{"id":436726,"date":"2026-01-27T15:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436726\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:50:19","slug":"anyone-who-thinks-cyclists-come-out-of-nowhere-should-not-be-in-control-of-a-vehicle-author-slams-be-safe-be-seen-hi-vis-cycling-campaigns-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436726\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAnyone who thinks cyclists \u2018come out of nowhere\u2019 should not be in control of a vehicle\u201d: Author slams \u2018be safe, be seen\u2019 hi-vis cycling campaigns, calls for \u2018Look, don\u2019t kill\u2019 slogan; TT tinkering; Vine broken wrist; Tulip wars + more on the live blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, that\u2019s right. Helmets and hi-vis are back on the agenda.<\/p>\n

This week, we\u2019ve heard a few rumblings emanating from Dublin concerning the possibility of a mandatory helmet and reflective clothing law for cyclists in Ireland<\/a>. The prospect of new legislation controlling what people on bikes wear stems from a recently established government safety review into e-scooters, following a steep rise in collisions involving that particular vehicle.<\/p>\n

As we reported yesterday, however, the Irish road safety minister Se\u00e1n Canney has appeared, for some reason, to lump bikes and e-bikes into the mix (under the umbrella of \u2018micromobility\u2019), declaring in parliament that a compulsory cycling helmet and hi-vis law could soon be on the way.<\/p>\n

\"high-vis<\/p>\n

>\u00a0\u2018Over-reaction based on vibes\u2019: Are mandatory helmet and hi-vis laws for cyclists set to be introduced in Ireland?<\/a><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, that suggestion has been given short shrift by Irish cycling campaigners, such as Cycling Ireland president Ciaran Cannon, who described any potential protective equipment legislation as \u201cperformative policymaking\u201d which \u201cshifts responsibility away from those operating the most dangerous vehicles and implies that injury results from a failure of visibility rather than from road design, driver behaviour, or enforcement\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kevin Jennings, a spokesperson for the Irish Cycling Campaign, branded the move an \u201cover-reaction for very little gain\u201d, and equated it to \u201ctelling a person who is struggling with their heating bill to put on an extra jumper\u201d.<\/p>\n

And while that response from the cycling community is to be expected, opposition to the proposals has also come from a more unlikely source: a column in the Irish Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact, English academic and writer Sarah Moss, the author of 2018\u2019s acclaimed Ghost Wall, summed the whole debate up by describing helmets and hi-vis as \u201csymptoms of the Irish problem, not the solution\u201d.<\/p>\n

In her column, Moss, a regular cyclist herself, admits that helmets and hi-vis are a must-have in her house. \u201cI am in favour of cyclists being visible, because I am in favour of cyclists being alive,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0\u201cI wear bright colours, lights, and reflective bags \u2013 but drivers still close pass me every day\u201d: Cyclists respond to hi-vis calls by claiming drivers \u201cchoose not to see\u201d them, but others ask \u201cWhat\u2019s the problem with close passes?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

However, Moss draws the line at victim-blaming road safety campaigns which, she says, shift the onus of safety onto the most vulnerable \u2013 and away from people in cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI prickle at the RSA\u2019s injunctions to cyclists to \u2018Light up\u2019 and especially the vests that say \u2018Be safe, be seen\u2019. Whether I am seen or not is not in my control,\u201d she points out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe slogan makes no sense anyway; worn on the cyclist\u2019s back, it seems directed towards drivers, who are by definition already safe and seen because they are in cars. It has a tendency to reassure drivers that it is the cyclists\u2019 responsibility to be seen rather than the drivers\u2019 responsibility to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who thinks cyclists \u2018come out of nowhere\u2019 should not be in control of a vehicle. If the bicycle brought teleportation, we\u2019d be using it for something more exciting than commuting. We come from where we were before, usually farther down the bike lane, usually at about the speed we\u2019re going now. Some drivers don\u2019t look, but the more bikes there are, the more aware drivers become.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark, the author then highlights that very road.cc concept that helmets and hi-vis are rare sights in those nations \u2013 despite the popularity of cycling there \u2013 because the infrastructure is there to make them redundant, \u201cbecause it is not cycling that is dangerous, but driving\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the built environment separates human skin and bone from lorries, cars and buses, there is no need for our frantic striving to make fragile bodies hyper-visible,\u201d she writes (though she does note that Ireland has improved in this regard, with more children than ever cycling to school and urban cycling no longer being the \u201cpreserve of skinny men in Lycra\u201d \u2013 the \u201ctorchbearers\u201d, as she calls them).<\/p>\n

\"Cyclist<\/p>\n

>\u00a0\u201cHi-vis and lights make chuff-all difference if drivers don\u2019t look\u201d: Cyclist \u201cglad I wore my most visible protection\u201d after motorist pulls out \u2013 but rider accused of \u201csteaming on\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Moss also says that she\u2019s experienced fewer near misses while cycling in Dublin in recent years, thanks to the dual developments of better protected infrastructure and \u201csafety in numbers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, every time I have come close to death under some driver\u2019s wheels and had a conversation about it \u2013 I will catch up with you if at all possible and I will knock on your window and express my feelings because I am shaky and hammering with adrenaline and disinhibited by mortality \u2013 the driver says they \u2018didn\u2019t see me\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways I suppose this is reassuring, the alternative being that they did see me and decided in cold blood to try to kill me, but it is no excuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there when you did not see me because you did not look. I am small but not invisible. I do everything in my power to \u2018be safe, be seen\u2019, but in fact I have very little power in this situation. A slogan like \u2018Look, don\u2019t kill\u2019 would be more to the point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s an idea for a road safety campaign\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yes, that\u2019s right. Helmets and hi-vis are back on the agenda. This week, we\u2019ve heard a few rumblings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-436726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}