Bike number plates? Why cyclists need 'some kind of identification'

17.16 9 Jun 2023

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17.16 9 Jun 2023

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Cyclists should have some form of identification on them when they are using the roads.

That's according to Seamus Boland, CEO of Irish Rural Link, who was speaking as cyclists in Italy may have to have number plates, indicators and insurance under a proposed new law there.

The country's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is also Minister for Transport, announced the measures on Wednesday.

He said the changes are in a bid to reduce the number of deaths caused by road accidents.

Mr Salvini said the 3,210 deaths recorded last year in Italy was an "unworthy" figure of such a civilised country.

Mr Boland told The Hard Shoulder Ireland needs something similar.

"I am certainly not anti-cycling, and I know car drivers can behave just as badly as anybody else," he said.

"But yesterday, not for the first time, walking across O'Connell Street with a green pedestrian light - were it not for my colleague who was with me, I would almost certainly have been knocked down by a cyclist.

"It was simply unbelievable... he continued on quite happily.

"I would never have identified him or I wouldn't have known what he even looked like.

"So there is a case for some kind of identification".

Mr Boland said he has doubts about insurance for cyclists as it is "a whole different area, and I don't know if that would be easy to manage or administrate.

"I think we need some kind of acknowledgement that people - whether they're in cars or cycles - should really be a lot more careful, especially at intersections".

Noel Gibbons, Chairperson of the Western Lakes Cycling Club, has said rule-breakers are a minority.

"It is a minority of cyclists that would not adhere to the rules of the road," he said.

"I don't think the answer is by enforcing cyclists to have number plates.

"This has been spoken about over a number of years; even in New South Wales they tried to introduce it and it didn't work.

"The majority of cyclists that I know would already have insurance, they would be members of Cycling Ireland.

"[They] would have insurance cover, which would cover them if they were involved in an accident, also they would all have taken up cycle training at some stage".

Mr Boland said if number plates are not the answer, something has to be done.

"There seems to be no way of making the persons - maybe they are a minority - but making them accountable," he said.

"How do we do that?

"If number plates are a bad idea or something, then how do we do it?" he added.

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