holland reports her surprise at discovering that bicycles are vehicles and that cyclists are treated like any other drivers. In Ireland one of the biggest obstacles to proper road user education is the actual text "The Rules of the Road" as published by the Department of the Environment. For some unfathomable reason this is broken into sections that artificially distinguish between different road user groups: motorists, motorcyclists and cyclists. The main chapter on using the roads is actually entitled "driving the car" and is devoid of pictures of two wheeled vehicles, is it any wonder that people get confused? An additional problem arises when the education of cyclists is involved. Simplistic admonitions such as "keep left" and "use hand signals" are repeated ad nauseam. What cyclists are not told is that hand signals do not confer any right of way or that one may not lawfully or safely overtake on the left except under certain restricted circumstances. The results are predictable, cyclists blindly hug the kerb confident that they have right of way as long as they keep left, appearing "as if from nowhere" from behind queues of cars to get smashed down by crossing and turning traffic. A particular problem is caused by the tacit encouragement of cyclists to "creep up" inside turning trucks and buses at bends and corners. The resulting "coffin corner" collisions have a high risk of fatality. In one study 14 of 15 fatalities involving left turning vehicles were of this type. These deaths are not primarily the fault of either the cyclists or of the lorry drivers. The blame rests primarily with the motorists, some officially employed, who concoct and distribute dangerous and misleading "safety messages".

There is a crying need for a comprehensive education programme aimed at giving all road users the straight facts. Unfortunately much of the advice peddled to cyclists and pedestrians is not aimed at ensuring their safety but is focused on ensuring motorist convenience and distracting attention from the less than salutary role that Irish traffic engineers have played. And this is the essence of the problem facing us all. The actual traffic regulations (as opposed to what you get in the post office) are a set of common sense rules, which if appropriately applied and followed, should ensure the safe and equitable sharing of our public roads. Unfortunately these roads are being commissioned, designed and managedby people who fail to acknowledge or recognise the actual mix of traffic using them. (The cycle-track devices that have recently started to appear reinforce, rather than remedy, this failure and are almost invariably safety hazards in their own right.) I cannot condone cyclists who ignore existing restrictions whether traffic signals, one way streets, banned turns or pedestrian zones. However, where it occurs, this behaviour does not indicate some form of "wilful unlawfulness" on the part of cyclists. Infact it usually demonstrates that the engineers and planners involved originally chose to disregard their own functions under the Roads Acts. Section 13.5 of the Roads Act (14 of 1993) clearly states "in the performance of its functions.... a roads authority shall consider the needs of all road users".

Yours

Shane Foran M.Sc. Safety Officer Galway Cycling Campaign

Readers can obtain a set of leaflets/posters aimed at educating adult cyclists and motorists, by sending a SAE with 35p stamp to "Share the Road", Galway Cycling Campaign, One World Centre, William St. West Galway.