A Dublin-based judge has been criticised by public representatives and local groups in Cork for \u201cupsetting\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d comments made about cyclists.<\/p>\n
Circuit Court judge James O\u2019Donohue recently described cyclists as a \u201cnightmare\u201d while handing down a judgment on a road traffic collision case.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donohue reduced damages awarded to a cyclist, who was involved in a collision with a motorcyclist, by 80%. In doing so, he said: \u201cYou never know with cyclists, what they are going to do, or anticipate what they are going to do\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin,\u201d the judge added.<\/p>\n
Opposition<\/p>\n
Following the inflammatory statement, there has been widespread opposition to the rhetoric that cyclists are to blame for poor infrastructure planning, with representatives of the Labour Party submitting an official complaint about Mr O\u2019Donohue to the judicial council.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Echo, Ruth Bullough of Cycle Sense in Skibbereen said she is concerned that such comments from a figure of authority may contribute to further toxic behaviours towards cyclists on Irish roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was irresponsible of him to talk like that,\u201d said Ms Bullough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s a pity, to paint all cyclists in such a way, it doesn\u2019t help, and was really disappointing.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere are huge benefits to cycling, everything across the board from personal, physical and mental health, to environmental health.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI worry about his comments because I presume he is very influential \u2014 people are always looking for scapegoats to the world\u2019s problems, but cyclists aren\u2019t it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re vulnerable road users, and because we\u2019re mostly not segregated into safer places, we have to negotiate the traffic and sometimes behave or move in certain ways,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe should be encouraging cyclists, but the movement to building infrastructure hasn\u2019t caught up to what cyclists need, so there\u2019s always going to be issues.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hostile environment \u2014 cycling with vehicles \u2014 but there is a way of doing it and well-known infrastructure that could be implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people think the roads are owned by motorists, but that\u2019s an issue because we need to share them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apologise<\/p>\n
She said the judge\u2019s comments were \u201cdisappointing\u201d, adding: \u201cI would like him to apologise, but I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the D\u00e1il last week, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said he rejected \u201cany stereotyping of cyclists, or any categorisation of cyclists\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to breach any separation of powers, but any general comment, to the effect that it impacts negatively in terms of the perspective on cyclists, is wrong \u2014 it shouldn\u2019t happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe should be very clear about the importance of cycling and facilitating cyclists, and also being very careful in terms of contested space on our roads in terms of making sure that we protect cyclists.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
In a joint statement, Labour Party councillor for the Cork City South-East ward, Peter Horgan, and Green Party councillor for the Cork City North-East ward, Oliver Moran, said they are both alarmed and disappointed by Mr O\u2019Donohue\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch remarks are unhelpful, unfair and distract from the real issue,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland\u2019s transport system, both in Dublin and here in Cork, remains dangerously under-equipped to support safe, healthy and sustainable travel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin-based judge has been criticised by public representatives and local groups in Cork for \u201cupsetting\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[781,9,10,145534,2529,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-291802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-cork-cycling","12":"tag-cycling","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115919833197719106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}