Madam, - With regard to recent commentary about heavy lorries and and vulnerable road users such as cyclists, there is fault on many sides.
Ignorance among cyclists is one major problem. Overtaking left-turning vehicles on the inside is illegal and, in the case of HGVs, carries a lethal risk. A study in London found that HGVs were involved in 14 out of 15 lethal collisions between cyclists and left-turning vehicles.
In Ireland, however, cyclists cannot be blamed for either ignorance or inappropriate behaviour. There has been an apparent and long-standing official policy of non-education on the issue of vulnerable road users. In the official text, The Rules of the Road, the chapter on using the road is entitled "Driving the Car" and cyclists and motorcyclists are absent from all the diagrams.
There are agencies currently promoting "cycle lanes" which explicitly encourage cyclists to filter forward inside left-turning HGVs. These agencies use these devices in the full knowledge that the Irish traffic environment bears no resemblance to that found in countries such as the Netherlands or Denmark. Can anyone imagine the Dutch or Danes permitting articulated trucks routinely to use designated "cycle routes" that are also being touted as "safe routes to school"? The concept is ridiculous. What price the job of a HGV driver in this environment? What other circumventions are expected? HGV drivers are frequently the most skilled and courteous on the roads. As a cyclist I have been shepherded gently around large urban roundabouts by HGV drivers on more than one occasion.
Both of the latter are potentially lethal for cyclists. Neither has any place on the urban streets of any civilised country. The primary fault rests with those who continue to permit and promote inappropriate urban road designs, inappropriate use of the same urban roads by HGVs and who compound the issue by tacitly promoting a culture of ignorance among all road users. - Yours, etc.,
SHANE FORAN, Chair, Galway Cycling Campaign, Cruachan Park, Galway.