AQW 26029/11-15

Mr Daithí McKay
Sinn Féin
North Antrim

Tabled Date: 20/09/2013
Answered On Date: 26/09/2013
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Regional Development, pursuant to AQW 25213/11-15, what assessment was made of the extent to which bicycle racks obscure driver vision and affect driving performance; and whether his Department considered the experiences of other countries that introduced bicycle racks when making this decision.

Answer:

Translink has advised my officials that an assessment was carried out using a fixture provided by the cycle rack supplier which simulated the position of the rack on the front of a bus.

Translink also looked at similar cycle racks as fitted to buses in North America, U.S.A. and Canada, as at the time of the tests there were no equivalent applications in the UK or Ireland.

The main difference in North America was the design of the buses which had smaller windscreens and higher floor levels which meant that the racks did not interfere with the view of the driver when fitted.

Most buses in the Translink fleet have large windscreens which take up typically about two thirds of the frontal area of the bus. Approximately 1/3 of this area would have been obscured by the rack, which was deemed unacceptable for safety reasons.