Eight Cyclist Fatalities in 2017, to mid-May

Cyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network, of which Dublin Cycling Campaign is a lead member, wrote to Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross T.D. today seeking a meeting. The letter responds to the death of eight people riding their bikes on Irish public roads thus far in 2017. The text of the letter is below (and PDF below bottom).

Monday 22 May 2017

Dear Minister Ross,

I refer to my previous letter of 16 June 2016 and to my Cyclist.ie colleague Dr. Mike McKillen’s letter of 03 October 2016.

I am writing to you again on the matter of cyclist safety but, this time, after eight of my fellow cyclist citizens have been mowed down and killed by motor vehicles in 2017 – and it is only mid-May. In 2016 a total of 10 people riding their bikes lost their lives. The carnage can and must be halted!

There is something fundamentally wrong with our system and culture when the lives of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters are extinguished – at a rate of more than one per month – while they are engaging in a healthy activity that is promoted as government policy.

On behalf of those who use bicycles, both for everyday transportation/utility trips, and for recreational/tourism use, I am calling on you as the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to make – as a matter of urgency – a serious intervention before any other person on a bike loses their lives. We need leadership at this point to bring a halt to the death and misery inflicted by the utter dominance of motor vehicles on Irish roads.

As pointed out in our previous letters, your Department’s National Cycle Policy Framework (NCPF) of 2009 has all but been set-aside. All we hear about (for the last 2 to 3 years) is “an upcoming review” of same – with nothing forthcoming. Your department still has no National Cycling Coordinator in post, a basic pre-requisite for advancing a multi-faceted policy framework and a specific action of the NCPF (Objective #17.1). The promised National Advisory Forum has still not been established (Policy #17.2).

Furthermore, and to exacerbate these shortcomings, active travel is downgraded in the National ‘Building on Recovery’ Plan to a mere 1% of the proposed transport expenditure, despite the NCPF commitment of ‘adequate and timely funding’ (Chapter 4). This 1% figure compares very poorly to our European neighbours and to the UN recommended level of 20% of transport funding to go on non-motorised / active travel modes [1].

I am pleading with you to show real leadership in procuring a paradigm shift in how those who use active and healthy travel modes are treated on Irish public roads and, consequently, in how transport funds are spent. We strongly commend your support for lower vehicle speeds and for lower alcohol limits for drivers, but the parallel issue here – and the giant elephant in the room – is the need for transport to decarbonise and hence for capital expenditure on transport to switch away from endless demand-inducing road building and, instead, shift to investment in public transport, walking and cycling.

We would like to meet with you at the earliest possible date to discuss our concerns over the present level of cycling deaths, the need for adequate funding and resources, and the very real and relatively quick benefits to be gained from increased investment in cycling, as outlined in the NCPF.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Damien Ó Tuama
National Cycling Coordinator, Cyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network
Vice-President, European Cyclists’ Federation

University College Cork, the world’s first Green Campus, and Cork Cycling Campaign organised the first UCC Campus Cycle Week (6^th-10^th March) this spring, to start off the cycling season. Cork Cycling Campaign held an informal “Meet the Campaign” meeting for everybody interested, Miro and Darren offered a cycle safety course, and Victoria Cross Cycles offered their free BikeDoctor service. The main event was a roundtable discussion around cycling to UCC which ca. 20 staff and students attended over lunchtime, together with Cork City Council’s Cycling Officer, Anita Lenihan, and members of the Campaign and Stephan Koch in his function of UCC’s Commuter Plan Manager.

This setting was also used to officially launch the Cork Cycling Skills leaflet that Cork Cycling Campaign and the Transport and Mobility Forum got printed in large numbers with the support of Cork City Council. The flyer aims at giving cyclists advice how to safely navigate through road traffic and build up confidence to also tackle challenging situations on the roads. It is a reprint of the successful leaflet that Galway Cycling Campaign produced some years ago. Thanks to the colleagues in Galway for their kind permission. The launch got quite a bit of media attention (Irish Examiner, Cork’s 96fm).

We succeeded in making Cork Cycling Campaign more visible in town and in UCC, and a special thank you to our Vice-Chair Dean Venables who was the driving force behind this (also as a UCC staff member), as well as to Sarah Thelen for her support. We plan to have the next Campus Cycle Week next year.

Update you on our progress with Cycling Without Age coming to Ireland.

The first rickshaw bike arrived in Dublin on Monday, 13^th March 2017. We were delighted to take up the invitation from the Dublin Cycling Campaign to participate in the Dublin St Patrick’s Day Parade under the banner of 200 Years of Cycling. See the photo of us at the start of the parade.  We purchased this first bike from personal funds, so as to have a model to demonstrate to nursing homes and sponsors. We hope to have this bike crowd-funded.

Now that we have the bike here, we will be happy to talk to people, organisations, nursing homes, potential sponsors and others about how to promote the concept of Cycling Without Age here. We already have expressions of interest from some sponsors and organisations, and offers from volunteer pilots, whom we will train in the bike’s use.  Please let us know if you would like more information.

Clara Clark & Charles Mollan