“Carnage” has now become “normalised” on Irish roads, Cycling Ireland has said. 

So far this year, 83 people have lost their lives on Irish roads - three fewer than in the first six months of 2024. 

Among the victims were eight cyclists - further evidence that people who use a bike are highly vulnerable road users. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Cycling Ireland President and former TD Ciaran Cannon said significantly more needs to be done to protect them. 

“This is about ensuring that no matter what mode of transport you use every morning, going to work, going to school, going to college, you should arrive home safely that evening,” he said. 

“That’s it - and no more, no less than that.

“We have somehow turned it into a battle and it is now becoming a culture war, where if you’re on the side of cyclists, you can’t possibly be a motorist.” 

An older man cycling a bike. Picture by: Tristan Leverett / Alamy

Mr Cannon rejected the idea that there is a huge divide between cyclists and drivers, noting that the “vast majority” also drive cars. 

“We’ve manufactured this sort of aggression between one group of road users and another,” he said. 

“The point I’m trying to make is just for us to take a step back and acknowledge that what we’re doing right now in terms of trying to protect all of us on our roads, is simply not working.

“It hasn’t been working for a very long time.” 

People walking and cycling to work in Dublin. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie.

Mr Cannon continued that the blame for the considerable number of road deaths is widespread. 

“The fault is with us as a society that has normalised deaths on our roads, that has somehow deemed it acceptable,” he said. 

“Almost like a collateral damage, that if we’re going to have the convenience of being able to hop into a car in the morning, we have to accept that there’s a level of death and carnage and serious injury associated with that. 

“We have normalised that and we need to step back, be rational and be logical about how exactly we’re approaching this.” 

He added that society urgently needs to reconsider how it approaches road safety. 

“We’ve designed a road system that puts driver convenience ahead of road safety,” he explained. 

“The way we approach this is vastly different to the way we approach protecting people in all other environments. 

“There’s a really strong science around workplace safety.” 

A person cycling in a bike lane. Picture by: Hympi / Alamy

One solution, Mr Cannon, believes to redesign much of the country’s urban infrastructure, to separate cars from vulnerable road users. 

“The most effective way of protecting pedestrians and cyclists from danger on our roads is completely separating them from the traffic, from the cars  that do damage,” he said. 

“The Greens in Government were very, very ambitious around that and, thankfully, that kind of ambition seems to be sustained in creating segregated cycle lanes and safe routes to schools.” 

In 2024, there were 174 road deaths in Ireland - a drop of 4% on the previous year. 

Main image: A member of An Garda Síochána places flowers near the scene of a crash. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie