{"id":569438,"date":"2026-03-28T06:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T06:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569438\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T06:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T06:42:12","slug":"ireland-can-learn-from-germanys-cycling-code-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569438\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland can learn from Germany\u2019s cycling code \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sir, &#8211; I came across two letters of particular interest on Thursday, both of which touched upon aspects of safer cycling. The first dealt with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/03\/26\/paris-has-become-more-bicycle-friendly-but-dangerous-cyclists-remain-a-menace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/03\/26\/paris-has-become-more-bicycle-friendly-but-dangerous-cyclists-remain-a-menace\/\">mandatory helmet-wearing<\/a>, while the other addressed proper lighting (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/03\/27\/cycling-and-road-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/03\/27\/cycling-and-road-safety\/\">Cycling and road safety<\/a>\u201d, Letters, March 26th). <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">I share my experience from Germany on both topics, where cycling etiquette is typically good. Helmet-wearing is low and enforcement is not mandated. Authorities believe having such measures would reduce cycling and lead to higher overall mortality. It is felt enforcement of helmet-wearing would put people off cycling, leading to more cars on the road and more fatalities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Now to the issue of lights. In primary school, to be permitted to cycle to school, you and your bicycle must pass a test. For the bike, this includes functioning front and back brakes, two reflectors per wheel and adequate lighting front and back. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Education is the key. Enforcement then becomes less necessary and  it comes as no surprise if you are stopped by the local police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If I am stopped for cycling intoxicated,  I can lose my driving licence and have to pay one month\u2019s net salary as a fine. So, if education doesn\u2019t work, this certainly would ram home the point.  &#8211; Yours, etc,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">SIMON BLAKE,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Munich,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Germany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, &#8211; I came across two letters of particular interest on Thursday, both of which touched upon aspects&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,5717,85],"class_list":["post-569438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-germany","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}