Stayin’ Alive at 1.5 comes to an end as a lobbying campaign

Today after a needlessly long wait, we have our cyclist specific dangerous overtaking law in place. 

It was July last year when issues of legislating for measurement specific minimum passing distance legislation were flagged which in turn ultimately became a stumbling block via the Attorney Gererals office. (More here on its background)

Along with this announcement comes one of my own. 

I’ve taken this as far as possible in the Irish context and after over 6 and a half years of up front and behind the scenes work on this, it’s time to move on.

Launch of cyclist specific dangerous overtaking legislation with RSA, Moyagh Murdock. Transport Minister Shane Ross and Chief Super of roads policing Paul Cleary

Stayin’ Alive at 1.5 will still operate from social media but in terms of lobbying, that’s it for the moment. I’m moving on to cycle campaigning at a local level in Wexford and have founded and currently chair WexBUG (Wexford Bicycle User Group) and that’s where my energies will lie as things stand. 

So, where are we at with this new legislation? 

How will it work? 

What will be the stumbling blocks? 

Who will drive ultimately drive this? etc…

Safe overtaking of bicycle riders works off three pillars: Awareness, Legislation and Enforcement. All three need to come together to get the best out of this. We now have 2 of them in place. The third one of enforcement, I will cover later in this article. 

The previous blog that I wrote in March 2018 (see link above) covers a great deal of this too, but I want to add some more thoughts before I pull down the blinds.

From a public awareness point of view, I think Ireland is way ahead of anywhere that has implemented minimum passing distance law as things stand. 

The Stayin Alive at 1.5 campaign has moved this important issue to the forefront of road safety in Ireland.

We are at a point where the recommended minimum passing distances are in our rules of the road. The message has been splashed across mainstream TV here and social media via the RSA. It has been included in our rules of the road. Over 100,000 stickers with this message have been posted out by us. Local authorities have come on board with awareness campaigns – Two of them took a bigger step with erecting road signage, something now that all local authorities will now be able to do with the new official minimum passing distance specific road sign that the DTTAS have now introduced. And much much more..

This legislation and accompanying RSA campaign has made it clear that safely overtaking a bicycle rider is not just something a driver might do out of courtesy, but is something that you can now be prosecuted for in line with almost 50 jurisdictions worldwide have already done.

For the feeling sorry for myself ‘hard pressed motorist’ out there, (I’m one of them by the way) if you drive in any one of the 33 US states, 3 Canadian provinces, everywhere except Victoria in Australia, Western Cape in South Africa, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, this law exists already and has been around since before you saw ABBA win the Eurovision with Waterloo in 1974.
Places such as GB and across the border in Northern Ireland, conduct regular close pass policing and fine motorists who do so.
Further to this, once Brexit happens, Ireland will stand alone in the EU along with just Romania, Cyprus & Malta in not having a strict/persumed liability law. Everywhere else in the EU, if you collide with a bicycle rider, you are persumed liable, as you would if you rear-end another driver.
This is Ireland just trying to play catch-up!

The legislation in this case is also justified because it has a powerful role in “marketing” cycling?

This legislation that has been announced sends a clear signal to drivers that cyclists have a legitimate right to the road and in turn serves to recognise cyclists as legitimate road users. 

Anyone who cycles knows only too well that there are far too many motorists who simply don’t accept that basic fact and may view people on bicycles as interlopers. 

This legislation makes it clear to cyclists that motorists are obliged to respect their vulnerability and that should help to reduce their anxiety and increase their confidence to use roads.

It can also serve to remind motorists that cyclists are extraordinarily vulnerable to serious injury if they’re in even a minor collision with a car. A mere tip for a motorist can very easily be an incapacitating injury or death for a cyclist.

Whilst it could be argued that existing law is broad enough and flexible enough to give Gardai ample scope to prosecute motorists for passing dangerously close, it never sent that signal loudly enough in the Irish context to cyclists, motorists or Gardai. 

A specific, well-publicised provision is more likely to get through to the public here. That may be different from place to place, but despite close pass policing happening in the U.K. now for over 3 years now, we have not seen it introduced to Ireland.

On a personal level, to get to this stage has taken many meetings and many annual leave days. 

I don’t seek thanks for getting to this stage. It was me who took this on and me who could have walked away from pushing this same rock up the same hill for over 6 years. 

I did this for a greater good and I have no doubt, this particular problem would not have been dealt with in any meaningful way without it.
Indeed running Europe’s largest safe passing FB page with many followers across the globe may have helped other jurisdictions too.   

The background work that has gone in to this has been colossal. 

West Midlands Police, Mark Hodson conducting operation pass wearing our Stayin’ Alive at 1.5 road safety gilet.

Our own social media hits around 1.25 million per week on occasion. 

The message is on road signs, council vehicles, buses, vehicle stickers, posters etc. 

It has been promoted by Sonia O’ Sullivan, Stephen Roche, Sean Kelly, Nico Roche etc etc. 

We have had our chat on the mat with the RSA at The Tullamore Show, National Ploughing Championships etc. 

RSA interactive zone with our awareness mat at Tullamore Show

But in line with U.K. operation close pass procedures, I believe that this is a message best delivered by law enforcement agencies or a body such as the RSA in the future.

There is some more work to be done in terms of education and these have been flagged in the RSA’s MPDL report. Specifically this now needs to be added to driver theory test, Driver CPC and the most importantly, to future police operations. 

Simply put, on top of the legislation, education & awareness, we certainly need a tool for the small cohort of ‘aware but don’t care’ drivers. 

This is where it may get tricky. I’ve seen this from other places where MPDL has been put in place along with some of the tactics deployed to police this. 

Some are simply virtue signalling, throw out a few posters, give out a few leaflets and away you go. 

Remember, we in Ireland have the education in place so those measures will butter few parsnips here. We have donated our safe pass mat to the Gardaí for them to share around or duplicate and  Gardai led ops will help underscore this message and allow it to crystallise.

Handing over our Safe Pass mat to Chief Super, Paul Cleary, Irish Roads Policing

If done properly, we too can witness a 20% decrease in deaths and serious injuries as they saw in the West Midlands in their first year alone. 

We need to go to THAT GOLD STANDARD level. 

The best police operation that I’ve seen around this that can absolutely work in Ireland comes from the West Midlands Police in England. Earlier this year, I got the opportunity to meet a Garda Traffic superintendent and presented the West Midlands operation to him. 

I have had many communications with Mark Hodson from WMP and he has been more than helpful and I owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
Just to give you an idea of those communications, 

PHIL: Hi Mark. 

Great to see you on the Channel 5 programme last night providing your saintly voice of reason ✊ 

We are soon to get our cyclist specific dangerous overtaking law here in Ireland. It will be non distance specific but was a work around from our Attorney General after thwarting our distance specific one. 

Unfortunately our Gardai don’t seem as proactive as you guys and even with this legislation looming for the last 18 months, close passing largely goes unpoliced here in Ireland. 

Today I met with the superintendent of the Garda National roads Policing bureau and presented the excellent work you guys and others are doing. Needless to say, they were impressed. 

With the focus that our new legislation will bring, we hope to be getting our own close pass policing. 

Hope you don’t mind but I’ve given them your name as someone who knows this stuff inside out and works as a gold standard of this. 

Phil.

MARK: Phil

We are so glad to hear that you’re tremendous efforts are starting to come to fruition. You know that we’ll do anything we can to aid your ongoing efforts and also aid the Garda however we can. So feel free to give our details to anyone you think might need our experience or knowledge in order to keep the cyclists of Eire safe on your roads 👍

If the Garda want copies of our operational order and risk assessment for #OpClosePass etc they need only ask. Plus I have lots of prosecution aids I give to the prosecutor to help them if they are inexperienced in the area of close pass or #Smidsy type offence. I know some proceedings / guidance may be different in Eire but we are willing to share all our learning since we started #OpClosePass to help keep you and your countries cyclist safe 👍

You know where we are if you need anything else

Mark

That contact has been made so it’s now over to Garda Traffic –

For this to happen, we need to see our Gardaí doing operation close pass along with a streamlined process of online reporting. That should be modelled on Operation Snap in the U.K. in order to avoid GDPR issues. (This too, I have presented to Garda superintendent).

We need this new dangerous overtaking law to be put on as a mandatory online learning module for all Gardaí along with making it clear that this must align with the RSA’s definition of close passing. Other dangerous overtaking manoeuvres such as overtaking in to oncoming traffic and cutting back in suddenly on a bicycle rider should be foremost. This isn’t all about distance!

For you though the bicycle rider, YOU need to keep this process honest.

If you don’t already have a bicycle camera, maybe consider purchasing one. Whilst we would like to see direct policing of this, it would be unrealistic to expect the Gardaí to happen to be there when that scarily close overtaking manoeuvre happens.

YOU all have a vital role to play here. 

I see far too many people stick up clips on social media. 

We get several sent in to us at Stayin’ Alive too to put up but we stopped doing so a few years ago…Why…?

That will change nothing…absolutely zilch! 

If a close pass has startled you enough to put it up on social media, then maybe you should consider reporting it? 

This will be a long game. Things won’t change overnight. It hasn’t anywhere else that this has been inmplemened and don’t expect that here in Ireland either. 

But you must keep challenging the process to keep it honest. I’m involved in some closed social media platforms from Queensland and that’s what’s still going on there 4 years after the introduction of MPDL there. It’s going on in the U.K. too. 

I would probably like to see a database ideally run by Cycling Ireland or cyclist.ie that can act as support for reported passes and call out inconsistencies of potential post code lotteries. This works best through a closed Facebook page where people’s methods and learning experiences are shared. 

Cycling Ireland having a legal person on a retainer to challenge inevitable inconsistencies would be most helpful and would give members some more value for money. 

There’s lots to consider but we need to give this the time to work. 

As I sign off, I want to thank everyone who has helped in any way in our now over 6 years of this. You are far too numerous to mention personally but you know who you are. 

Over the next while I’ll share some pics, articles and vids from the campaign on our social media pages as a thank you. Feel free to save them as we will be closing down our website soon too. 

For others who may wish to take this a step further and make this a Minimum Passing Distance Law, please be careful. 

Remember the Attorney General has flagged issues of enforcement under that law in the Irish context. Once a case is successfully challenged, you could end up with a paper tiger. 

That said, once it had been flagged that this minimum passing distance couldn’t be copper fastened into Irish Law, I requested (August 2018) that these distances be moved to 1.5 metres and 2 metres respectively to allow for some wiggle room.
It wasn’t granted at the time and may need to be revisited in the future. 

Lobbying has many pitfalls and you can get dragged around very easily, and in doing so, risk 2 abreast cycling, mandatory helmet laws, mandatory use of cycle lanes (where provided), mandatory hi-viz law etc. 

I’ve managed to negotiate around these but they were regularly put on the table. 

Be very careful what you offer up as some type of quid pro quo. Know your red lines. 

Naive advocacy is poor advocacy. 

Ireland works off of contacts! FACT! 

It took me a while to build up the necessary ones but remember, sticking up a social media post & tagging some minister will most probably lead to the sympathetic cycling echo chamber or you ending up arguing with strangers on the internet. 

That process is of little value and will only get you so far. 

Meeting and engaging solely with other cycling advocates can lead you to another echo chamber which again will only get you so far. 

Real progress is made through meeting people who can change what it is you wish to change. Use them for what you need them for as that’s what they will most likely do to you – not them all but certainly some. 

Remember, they don’t need to be your best friend. 

For all this to work you will need to raise your profile and you may have to show a lot of buy-in. 

I travelled the length and breadth of the country with our awareness stall, attended many meetings in Dublin and elsewhere (from Wexford) etc.

I can’t even begin to think of the amount of hours or total distance travelled but I know my poor Skoda Roomster now has over 210,000 kms on it and I live just 2 kms from work. It was also very time consuming. 

Some meetings and invitations worked better than others but you need to chase the trail. 

There are many roads that lead to Rome but have your redlines and don’t let them be encroached. 

From personal experience, that is level of commitment you need to get out there and get it done…

I have been lucky enough to meet so many fantastic people along the way and I’m eternally grateful to people from all walks of politics, advocacy, sports, journalism and also the IRVA & SIMI etc who helped along this eye opening journey.

I can’t thank my wife and kids too much for having to listen to the phrase ‘1.5 metres’ more than any human being should have to.

They have been such great support.

In closing, most probably the easiest option we all have is to ‘give out’ and have a moan about something. 

Long after you do however, the problem will most probably remain. 

Ireland for all its warts and all, got this done.

Slán Libh

Phil Skelton

Founder & Chief Campaigner for

Stayin’ Alive at 1.5 Campaign.