Sir, – In a piece about dangerous junctions in Dublin for cyclists, it says that danger is often caused “where cyclists were heading straight, but left-turning motorists were reluctant to yield” (“Change is coming for Dublin’s dangerous junctions”, News, May 11th). Why should motorists yield to cyclists in these circumstances when both the law and the rules of the road give priority to motorists in this situation? The Road Traffic and Parking Regulations 1997 make it clear that a cyclist may not overtake a vehicle on the left once it “has signalled an intention to turn left and there is a reasonable expectation that the vehicle ... will execute a movement to the left before the cycle overtakes the vehicle”. In layman’s terms, this means that once a vehicle in front of a cyclist has signalled left, the cyclist must slow up and give way to the vehicle until it has turned left. As a regular commuter through the Five Lamps junction in Dublin (at least before the ongoing two-year closure of this stretch of road for the never-ending construction of a cycle lane), I witnessed almost daily incidents where cyclists appeared to believe that they had priority over traffic turning left, continuing onwards in the apparent expectation that left-turning vehicles should yield, bringing traffic to a halt and risking an accident in the process. This rule of the road appears to be misunderstood wholesale by cyclists so it would be concerning if your article was allowed to add to this confusion. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.