Cycling News

Report reveals that DoELG and DTO distributed dangerous design guidance to Irish Local Authorities.

Shane Foran, Safety Officer Galway Cycling Campaign

9/5/02

An independent report has revealed that the Department of the Environment and Local Government (DoELG) and Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) has been distributing dangerous and inappropriate road design guidance to Irish Local Authorities. The report, on Irish cycle facilities design guidance, was compiled by the Galway Cycling Campaign and has revealed that the DoELG and DTO had endorsed the use of cycle track designs associated with up to 12 fold (x12) increases in the rate of collisions between cars and bicycles. It is now over 25 years since a previous An Foras Forbartha report found that the use of roadside cycle tracks was inherently self defeating because of "the very real risk of collisions in the merging phase" at intersections. At a European conference in 1991 the use of roadside cycleways was described as being equivalent to "Russian roulette".

The DTO/DoELG document was adapted from previous Dutch design guidance and is based on the unique Dutch legal system in which cyclists must yield to motorists unless there are special road markings. Under Dutch law motorists are also held to be automatically liable in collisions with cyclists regardless of the circumstances of the accident. The Netherlands has set a target of 20mph speed limits on 75% of urban roads and there are estimated to be 1,500 speed camera installations in the Netherlands. The Netherlands also has 6,500 residential zones in which a speed limit of "walking speed" applies. However, the Irish Ministers for the Environment and Local Government failed to introduce similar legislation or measures in support of the Irish document.

Comparison of a draft of the document with the final version further showed that some of the Dutch cycle track designs were changed by removing protective road markings that were intended to reduce the safety risks to those cyclists who choose to use them. In addition, several key designs have were changed so as to remove priority from the cyclists using the cycle tracks and give it to motorised traffic. Cycle track users who could have proceeded normally if they had stayed on the road were expected to stop and yield to turning and crossing motor traffic at every side road.

"Many cyclists have long suspected that most Irish "cycle facilities" were neither intended to enhance safety nor to promote and encourage cycling. Instead, it is suspected that they actually represent a crude attempt to manage and control bicycle traffic for the benefit of motorists. This view is reinforced by the nature of design guidance being issued by the DoELG and DTO." said Shane Foran the Safety Officer for the Galway Cycle Campaign who wrote the report.

The report was funded in part by a grant from the Environmental Partnership Fund and copies have now been distributed to all Irish Local Authorities and University Libraries.

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For confirmation

Phone Shane Foran (Safety Officer) 087 9935993 Miriam Sheerin (Secretary) 087 8786634

Galway Cycling Campaign -Feachtas Rothaiochta na Gaillimhe c/o Galway One World Centre, the Halls, Quay St., Galway.

References The Bicycle: A Study of Efficiency, Usage and Safety, D.F. Moore, An Foras Forbartha Teoranta, 1975.

Russian Roulette" turns spotlight of criticism on cycleways, Proceedings of conference 'Sicherheit rund ums Radfahren', Vienna 1991