Sir, – Patricia Gardiner asks today (July 23rd) if we should ensure that all primary school pupils have six hours of cycle skills training (as in Britain) to ensure they know how to cycle safely and confidently on the road.
I have been a cyclist for many years and benefited greatly from a road safety cycling course that was provided by the primary school that I attended in Blackrock in the early 1980s. Mock roads and junctions were drawn out in the school car park and we were taught the rules of the road, how to signal to cars that we were slowing down, check the road behind us, how to safely change lane, turn right, etc.
At that time, we had bells and lights for our bikes and, since then, we have seen the welcome introduction of helmets and high visibility vests, both of which I use (although they are not mandatory). The introduction of cycle lanes is also a huge improvement, for cyclists at any rate.
Whilst I like to think I am a road and safety-aware cyclist, I have to confess that I find it difficult to always use the skills that I was taught at primary school. The reason? Well, for example, just yesterday cycling down towards St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin city, in a bike lane, I looked behind me to check if it was first safe to signal so that I could move out and around a car parked in the bike lane. However, before I could signal, I wobbled with fright and had to stop as there was car travelling at speed extremely close to my rear, in the cycle lane, and then pulled past me, so close that it brushed against my right arm still clinging to the handlebar. Had I merely signalled, I fear my right arm would now be rather badly bruised, along with the rest of me.
So, in response to Patricia Gardiner, it would be great to provide classes for child cyclists but I suspect there is a current generation of drivers who would greatly benefit from a mandatory refresher course on road safety.
Finally, I follow the “debate” that surfaces from time to time on whether helmets should be mandatory for cyclists. I had an unfortunate cycling accident when travelling in New Zealand a few years ago and sustained a nasty leg fracture. I was wearing a helmet (mandatory in that country) and thankfully suffered no head injury.
The poor helmet was not so fortunate though and was written off (and replaced). Yours, etc,
CATHERINE COSGRAVE,
Basin Street Lower,
Dublin 8.