Tráfico crackdown to improve safety of cyclists at risk from drunk drivers

[Janet]

Tráfico has announced a crackdown to improve the safety of cyclists at risk from drunk drivers. The new measures will include increased checkpoints, particularly on weekend mornings when cyclists are most likely to be on the road. Helicopters will also be used to detect driving offences, and harsher penalties will be handed out to repeat offenders, including the loss of licence for those caught twice or more in under two years.

The tightening up of policy was announced by the Interior Ministry's Juan Ignacio Zoido in a road safety committee convoked by Tráfico. The minister said that the new measures were the result of official concern about cyclist safety in general, but also specifically in light of a spate of driver-caused cyclist incidents throughout Spain recently. Tráfico says that in 2015, the last year for which there are final figures, there were 7,186 accidents involving cyclists, 58 of whom died, and 652 needing hospital treatment.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

I know it's not PC but I really wish they'd restrict the cyclists to certain routes.  I find it really annoying to have to travel only as fast as somebody can cycle because it is impossible to get around them.  And they are the rudest most inconsiderate road users there are.  I really cannot stand them. 

[Nova]

Especially when they know you're waiting for an opportunity to get past them and they don't even bother pedalling!!  Or when they pull out in front of you on a roundabout 

Or when they cycle across pedestrian crossings!!  Cyclists have no right to use pedestrian crossings without getting off their sodding bikes.

[Janet]

Totally agree ... but there have been several incidents lately where groups of riders have been ploughed into by drunk drivers, and if I dislike cyclists, I dislike people who drive while off their heads more ...

[Michael]

Totally agree ... but there have been several incidents lately where groups of riders have been ploughed into by drunk drivers, and if I dislike cyclists, I dislike people who drive while off their heads more ...

People who drive while drunk are the lowest form of vermin.

But yes, cyclists are a pain in the ass, the worst being those who ride two abreast. I don't think i've seen that in Tenerife.