Cyclists and Mobile Phones

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divadsnilloc

Registered User
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Saw a classic this morning in Baggot St, this eco looking cyclist, complete with helmet and safety gear, yapping away on his mobile whilst wobbling precariously beside a No. 10 bus. Is it illegal for cyclists to use their mobiles because they're never shy to criticise motorists. Maybe I should direct this question to the Green Party??
 
I am a commuting cyclist in Dublin and holding a phone and cycling is more than unacceptable, it is life threatening due to the halving of concentration and braking ability.

I believe the standard of cycling around the city has improved - mainly because the amount of traffic has increased and got faster, meaning that cyclists must make themselves more visible and conduct themselves better on the road simply to stay alive. Car drivers are also quite tolerant of cyclists - again moreso than in the past and I suppose more ex-car drivers have turned to city biking and these cyclists have a good understanding of how to interact with cars. The cycle lanes and paths created under EU rules are also great - they make things much safer.

Some bikers still think that when they cycle they are like pedestrians with wheels - not subject to the rules of the road, but oh no - there's a whole section of that book dedicated to it.

It's like cycling without holding onto the handlebars - it can be done, but its completely unsafe because you're not in control of the bike.

If a guard spots a cyclist using their bike erratically or posing a risk to other traffic they are perfectly entitled to pull the cyclist up for that - maybe they should do so more often.

I think the Gardai concentrate on cars and most road 'controls' are geared up to deal with motorists rather than cyclists. It'll always be the case tho that everyone will have a story about how they saw both motorists and cyclists do some fairly astonishing and dangerous things on the roads.
 
The other thing that I think is very dangerous is cyclists listening to loud music on earphones while cycling - cant hear anything around them.
 
Page 162 of the Rules of the Road lists some dos and don'ts for cyclists and one is "don't ever use your mobile phone while cycling"

The pre-amble describes the list as "actions the cyclist should take...."

It's a should rather than a must though which means that there's no legislation to enforce it (as per the introduction on page 8)
 
Gotta stand up for us Cyclists, firstly wearing a helmet and cycling gear is hardly the choice of dress of an eco cyclist, if cycling you are obliged to wear a helmet from a safety & legal perspective. On a daily basis cycling thru Dublin city I see car driving folk on their mobiles, folk jumping into bus lanes and driving through red lights and most comical of all early in the morning you’ll often see women applying finishing touches to their make-up and the odd time men using electric razors, sure only yesterday I saw two gardai parked in a lane in a garda van smoking!!!
 
This is indeed crazy behaviour for a cyclist (speaking as a commuting cyclist). I've seen cyclists texting while moseying along busy cycle lanes in Dublin too, believe it or not. I guess they are unlikely to do much harm to anyone other than themselves, unlike the many car drivers who turn left with no indication, drive 3" from the kerb, misjudge my speed and cut me off after overtaking me, drive the wrong way down one-way streets at me, etc. Still, as you'll see on my [broken link removed], I've had some progress with the Gardai taking actions against such drivers.
 
I'm sure if a cyclists ran into a pedistrian at full pelt, even someone with a child, they could easily kill someone. They could cause another cyclists or driver to swerve and result in an accident. So please don't defend cyclists by pointing out its not as bad as bad drivers. I've seen a few cyclists pulled over by the cops lately and its good to see. Some of them are lethal.
 

Let's get real. The scenario you outline of a cyclist using their mobile and crashing and killing a pedestrian in a one-in-a-million possibility. Any time I've seen a cyclist using their phone, they have tended to moseying along at a gentle pace. A collision would only occur if you had an inattentive pedestrian in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've never heard of it happening in Ireland (though I don't claim to have an exhaustive knowledge of all road accidents). So yes, in theory, it could possibly happen, but the chances are tiny.

For the record, I'm not defending such cyclists, and I'd be quite happy to see them being pulled by the Guards. I'd be quite happy to see the many cyclists I see dangerously breaking lights or hopping on paths being pulled by the Guards.

But if you want to focus Garda attention on where they will have the most impact in saving lives and preventing injury, you'd be better off focusing on the kinds of inconsiderate and dangerous driving I mentioned above. Cyclists get killed by cars and trucks in Dublin on a worryingly regular basis.
 
Point is, in a thread about bad cyclists, your making it a bad motorist issue.

I don't think its one in a million you see near misses with cyclists almost on a daily basis. Everyday you see cyclists breaking lights and ignoring basic common sense when crossing lanes, etc. So I'm not surprised in the slightest at the high accident rate of cyclists. The other day I say a cyclist dart up between two buses stopped in traffic and run straight into a pedestrian crossing in front of them, both went flying. Yesterday I saw a courier zip up the inside of a bus turning a corner and he almost got creamed.
 
aircobra19 said:
Point is, in a thread about bad cyclists, your making it a bad motorist issue.
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No, I'm not. I'm quote happy to talk about bad cyclists, provided the conversation is in context of the reality of cycling in Dublin. Estimates from Dublin City Council show that there were 26 million journeys done by bike in Dublin in 2006 - about the same as the number of journeys undertaken by Luas passengers in that year. Hundreds of millions have been spent on the Luas, yet Minister Gormley won't sanction the wages for one engineer to improve cycling facilities in the capital.



As a commuting cyclist, all the near misses with pedestrians that I see are caused by pedestrians who step out on the road without looking, often while iPodded up to ensure complete isolation from the real world. This most frequently happens in heavy traffic, where cars are stopped or moving very slowly, and the pedestrian assumes that therefore there is no chance that there may be other traffic (i.e. cyclists). I've cycled in Dublin 4 days a week for the last two years, and I've never seen a cyclist causing a near miss with a pedestrian.

I do see cyclists breaking the law regularly. In most cases, they do without causing danger to others, but in some cases, they do indeed cause danger to themselves, to pedestrians, and to other cyclists.
 
I've been a cyclist and driver and pedestrian for decades, so that must mean I'm right. Regardless of any logical argument.

divadsnilloc said:
....cyclists ... they're never shy to criticise motorists....
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Thats because its motorists, politicans, pedestrians (all with iPods oddly enough) who are all to blame for making cyclists talk on their mobile, ignore all rules of the road and dart between lanes of moving traffic, often going the wrong way on one way streets. Its a complete mystery how they are involved in accidents.

Its not like theres anything cyclists can do to help with their safety.


http://www.transalt.org/files/resources/blueprint/chapter17/chapter17c.html

...Ninety-eight percent of bicyclists killed in 1999 reportedly weren't wearing helmets.
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[broken link removed]

At the moment about 18% of UK cyclists use helmets.
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http://www.yes-but.net/cycling_is_1dangerous.html

You see its everyone elses fault.
 
We can all go googling for a few minutes and pull up random stories around the world. This really doesn't prove much about the Irish environment one way or other.

But more importantly, please stop attributing views to me that I don't hold. I started my contributions to this thread pointing out that use of a mobile phone by a cyclist is crazy behaviour. If you are actually interested in my views on poor cycling, do go back and read my posts.

If you want to continue to polarise the discussion into 'all cars good, all cyclists bad', be my guest - but it really won't do much to move the debate forwards.

Love - Complainer

PS While googling for stats on helmet wearing, did you find any stats that show safety benefits from helmet wearing?
 
Complainer said:
We can all go googling for a few minutes and pull up random stories around the world. This really doesn't prove much about the Irish environment one way or other. ?
Click to expand...

If it doesn't I have no idea why not. As your comment doesn't tell me anything at all about anything. Whats so radically different about cycling in Ireland compared to say the UK, France or New Zealand for example. Also why are the links I've posted not relevent.


I didn't dispute your comments re:cyclists. Only those on motorists as those are off topic, for the subject. But like every Apple thread has to vilify a PC for some reason, every cycling thread has to vilify the motorist. (as divadsnilloc hinted in his OP). I didn't polarise the discussion. The OP polarised by the topic title. I don't think he expect someone to defend iPod wearing cyclists, by the logic that drivers are worse...

Complainer said:
....I guess they are unlikely to do much harm to anyone other than themselves, unlike the many car drivers...
Click to expand...

Complainer said:
PS While googling for stats on helmet wearing, did you find any stats that show safety benefits from helmet wearing?
Click to expand...

Yes
 
I should add I wear my MP3 player when I'm cycling in the park on the cycle paths. When I hit the roads though I take them out. Just common sense to me.
 
Perhaps I missed the announcement of your appointment as moderator? If not, I'd suggest you don't try to police threads in which you are involved. If you have a problem with my post being off-topic, then click the little red triangle at the top right of the post, and let the moderators moderate. It is interesting to note of course that you don't seem to have any difficulty dragging the thread off the original topic of mobile phones and cyclists to broader 'all cyclists are dangerous' discussions, so clearly, it's just the points that you don't like to hear that are considered to be off-topic.

In relation to helmet, the potential flaws in that research are indeed substantial. For the record, I wear a helmet, as gut instinct tells me it is safer than without. I do recall some research that showed that drivers give cyclists without helmets a wider berth than those with helmets, so perhaps the overall effect gets cancelled out.

And for the record, I would never wear earphones while cycling - anywhere, anytime.
 
Rather than trotting out the old classic, "would be mod" line. Why not quote my comments and dispute them directly. Why is cycling different in Ireland, (are the laws significantly different?) dispute the links I post, with factual information, rather than posting purely anecdotal stories. I love the idea that kitted up with a helmet, lights and Hi-vis clothing, drivers drive closer to the cyclist. Lets make everyone more aware of cyclists by making them less aware of them. Incidentally I never said "'all cyclists" anywhere. Only you have used that term.
 
aircobra19 said:
Rather than trotting out the old classic, "would be mod" line.
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Coming from the poster who was quite happy to trot out the 'off-topic' classic line to avoid hearing the truth, it's a bit hard to take that jibe seriously. The words pot, kettle and black spring to mind.

aircobra19 said:
I love the idea that kitted up with a helmet, lights and Hi-vis clothing, drivers drive closer to the cyclist. Lets make everyone more aware of cyclists by making them less aware of them.
Click to expand...
I apologise. I thought that your great Googling skills would ensure that you could find the relevant research straight away, but apparently, those Google skills only apply to stories that you want to hear. Anyway, here's the details of that research [broken link removed]

aircobra19 said:
Actually forget it. I made my point earlier. Two wrongs don't make a right.
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I don't think anyone suggested that two wrongs make a right.
 
I drive to work but cycle just about everywhere else. I wear a helmet, and high-vis stuff, and use lights at night etc. If I need a phone I use headphones; my hands are free and can hear what’s going on around me.
Doing anything that means you only have one hand on the handlebars is stupid, simple as that.
By the way, a guy I work with hit a pedestrian when he was cycling and the elderly man he hit lost his leg. It was 100% the pedestrians fault though.
 
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