Galway cyclists on board with new national cycling policy group

By Kernan Andrews

The Galway Cycling Campaign has welcomed the launch of a new national organisation and vision for cycling promotion.

Seven cycling groups from Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Maynooth, Skerries, and Waterford have formed a new representative group - Cyclist.ie At the centre of the new group is an agreed vision statement on cycling promotion policies for Ireland.

Among the measures advocated by the group are comprehensive cycle skills training starting at school level and driver training that takes vulnerable road users into account.

The cyclists are also pushing for legally compliant lights to be made compulsory on all new bicycles at the point of sale, and for stricter enforcement of the traffic laws for cyclists and motorists alike.

Cyclist.ie is calling for the removal of multi-lane roundabouts and one-way street systems in urban areas and for two-way cycling on any one-way streets that remain.

“With this policy document as the guiding principle,” said campaign chair Shane Foran, “there is no reason why Galway cannot achieve Oxford or Cambridge levels of cycle commuting where 20 per cent of commuters use bicycles.”