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Go to older news stories
9/5/02 Report reveals that DoELG and DTO distributed
dangerous design guidance to Irish Local Authorities.
27/4/02 Galway City Community Forum holds "Day
of Action" on pedestrian/ cyclist/wheelchair access to city
22/4/02 Call for National Safety Council to scrapped
in wake of motor insurance scandal
17/4/02 Cyclists snubbed in City roadworks programme
6/4/02 Objection lodged with An Bord Planeala
over roundabouts and cycle paths threatened for Quirke Rd
9/5/02 Report reveals that
DoELG and DTO distributed dangerous design guidance to Irish Local
Authorities.
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 road markings that were intended
to reduce the safety risks to those cyclists who choose to use them.
In addition, several key designs 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.
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.
Download here Irish
Cycle Facilities Manual available in PDF format (1.37 MB includes cover sheet and corrections) 1.2 MB MS Word
'97 Format still available here
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27/4/02 Galway City Community
Forum holds "Day of Action" on pedestrian/ cyclist/wheelchair
access to city
On Saturday the 27th of April, the Community
Forum held a "Day of Action" to highlight the issues of cyclist,
pedestrian and wheelchair access to the city. The march started
at Sandyvale lawns and then proceeded to the Moneen-na-geesha roundabout
via the Headford Road roundabout. At Moneen-na-geesha the
march was joined by members of the Galway Cycling Campaign and the
Irish Wheelchair Association.
At the Mooneen-na-geesha roundabout
the wheelchairs users attempted to use the "pedestrian facilities"
which Frank Harewood, Galway city council's "pedestrian crossing
consultant" has claimed are present at all the roundabouts
in the city. And which, the "pedestrian crossing consultant"
has claimed are "great aids" to wheelchair users. Mr.,
Harewood's claims aroused great hilarity among those present. (The
wheelchair users only got across after the other protesters stood
out and blocked the traffic.)
In appalling weather and pouring rain
the march then proceeded to Eyre Square amid jokes about the need
for "amphibious wheelchairs". At Eyre Square it
became apparent that it is physically impossible for wheel chair
users to use many of the designated pedestrian crossings because
of kerbs of up to 4 inches in height. It also transpired that
although there are disabled parking spaces there is no way for wheel
chair users to get up onto the path from the road. At the
end of the protest the Gardai stopped the traffic so that the wheel
chair users could be lifted down from the central square and disperse.
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22/4/02 Call for National
Safety Council to scrapped in wake of motor insurance scandal
Irish road user groups have called for
the National Safety Council to be scrapped following last weeks
revelations of massive profiteering by the Irish Motor Insurance
Industry. The MIJAG the Motor Insurance Justice Action Group and
the Galway Cycling Campaign have expressed their anger and concern
over close links between the National Safety Council and motor insurers.
Mr. Eddie Shaw, the NSC head, is a former Director of the
Hibernian Group, while the National Safety Council includes persons
such as Aidan Cassells - Executive Director, Guardian/PMPA Insurance
and Conor Faughnan - Public Affairs Manager of the Automobile Association.
The AA has close links with the insurance industry and has operated
it's own motor insurance business. There are no representatives
of cyclists, pedestrians or of non-commercial motoring bodies on
the NSC. The National Safety Council's ad campaigns are funded
by entities such as motor insurers, oil companies and motor manufacturers.
Both MIJAG's and the GCC's longstanding concerns about these links
have been heightened by the recent revelations, that as a direct
result of the high levels of crashes on Irish roads, the Irish motor
insurance industry had been able generate profits eleven times higher
than those in the UK.
"MIJAG has previously registered our
disgust at the way NSC had been used in a highly political campaign
by the insurance companies to discredit young drivers in their attempt
to justify massively inflated premiums". Said MIJAG spokesperson
Mick Murphy.
Both groups think it is time for a long
hard look at the activities and composition of the National Safety
Council and point out that the National Safety Council appears to
be largely controlled and funded by entities who have a clear commercial
interest in car crashes and who have a clear, and undeniable, commercial
interest in promoting the wider use of private motor cars on Irish
roads.
"It is my view, that giving an entity
like the National Safety Council responsibility for road safety
information is comparable to giving the tobacco companies a central
role in lung cancer prevention." Said Shane Foran, a spokesperson
for the Galway Cycling Campaign.
Both groups have called for the existing
National Safety Council to be scrapped and replaced with a body
made up of representatives of non-commercial road user groups from
all sectors of society.
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17/4/02 Cyclists snubbed
in City roadworks programme
Galway's cyclists have been snubbed
yet again by Galway City Council's proposed roadworks scheme for
2002, which has aroused serious controversy both at Strategic Policy
Committee level and at City Council level. At a recent Strategic
Policy Committee presentation of the roadworks scheme by Senior
Engineer Mr. Tansey it was revealed that the city council does not
intend to implement the recommendations of the 1979 Foras Forbartha
report on "Cycle Travel in Galway City".
It is now 22 years since this report
recommended that one-way streets in the city be made two-way for
cyclists and the use of these measures have already been cleared
in principle with the Gardai. This is widespread measure in
other European cities and its use is provided for under the Irish
traffic regulations. The GCC had a meeting with the Gardai
to discuss and clear their use in August 1999. At that time a GCC
member made repeated efforts to contact Mr. Tansey by phone. However,
Mr. Tansey was never available and never returned any of the calls.
Written correspondence to Mr. Tansey also went unanswered.
The city council is carrying out works on several one-way streets
in the current program and at the presentation it was pointed out
to Mr. Tansey that all would be required would be revised road markings
and small signs at some locations with no additional cost involved.
Nevertheless, the implementation of these recommendations was rejected
by the city council engineer.
Shock has also expressed at the revelation
that the city council has allocated E76,000 for cycle lanes of a
dangerous design on the Western Distributor Road while at the same
time the City Council's Senior Engineer, Mr. Joe Tansey was not
prepared to entertain the suggestion that funds should be spent
on measures to make the existing roundabouts less dangerous for
cyclists. On roundabouts of the design favoured by the City
Council's roads department cyclists have and injury accident rate
that is up to 14-16 times higher than that of motorists - the use
of such roundabouts was also queried in the 1979 report. At
a meeting last year a GCC representative had obtained agreement
from another city engineer for the use of road signs warning motorists
of the presence of cyclists at the roundabouts prior to European
Car free day. However these signs never appeared. Story
here
Suggestions regarding "advanced
stop lines", a simple, internationally established and cost-free
measure to make the proposed traffic lights at Riverside safer and
more convenient for both cyclists, and pedestrians, were also rejected
by Mr. Tansey. The Galway Cycling Campaign are calling on all concerned
Galwegians to support the Community Forum's "Day of Action" on Saturday
the 27th of April, which will highlight the issues of cyclist, pedestrian
and wheelchair access to the city.
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6/4/02 Objection lodged with
An Bord Planeala over roundabouts and cycle paths threatened for
Quirke Rd.
The GCC has lodged and objection to
An Bord Planeala over the Galway City Councils proposed schem for
the Seamuse Quirke Road. for more information go here.
Two more roundabouts and cycle
paths threatened for Quirke Rd.
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