Councillors in Ireland have decided to lobby the Minister for Transport to introduce a law to make hi-vis jackets or vests mandatory for cyclists, pedestrians and e-scooter riders, in an ongoing debate over cycling and road safety.
Tipperary County Council members have written a letter to Minister Darragh O’Brien following the unanimous passing of the motion proposing the safety measure in April, according to Tipperary Live.
Five councillors tabled the motion highlighting the “extreme difficulty” motorists have seeing pedestrians and cyclists who don’t wear high-vis, especially on narrow country roads and in towns.
The Irish Cycling Campaign said it “strongly disagrees” with making hi-vis mandatory by law.
“We call on Tipp Council to look at the evidence, have a think about the actual causes of road danger, and retract this silly motion,” it said in a Facebook post.
The group said the law would risk drawing resources and attention away from “poor, risky driving” and would put “another barrier in the way of healthy, safe, sustainable transport.”
Tipperary County Council’s letter is the latest development in an ongoing debate over cyclist safety in Ireland.
In February, Ireland’s Department for Transport confirmed plans to introduce mandatory helmet and hi-vis legislation for cyclists, electric bike and e-scooter riders.
The decision was overturned 24 hours later for cyclists, although it remains for ebike and e-scooter riders.
But two weeks later, the National Bus and Railworkers’ Union (NBRU) told the Joint Oireachtas its concerns over sharing busy city streets with faster electric bikes and scooters.
Thomas O’Connor, assistant secretary general of the NRBU, said: “Mandatory hi-vis clothing for cyclists and scooters is absolutely essential.”
“People just don’t realise how hard it is to drive a large public service vehicle or a truck and to be watching out for people who may be in dark clothing in dark evenings, nights or mornings.
“This is especially important due to the new battery powered bikes which are very fast and mandatory hi-vis clothing will save us,” O’Connor said, according to the Irish Independent.
Yet others have argued that hi-vis and mandatory helmets are not the solution.
According to Irish Cycle, Ciarán Cannon, the president of Cycling Ireland, said: “There is no credible evidence that mandatory hi-vis significantly reduces collisions or fatalities. Jurisdictions with the safest roads have achieved their outcomes not by criminalising people for what they wear, but by managing speed, designing safer streets and enforcing existing traffic laws.”
Meanwhile, Sarah Moss wrote in The Irish Times that helmets and hi-vis are a symptom of a problem, not the solution.
“In cities where cycling is safe, people on bikes don’t wear high-vis. You’ll see very few helmets on cyclists in the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, certainly no laws mandating their use, because it is not cycling that is dangerous but driving,” wrote Moss.
