Image: Cycling UK
Cycling UK has slammed the Northern Irish Government for failing to move away from the “outdated notion” of equal responsibility and adopt the hierarchy concept set out in the recent Highway Code changes.
On 24 October, the Department for Infrastructure published the draft Road Safety Strategy for Northern Ireland.
The strategy outlines the NI Government’s commitment to reducing the number of road deaths, while developing a ‘safe and sustainable transport network that meets the needs of all road users’.
However, Cycling UK says the strategy is ‘yet another in a long line of failures to encourage active travel as it fails to protect vulnerable road users and further entrenches car dependency’.
The active travel organisation’s main issue is the continued use of the ‘outdated term’ shared responsibility throughout the strategy, which it says ‘reinforces the notion that a child walking on a footpath shares the same responsibility as a lorry driver moving at 60mph’.
Throughout the consultation process, Cycling UK recommended using the term ‘hierarchy of users’ to reflect the recent changes made to the Highway Code in Great Britain.
Andrew McClean, Cycling UK spokesperson in Northern Ireland, said: “The DfI’s proposed strategy will put our most vulnerable road user’s safety at risk.
“Less than 3% of trips in Northern Ireland are taken by bike, and this strategy will stall this figure for even longer if they fail to acknowledge vulnerable road users in this strategy.
“The report states that one of the biggest barriers to active travel is the fact that pedestrians and cyclists simply don’t feel safe moving alongside traffic, yet the use of antiquated terms like ‘shared responsibility’ fails to take this into account.
“The introduction of hierarchy of road users in Britain’s Highway Code was a move away from the outdated notion of equal responsibility and a recognition that those presenting the danger on our roads bore greater responsibility – but this progression has been ignored in Northern Ireland.”
I heartily agree with Christina Young’s comments on footway/footpath cycling. Highway Code Rule 64 is one of the simplest in the book. It is illegal to cycle on footways or footpaths (unless they have been redesigned). But the law is ignored. In my area, nothing is being done to enforce it and the situation is quickly deteriorating. The council won’t speak to me (presumably I’m classed as “vexatious”) and the police cycle on the footways anyway. Christina isn’t alone on being afraid to go out. My elderly aunt has given up her canal side walks for fear of cyclists. And my wife and I have been orally abused and threatened, too. What to do? The problem now seems to be a national one.
Fraser Andrew, STIRLING
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I also applaud Northern Ireland for emphasising that everyone has equal responsibility on the roads – (and pavements). I also emphasised this when, as a pedestrian, I responded to the Government consultation on the draft Highway Code. Prior to becoming disabled I had a bike and simply dismounted and walked it along the pavement if the road was busy. I never ever, in 40+ years of cycling, rode on the pavement. (I don’t have a car, never learnt to drive).
The changes to the Highway Code do nothing to protect pedestrians from cyclists who endanger and terrorise us every day as they whiz past us on pavements, ignore traffic lights fail to have bike lights, and verbally abuse and threaten us when we object. Like many elderly and disabled pedestrians I am now scared to go out. The definition of “injury” should include the mental injury they cause us which destroys our confidence and our quality of life. Now we have the increased trauma of electric bikes and e-scooters.
Christina Young, Liverpool
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I agree with Ben Graham, in that it is extremely difficult to see what practical use is the “hierarchy of road users”. I suspect, however, that it will be used in attempts to take revenge on road users lower in the hierarchy who are unfortunate enough to become involved in an accident involving a user “higher” in the hierarchy. It saves thinking , of course.
Fraser Andrew, STIRLING
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Personally I feel the changes to the Highway Code on 29 January 2022 have made cycling and walking more dangerous not less, and I applaud Northern Ireland for taking a stand against it.
Ben Graham, Reading
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