Why I wear a high visibility vest on a road with no rules
THE Road Safety Authority and ESB Networks launched their National Be Safe be seen day on December 21– on the shortest and darkest day of the year.
The message of the campaign is ‘ to remind all road-users how important it is to be seen by wearing high visibility material when out walking, cycling or motorcycling, and to use dipped headlights when driving, to stay safe on the roads’.
I have taken the message literally and now wear a high visibility vest when out walking on pavements around Dundalk at dusk or night-time.
There are several reasons. Crossing any road in Dundalk is hazardous due to the speed that some motorists drive on streets in the town. The driver of a large silver saloon passed me doing well over the legal limit on a residential street the other day.
When I looked at him in dismay he waved at me cheerily as if to say ‘ calm down dear I’m just putting my very high powered motor through it’s paces’.
His gesture also said ‘feck off I’m entitlied to as I pay my road tax and can drive a big yoke however I want on the streets of my town’.
In his macho car world, children, pedestrians, older people and cyclists don’t matter. Until there is Garda enforcement this selfish mindset will not be altered. It seems to me there are too many macho drivers in this town who don’t want restrictions on their ‘ freedom’.
Another reason I wear a high-visibility vest is that cyclists frequently use footpaths – though cycle lanes are available in most parts of the town.
Cyclists race along streets and pavements without high visibility vests or lights so I figure I will have some chance of being seen wearing my glowing vest.
Because a total blind eye is turned to cycling on the footpaths these chaps career along pavements with an air of entitlement. I shouted at a biker weaving along the footpath on his bicycle and said to him ‘ hey you nearly knocked me down’, when he narrowly missed me as he careered up behind me without warning. He was furious and indignant. He turned around and said ‘ could have knocked you down if I wanted’.
Well I supposed he could have done exactly that. So what is the point in arguing? In my experience cyclists do what they want without any fear of repercussions.
A neighbour recently emerged from her driveway in her car and felt a thump. Another young cyclist had bounced off the wing and fell on the ground – he was cycling on the footpath in the dark. Mercifully the cyclist was uninjured.
The third reason I wear a high-visibility vest when walking on pavements in Dundalk is that some drivers actually drive on the pavements. Out walking near DKIT I heard the sound of a van behind me. It had mounted the footpath and was driving along the path behind me to get close to a doorway.
I felt guilty, perhaps it was me getting in the drivers way by walking on the pavement. A few yards around the corner a heavy lorry had blocked the footpath entirely. Simmering I walked out on the roadway to get around the truck, fortunately I was glowing brightly in my yellow flourescent jacket so I was relatively safe.
Another reason I was glad of my day-glo jacket the other night was to walk around an advertisement hoarding in the form of a huge paper coffee cup left in the middle of the pavement. I had to step out on the road in darkness to get around it with cars flying all directions.
A little while back I wrote to the Road Safety Authority about making roads in Dundalk safer. I suggested that some of their theories about road safety could be put the the test on somewhere like the Dublin Road, one of the fastest and busiest arteries in the town.
What about investing in traffic calming measures and slowing drivers down with flashing speed signs to warn drivers that they are breaking the speed limit, I asked?
Cyclists could be encouraged to wear high visibility jackets light up and most important off all to stay off footpaths.
I pointed out that thousands of students use the road every day but to access a bicycle lane on the way out of DKIT they must cross a busy main road - without traffic lights at a main junction.
Further along the route bicycles, cars and heavy goods vehicles cross the Dublin Road Railway Bridge on a narrow stretch of road. But there is no provision for safe cycling here.
Here there are no bike lanes or proper road marking on a busy section of road that has health and safety written all over it.
Surely yet another important road safety issue for Louth County Council to address when they’ve got over the hoopla of ribbon cutting one more cycle lane.
Perhaps before more money is invested in cycle lanes there could be better and more visible road markings on the town’s road network.
The RSA response to some of the suggestions in my email is as follows, ‘ the matters you identify are enforcement in nature which is the statutory responsibility of An Garda Síochána. The RSA have no statutory function to address these matters as the mandate of the Road Safety Authority is one of road safety education only.
On your behalf I have forwarded your correspondence to An Garda Síochána to bring this matter to their attention’.
The email also said that a local council safety officer would hand out free high visibility jackets and lights to local students and they would bring my observations to the attention of Louth County Council. Perhaps someone along the line was paying attention.
There is a serious message here. The RSA say that ‘up to December 21 182 people have died on Irish roads, 32 more than this time last year. Vulnerable road users, such as cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians, accounted for over a third of these deaths with 34 pedestrians, 10 cyclists and 20 motorcyclists having died on Irish roads so far, this year’.
Yes indeed the RSA high visibility campaign has got me thinking.