I’ve recently taken up cycling to work, on the days that I can. Those days are those that I don’t have meetings, so I’m not suited and booted so to speak. My reasons for taking up cycling to work was because of recently becoming a father. Before my beautiful daughter came along (ahhhhhh), I would spend my evenings working and then trying to fit in a jog or a game of football to keep fit. So I thought the best way to maximise my time was to get a bike and cycle to work at least twice a week.
The cycle to work is just under 8 miles, so it takes me on average, 35 mins to reach my destination. For me this was a good way of getting a workout in and maximising my time in the evenings to spend with the family! 
But….. The more I cycle, the more I feel I’m really taking my life into my own hands. Every day since I began cycling, I have had situations which just make me rethink whether or not my cycling idea was a good one for my health.
Irish drivers really don’t have any regard for cyclists on Irish roads. I have had people open the car doors when parked, pulling out in front of me, turning corners right in front of my path and encroaching on me while I’m on a cycle lane.
The closest call I’ve had yet was when a woman was coming out of an estate, where the traffic was built up and the only place she could go was the yellow box. I’ve no problem here coming out, but when she doesn’t even bother to look, now that annoys me. I was easily doing 20 miles an hour on a cycle lane, and she just pulls out in front of me without looking. I didn’t even have the time to stop and I ended up crashing into her. Granted, I did have enough time to slow down a lot, so there was no damage and no injuries, but she thought nothing of it. Looking at me as if it was my fault. I calmly(;)) lost my head at her and told her that she should go and get lessons etc. But she ust brushed it off as if she wasn’t wrong at all.
Now I do agree that no-one has a divine right to the right of way, but this was just pure ignorance and really poor driving. But that has been one of many incidents that I have encountered since taking up cycling.
I also agree that some cyclists are just as bad with their manners on the road, but at the end of the day, cyclists are the ones driving a big piece of metal, so if there is a collision between cars and cyclists, we know which of the two would come out best.
As I am also a driver, I decided to put together a list that will hopefully help both sides see the grieviances on road safety between the two types of road users.
Top 5 driver errors when dealing with cyclists
- Miscaculating the speed of a cyclist. A lot of drivers think that because it’s a bike, that they can just cut across their path when taking a right turn. Bikes can travel at speeds of easily up to 30MPH, just like a typical car on a public road. Don’t under estimate the speed the cyclist is travelling at.
- Opening car doors without checking. Happens way too often.
- When they see a cyclist, some drivers like to move in closer to the path to stop them from passing them…. how childish….
- Pulling out onto cycle lanes without looking left. Probably another of the most common ones. Drivers come out of an estate right onto a cycle lane as if it’s the edge of the road.
- Cutting across or speeding up in front of cyclists to turn left.
Top 5 Cyclist Errors when cycling
- Driving the wrong way up cycle lanes. One of my pet hates. Nevermind the gobshites that cycle the wrong way on cycle lanes that reside on a road, but those that cycle on the pathway ones too. A drivers natural instict is to look right when coming onto a road, this is because that’s the direction the traffic should be coming (closest to them). When someone is cycling the wrong way, it’s likely you won’t be seen.
- Weaving in front of cars - this is both from avoiding potholes in the road, to traffic hoping. etc. etc.
- Breaking traffic lights - Traffic lights are there for a reason. Unless there are absoultey no cars coming, you should never break a traffic light. In fact, the rules of the road state that cyclists must obey the laws for all road users.
- Side by side cycling - Contrary to popular believe, this is illegal. You can’t cycle side by side with other cyclists - especially when it is effecting other traffic. Such as cars not being able to pass you out etc.
- Hard to find a fifth - maybe it’s those cyclists that don’t think about what they look like from behind when they have big builders bums and stuff…. yuk, enough to make someone crash for sure….
I’m sure you all have your own thoughts - maybe we can add to this list!
A sixth for car drivers: don’t think ‘overtake’ as soon as you see a cyclist. It’ll take an extra ten seconds to check for oncoming traffic. I see more near misses from that than anything else.
Which leads to a natural fifth for cyclist errors: saying thankyou when cars do help you out by waiting. They should do it anyway but a little courtesy never hurt anyone.
But apart from that great list Tom.
I gave up cycling in Dublin after three accidents that caused me injury. I had many more without injury. One was my fault - into the luas line on Abbey Street but the two others were not.
The second time I hit one nutter pedestrian on Parnell Square who for no apparent reason stepped off the path about 3 feet in front of me. Busted my shoulder and wrist. The asshole started shouting at me even though he had stepped off and not looked at the prevailing traffic BEHIND him. Three trips to a physio and months of agony later and still no relief.
The third time was when some idiot opened their door, again about 3 feet in front of me to get out and I slammed into his open door and ended uo inside his car. Also ended up in Tallaght hospital too.
I have been rammed in cycle lanes by motorbikes, hit by buses and have had far too many near misses with taxis. As for dipshits on the phone they scare the daylights out of me. Weaving in and out and over correcting when all they are doing is talking to some tart on the phone.
I decided after my friends employer was killed by a guy in a jeep this year to stop cycling in Ireland permanently. Nobody really cares if they kill you or not and a meek sorry after the event won’t bring you back to life.
I did have one lovely accident that didn’t hurt me at all. Cycling around college green too fast I bodychecked a bus conductor who corrected my line quite nicely. Apart from that cycling in Dublin is miserable.
My friend who is a (motor) biker has a quick remedy when it involves cars coming too close. A quick boot to the door usually wakes them up. Its a choice between a dented door or you on a slab with a tag on your toe. Personally I will kick the door before lying down dead.
I don’t think my experiences of five years of mindnumbingly bad inner city driving is atypical.
My own pet hate is the drivers who edge out of a side street or decide that suddenly we are all European and stop to let some idiot out of a side street.
Its the random nature of the driving thats the problem not the speed. If you can predict that drivers are a bit mad and give them space OK but there is so little enforecement and so many people who have not been trained you have no idea what they are doing.
Don’t even get me started on the whole reversing onto a main road thing.
[...] wrote an article a few weeks back about the dangers of cycling on Irish roads (view here) - well I had another near miss [...]