Ireland’s Minister for Transport, Shane Ross, says the Government has called a halt on plans for a minimum passing distance law intended to protect cyclists. The Attorney General advised that a specific minimum passing distance would be difficult to enforce and so Ross is now proposing a ‘dangerous overtaking of cyclists’ offence instead, for which a minimum passing distance would not be stipulated.
The minimum passing distance proposal, announced last year, would have made it an offence to pass a cyclist closer than 1m on roads with a speed limit under 50km/h and within 1.5m on roads with a limit of 50km/h or higher.
Ross said: “We had measures ready and prepared for a minimum passing distance of 1.5 for cyclists which is practiced in some other countries, but the Attorney General feels that is not a way forward because of the enforceability measure; that it wouldn’t be possible to do that; it would be challenged; and successfully challenged in the courts.
“There isn’t the technology available at the moment to actually measure the 1.5, in which case it would be challenged in every case, that the technology wasn’t working and you couldn’t prove the actual distance.”
Ross told the Irish Times that there were now plans to make dangerous overtaking of a cyclist an offence, but without specifying a minimum passing distance.
Penalties would be the same as those proposed for the minimum passing distance bill, which were three penalty points and an €80 fine.
Dr Mike McKillen of cyclist.ie pointed out that there is already a law against dangerous overtaking in Ireland, but little evidence that it is enforced when it comes to the dangerous overtaking of a cyclist.
“I fail to see how specifically creating this new offence of ‘dangerous overtaking of a cyclist’ is going to improve on that,” he said.
The Green Party’s Transport Spokesperson Ciarán Cuffe told the Irish Examiner that more emphasis should be placed on police enforcement.
“It seems that the Attorney General has adopted a somewhat cautious approach to these much-needed changes. Over 50 cyclists have died on Irish roads in the last five years and we desperately need to improve their safety.
“In the absence of a minimum passing law Minister Ross should proceed with the improvements recommended by the Road Safety Authority in their recent review of minimum passing distances.
"They proposed that An Garda Síochána place a greater emphasis on enforcing unsafe motorist-cyclist interactions, and Minister Ross should sit down with the Minister for Justice to make this happen.”
