Cycle lanes – A path to destruction
Ok, now that’s quite a sensationalist headline, voiced in the same weird tone as ‘sex-ed’ videos made in the 1950’s, “Pre-marital sex – the silent killer”, but, aside from a little tongue-and check click-baiting headline, the point is far from sensationalist; cycle lanes are poorly made, poorly kept and all to often, treated by motorist as comfy parking spaces. Coming across the bridge from Harold’s cross on a busy weekday morning, you will be treated to a cavalcade of hi-vis vests and flowery baskets as they trundle over the bridge, narrowly escaping death every five seconds or so. Cycling in Dublin’s fair city is a dangerous mode of travel and little is done in the way of alleviating any of that danger; often its impossible to know where the cycle lane begins and ends, parked cars mount the clearly lined path and force its intended users onto the road. Beeps and horns from disgruntled drivers on one side, and a great wall of parked vehicles patrol the other; cycling in Dublin must only be for the demented and deranged, or so the state of Irish cycle paths would lead you to believe. What must the mental state of a person be who would put themselves in such danger? Well as it happens, most who do cycle are professionals and students, attempting to find and alternative to the traffic jams and frustration; why punish such an attempt with an obstacle course of injury and indifference?
According to the Garda Inspectorate Report on Crime Investigation, 2014, incidents of cyclist collisions are not being handled correctly by the authorities. It reads, “This inspection has identified several deficiencies in recording practices, supervision and governance over recorded crime and the level of recorded detections for those crimes.” While a HSE report filed in 2011 noted that only 10% of all cyclist collisions are recorded properly. Not only are cyclists being pinned into a narrow stretch, fit only for adrenaline junkies, but when the inevitable happens, and they are felled by passing cars, nothing is being said of it. It must be said however, that none of this is meant to lay blame on the drivers; they’re as terrified of the amateur circus performers balancing to their left, as the cyclists are of them. As a result the roads become unsafe, unsure and accidents unaccounted for. As autumn takes hold of Dublin and lines the gutter ridden, yellow-marked slip-streams with Mario-cart style slip-up leaves, it can only be a matter of time before a cyclist ends up beneath the wheels of a startled car. This ‘Danger Zone’ (to borrow a phrase from the song made famous by Kenny Loggins and again by Sterling Archer) is fit only for ISIS agents (both types), rather than average commuters. Forced into a perilous battle between car and path I’ve often found myself hoping for some sort of divine intervention; there are no atheists in Danger Zones.
Before we can begin to even consider the idea of improving this situation, motorists have to stop taking control of the cycle paths, cyclists have to be aware of the rules of the road and drivers have to be aware that the ‘two wheeled maniacs’ they share the road with are just as fearful of rolling over their bonnet as they are.