At the start of August Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe introduced a new set of fixed penalties for cyclists – including a €40 fine for breaking a red light. New research from Trinity College found that 60% of cyclists are breaking red lights in Dublin, while at one particular junction 97.8% of cyclists broke a red light.

Prof Caulfield believes there needs to be a review of the rules of the road to better accommodate the changing face of the roads, in particular the rapid increase in the number of cyclists on the roads.

“Our cities and towns are changing,” he said.

“In Dublin and across the country we have doubled the amount of cyclists. If we were to double any mode of transport there would be teething problems.”

“It is a good thing that we’re having this debate. Maybe five ten years ago we never thought we would be giving out about the number of cyclists in the city and breaking lights – but we need to look at how the rules of the road are applied,” he said.

The researchers chose to undertake the study as “There was a lot of hearsay on the number of cyclists breaking lights,” Prof Caulfield said.

The study observed two junctions in the city – one with a cycle lane and one without.

“What we found was on the cycle track the vast majority of cyclists did break the lights ... about 25% broke on a motorist phase” and the rest on the pedestrian light phase, Prof Caulfield said.

On average, the study found that 60% of cyclists were breaking red lights.

Listen below to the full interview with prof Brian Caulfield on the Trinity College study