A LIMERICK city wheelchair user is pleading for the rules of the road to be enforced for cyclists who are taking their bikes on to footpaths and making his life a misery.
Greg Buckley (50) from Sarsfield Avenue has been a wheelchair user since a road traffic accident severed his spine when he was just 17 years old.
He works in the city and is regularly out and about in his power chair.
“I’m very independent but the behaviour of these people who cycle on the footpath is making it very difficult, not just for me but for everyone,” Greg told the Limerick Post.
“It is now illegal to cycle on a footpath without due consideration. I can tell you and any pedestrian will tell you that almost all cycling on the footpaths is reckless. Basically, cyclists on Limerick footpaths do whatever they like, travelling at any speed they wish.
“There is no deterrent and the footpaths of Limerick are now a treacherous place for pedestrians.
Greg said that he has often taken cyclists to task for their behaviour and for his trouble has been “abused, threatened, laughed at and had various rude gestures directed at me when I point out to reckless cyclists what they are doing is illegal”.
“Cyclists will say some roads are narrow and dangerous but while I don’t dispute that some roads may be narrow, what is wrong with dismounting your bike if you want to use the footpath and walk alongside your bike?
“Organisations representing cyclists will come up with some politically correct excuse defending reckless cyclists on footpaths. Indeed I read last year about a cyclist association stating that cyclists “didn’t know any better” about the rules of cycling on footpaths.
“The new law of a €40 fine being imposed for cycling ‘without reasonable consideration’ is a farce and is not implemented,” he claimed.
“It’s shameful the amount of reckless and dangerous cycling on footpaths in Limerick. It creates a blight on our city and must be addressed immediately”.
