All posts by John Dawson

Irish Posts

Message sent to Road Safety Authority

Message sent on Wednesday 6 August to Road Safety Authority by Cyclist.ie – The Irish Cycling Advocacy Network in response to RSA press release issued Friday 1 August regarding rise in vulnerable road user fatalities

Michael Rowland (Director of Research)
Brian Farrell (Director for Communications)

Dear Michael and Brian

As a leader of a group of vulnerable road users, who are at all times in traffic (unlike pedestrians, and who generally choose when, where and how they cross our roads) could I plead with the RSA to alter its ‘blame-the victim’ approach to getting its message across. While I commend you for the generally better content and tone of the latest press release issue last Friday the RSA could do more to place the main responsibility on motorised drivers, particularly those who drive large vehicles – buses, coaches, HGVs, SUVs/4x4s.

Let’s be blunt about the fact: it’s the one tonne plus metal projectile with its driver that is the killer and maimer. We know from the international research literature that in the case of cyclists the majority of RTCs take place at junctions. The causal factor is driver miscalculation/error in approx. 90% of those analysed in Europe. Continue reading Message sent to Road Safety Authority →

International Posts

Nantes – Velo-City 2015, 2 – 5 June

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After Seville in 2011 and Vienna in 2013, Nantes Métropole has been chosen by ECF to host the 2015 Velo-City conference at La Cité, Nantes Events Center. Nantes was selected for its investment in terms of cycling policy. Nantes will seek to meet four key objectives:

  • Create a replicable model dedicated to regional cities
  • Build on the strengths and weaknesses of the Nantes experience and other French cities
  • Reach out to the world
  • Create a future inspired by cycling

More information: Velo-City 2015 website and Conference Information

Irish Posts

Irish Bike Importers / Industry Supporting Cyclist.ie

EuroCycles logoCyclist.ie – the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network, wishes to acknowledge the generous support of cycling business / importer Eurocycles

Cyclist.ie’s work is succeeding in changing transport policy and practice so that the bicycle sits centre-stage in the thinking of transport planners and traffic managers. See Report to ECF for more information on our work. But we have much more to do!  We look forward to collaborating with more players in the Irish cycle industry over the coming months and years.

Irish Posts

Local Authority election 2014 on-line survey

This is an analysis of the small number of responses to the Local Authority election 2014 on-line survey. There were only 50 usable responses (some did it twice!) out of 1,922 candidates. We were unable to reach lots due to not having contact email address and poor party HQ cooperation in getting the invitation out to candidates. Independent/non-party candidates are particularly difficult to reach. This means we can’t draw too much from such a limited response. We are disappointed that party HQs quite clearly failed to forward the email invitation to their candidates.

Party affiliation

  • 19 Green
  • 8 Independent/non-party
  • 8 Labour
  • 9 People Before Profit
  • 2 Sinn Fein
  • 3 Fine Gael
  • 1 Fianna Fail

Continue reading Local Authority election 2014 on-line survey →