Cyclists in Dublin. The Road Safety Authority received nine complaints about an article which described those using bikes as a “law unto themselves”

An “expert” with the Road Safety Authority claimed that cyclists were a “law unto themselves” and had a “complete disregard for the rules of the road” in the first draft of a controversial newspaper article that prompted a backlash when it referred to the increasing number of bike users as “swarming masses”.

The reference was removed by the RSA before the article was submitted for publication along with a claim that cyclists had developed a “majority-rules mindset” and were “battling it out for first place in the cycle lane, or as some call it, the ‘psycho’ lane”.

The toning down of the article, published in the Irish Independent’s motoring section under the byline “RSA expert”, was revealed in documents released to The Times under