Gardai & Cycling

Well in this specific thread Strummer introduced motorists into, and keeps bringing them into it.

If you bring official stats or reports or research or facts into it as impartial metric they aren't interested as they prefer to have their own anecdotal stories. So it's all a bit pointless.

Which wouldn't be an issue if it was only a couple of threads. But this kinda posting is repeated in many threads. To the point at which the mods have to put rules in about it.

In this case he asked about stats on enforcement on cycling offences. They are well documented. But he doesn't want to read them. So what do you want? An unchallenged soapbox.

"Look out for each other" current RSA campaign regarding protecting older people seems to be focussed on driver behaviour rather than cyclists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRbkuGAScd4

What evidence? If you stand at a pedrestrian crossing for an hour it is very unlikely that you will see a car driving through a red light it is almost ineviable that you will see a cyclist doing so. If you walk along a footpath you may encounter a park car, but I have never encounted a moving car on a footpath, but have been struck by cyclists. If you stand on a road you may see a car with one light missing, but you will rarely see one with no lights whatsoever, but a large proportion of cylists will not have lights.

Now I am fully in favour of penal measures against lawbreaking motorists, I want this extended to all lawbreakers on the road. I do not expect Gardai to diverty from mergency calls to stop cylists, but I do expect them to do so in the course of their ordinary work, but they do not.

Lots of stats and reports on red light breaking. From all road users. One thing we are not short of. Is evidence.

These threads seems to have lot of people who ignore the evidence. No shortage of that either it seems.

So are the 98% of motorists that break speed limits in urban areas 'doing their best not to speed'? Are the majority of motorists who admit to using their mobile phones at the wheel 'doing their best....not to do anything illegal'?

Your view on the degree of enforcement that applies to motorists, and the degree to which motorists take that enforcement seriously seems to be dramatically at odds with what is actually happening on the roads, where it actually HAS been measured quantitatively, not by personal anecdote.

Motorists are not a different race to cyclists with different ethics, morality and practices. Most cyclists are motorists too. Most motorists break traffic laws on every journey, most likely yourself included, as do most cyclists. The main difference is that when motorists break traffic laws, people die or are seriously injured.

a scourge how? they're not harming anyone. Cars are the only danger on the roads and footpaths really .

I acknowledge there is a problem with cyclist behaviour. In the context of all the problems we have on the road, it is a very, very minor issue.

Your last post starts with ... "if I as a motorist leave my driveway ..."

This is really a thread complaining about the enforcement of motorists. Just using cyclists as smokescreen for that.

Note the swift shifting of goalposts " run a light long after it has changed".

Are you saying it is OK to run a light shortly after it has changed, like the recent examples posted here?

Some people don't seem to get the idea of risk-based prioritisation. When a murder happens, the police throw substantial resources at it, teams of detectives and more, given the seriousness of the issue. When my car gets broken into outside my house, they don't throw substantial or any resources at it. And by and large, we all get this.

For some reason, some people struggle with comprehending the similar approach to roads policing, with the bulk of the resources focused on the bulk of the danger - motorists.

Have you ever seen anyone quoting such statistics here or elsewhere - minor insurance claims against car drivers that weren't reported in Garda or RSA statistics?