Luas has revealed the number of crashes and emergency braking incidents linked to cyclists, motorists and pedestrians. And the figures do not support the need for its special messaging specific to cyclists.

Luas incidents with cyclists, drivers, pedestrians

Dublin light rail operators Luas have revealed cyclists account for significantly fewer crashes and emergency braking incidents despite the messaging in its recent safety videos.

Drivers account for more than half of all crashes and emergency braking incidents, pedestrians more than one third and cyclists less than 10 per cent.

Recently Luas produced three videos to encourage cyclists, motorists and pedestrians to be more conscious of the Luas trams.

However, the messaging accompanying the videos, and the titles of the clips, were very different (see image below).

The videos for motorists and pedestrians were titled ‘Luas motorist safety 2.5 min video’ and ‘Luas pedestrian safety video’ respectively.

The clip about cyclists was titled ‘Luas and irresponsible cyclist behaviour’.

And the messaging with the cycling video told the public that if a tram they were travelling on was forced to emergency brake, it could be because of a cyclist.

Luas encouraged members of the public to share the video with cyclists they knew.

However, in the clips for pedestrians and motorists there was no link made between their behaviour and the Luas having to brake suddenly.

And the public was not encouraged to seek out pedestrians and motorists they knew to show them the videos.

The statistics now released by Luas to the new I Bike Dublin cyclist activist group reveal that far from being the biggest problem for the Luas, cyclists cause least problems for the trams.

Luas video titles and accompanying messages

Last year, Luas was involved in 23 contacts with vehicles, three contacts with pedestrians and two with cyclists.

And in the area of emergency braking – which Luas has linked only to cyclists in its safety campaign – the figures are even more pronounced.

In 2016 Luas was forced to emergency brake 206 times during incidents with vehicles, 131 times in cases related to pedestrians and 31 times because of cyclists.

Vanessa Sterry of I Bike Dublin said the Luas system was littered with pinch points, where poor design left very little room for cyclists to manoeuvre around trams.

“The timing of the Luas anti cyclist video and its language is rather questionable too,” she said.

“Why have a sponsored and paid social media campaign against vulnerable road users instead of addressing their valid safety concerns or the issues associated with the Luas Cross City works?”

She believed linking cyclists only to emergency braking “demonised” cyclists. But Luas should better spend its time doing more to make their system safer.

Ciarán Ferrie of I Bike Dublin said the wording of the safety videos was different.

Specifically, the cycling video carried a negative message about cyclists. This negative messaging was absent in the clips for pedestrians and motorists.

“It asks readers to share the post so that ‘everyone you know who cycles can see the impact cycling irresponsibly can have on your Luas journey’,” he said.

“We are left with the impression that ‘everyone you know who cycles’ is likely to do so ‘irresponsibly’ and they must be told about this immediately.

“The words ‘cyclist’ or ‘cycling’ are linked with the words ‘irresponsible’ or ‘irresponsibly’ three times in a short paragraph.”

Ferrie added there were “no such value-laden adjectives” applied to motorists or pedestrians in the corresponding safety videos.