Cyclist specific dangerous overtaking law – A Timeline of Frustration

At minister Ross’s MPDL announcement on Feb 28th, with Ministers Regina Doherty & Ciaran Cannon & Cllr Marie Casserly

It was February 2018 when Shane Ross made the following statement:

“My job as a legislator is not to introduce education campaigns, it is to make laws that keep people safe, and that is why I decided to introduce this (MPDL) immediately,” 

In May 2018 the following statement came from Assistant Garda Commissioner, David Sheehan. “We are anticipating the MPDL legislation coming into effect soon but all gardaí have been warned to pull over any drivers found to be overtaking cyclists dangerously.” 

To date we have seen nothing of the sort…

In July 2018, the The attorney-general said there were constitutional rights and practical court issues with a minimum passing distance law (MPDL). These could not be overcome, he said, and the law would not progress in its current format. 

A department of transport spokesman ‘Whilst it is acknowledged that legal obstacles have been identified by the attorney general, the minister is determined to introduce equivalent and enforceable measures that will provide for the protection of cyclists and improve the behaviour of motorists towards these vulnerable road users,” 

So where is it?

Many false dawns have come and gone but still no legislation nearly 11 months later. 

It has been a frustrating wait for the passing of our new cyclist specific dangerous overtaking law. This is secondary legislation and should have been relatively simple to bring through. 

Leaving this dangling for so long is putting bicycle riders at unnecessary risk and this avoidable delay has certainly taken some of its momentum away. 

Some media coverage especially from earlier this year may have led some people to think that this legislation indeed had been shelved. 

The resulting triumphalist media from some quarters seemed to have furthered that belief. 

The frustrating part for me has been the lack of engagement that we can have in the lead up to our legislation going live. This is prescious time being lost.

Having spent the last 6 years looking at different working models that deal with safe passing, there are steps we can take to get the best out of this legislation. 

Without putting these in play, then we risk it not reaching its full potential. 

Without putting these in play, we could indeed, get an announcement, but little else. 

I want to be absolutely clear here from the off.

 A cyclist specific dangerous overtaking law is NOT a substitute for safe dedicated, segregated infrastructure. It is a beach-head strategy; a way of dealing with the almost 1 in 3 near miss encounters, involving bicycle and car interactions..the dreaded close pass.

We now have the ability to deal with it in a meaningful manner but work has been slow to stalled. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856416303639

What I would like to see prior to our legislation mainly involves the Dept. Justice and the Gardaí. To that effect, I have been waiting for 4 months now to meet Minister Charlie Flanagan. Ideally this is work that Minister Ross should have been dealing with as suggested by Green Party’s Ciaran Cuffe. But unless this has been going on behind the scenes, I have no knowledge of it.

why is this important?

Because I believe that this needs to be led from the top down. I see Minister Flanagan as an honest politician ready to roll his sleeves up. 

My shopping list is not exhaustive but priority items when we eventually meet would be:

1, The introduction of operation close pass. This is an evidence based police led programme for which there is no substitute. 

2, The absolute clarification of what a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre would be.

We have seen a prosecution from Cork of submitted video footage but this was an inch-fly-by and our new law has to mean more than that.

Emphasis therefore, needs to be applied to current rules on dangerous overtaking and crucially what distance a dangerous pass will be deemed at. This is now defined in our Rules of the Road and that will need to be the yardstick.

3, The avoidance of post code lottery situation. Frustrations can be alleviated by clear definitions. We can’t have a situation where what is deemed dangerous in Ennis is deemed fine in Enniscorthy. For this to happen, I would like to see a mandatory online training module developed for rank and file Gardai to support the necessary triage of incidents. 

4, Most importantly I would like to see the setting up of an online reporting portal. This is a crucial part of the policing of this. In line with other jurisdictions, an online reporting form needs to be rolled out where bicycle (and other) camera footage can be uploaded and triaged. 

5, We need to see the roll out of safe passing signage to act as a permanent reminder to those who may never visit the rules of the road after passing their driving test. We see these signs in many countries worldwide and they can be seen in Co. Wexford and in Fingal Co Co area. 

The RSA has done a lot of good work around educating the public on safe passing and indeed they plan on further awareness once the legislation goes live. 

This will include clear messaging that dangerously overtaking a person on a bicycle will be a specific prosecutable offence. But let’s not accompany this with an empty promise as per the Asst. Commissioner’s warning from last year (paragraph 2 above) This cheapens the overall message.

This is why putting in the pre legislative groundwork is crucial to the overall success. 

Adding this message to Driver Training will help greatly. Further training for professional drivers via driver CPC will present further opportunities which are non exhaustive. 

Unless we put all of our ducks in a row on this now, this new legislation will be introduced with a wing and a prayer!