Safety concerns main issue stopping Irish adults from cycling – survey

Safety concerns are the main barrier preventing more Irish people from cycling, according to a survey.

The research indicated that the vast majority of Irish adults rarely or never cycle, with just 13% of Irish adults cycling weekly.

The most commonly given deterrents were the volume of traffic (66%), dangerous driving (61%), a lack of confidence cycling in traffic (51%) and a lack of segregated cycle lanes (40%).

Other reasons given were weather conditions (34%), previous incidents or near-misses (21%) and poor street lighting in the evening (21%).

The survey was conducted by polling company IrelandThinks for insurer RedClick, a partner of the Dublinbikes scheme which is operated by JCDecaux on behalf of Dublin City Council.

The research was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 1,648 participants.

It indicated that 82% of Irish adults rarely or never cycle and just 13% of Irish adults said they cycled weekly.

This compared to 24% of EU citizens who cycle weekly, 47% of Danes and 42% of Finnish citizens.

The research found that 56% of adults in Ireland said safety concerns have stopped them from cycling, with women being over 25% more likely than men to cite safety concerns as a barrier (62% vs 49%).

When asked what changes would encourage them or others to cycle more, safer roads and improved driver–cyclist etiquette emerged as the top priority (56%).

Other suggestions included more dedicated cycle lanes (38%), more secure parking (22%), greater policing of bike theft (22%), and improved street lighting (17%).

The survey also indicates that 35% of adults own a bike, 4% own an electric bike, 1% own a cargo bike, and 5% use RedClick dublinbikes or another bike sharing service.

In Dublin, 9% of adults use RedClick dublinbikes or another bike share scheme.