Snobby Residents and Road Safety

 Fatal crash cyclist's brother slams 'snobby' residents

By Laura Colgan, News Reporter, Irish Daily Star Tuesday October 27th 2020.

The brother of a cyclist killed in a collision with a truck has blasted residents opposing safety bollards. 

Residents of Fitzwilliam Street in Dublin 2 are urging Dublin City Council to remove the "distasteful" cycle lane bollards put in place to protect cyclists.

The South Georgian Core Residents Association claims the wands used to keep cyclists safe are "visual pollutants" and are not in keeping with the city's conservation area.

Road safety advocate Neil Fox said the safety of cyclists should be prioritised over the appearance of the bollards.

Nonsense

His sister Donna Fox died after she was hit by a truck at the junction of Seville Place and Sheriff Street Upper (Guild Street n.f) while cycling to work on September 6, 2016. Donna (30) had been wearing a helmet and travelling in the cycle lane at the time. 

Neil said: "The subject has reached a new low when a group is opposed to the new bollards or wands because they are 'visual pollutants'. 

"What utter nonsense, which sounds snobbish. The vulnerable need protection and that should and does override such concerns.

"Bollards and wands are hardly ugly or unpleasant to the eye when compared with the reason they are put there.

   "Surely the image of an injured person or indeed a fatality and all the aftermath of that is the more difficult vision than a few wands on a road. It is a crass complaint."

Dublin City Council put bollards in place at the site where Donna died within a few weeks of the crash.

Lights

At her inquest, the jury recommended installing extra traffic lights to allow cyclists to cross junctions safely.

   Neil said: "Within a few weeks, Dublin City Council erected 13 bollards at the site. The bollards have since been replaced by a whole new system.

     "The local people who had been traumatized by what they had seen and heard that awful Tuesday morning[that Donna died] and were far from worried about how those few plastic wands looked.

   "I hope that residents and such groups will cop on.

"We need to start seeing cycling lanes as a normal part of city life."