“Share the Road with Cyclists” RSA Ad

Irish TV viewers may recently have spotted a new ad advising drivers on how to share the road with cyclists. Thumbs up to the Government’s Road Safety Authority for rolling this out. Not only is it well shot and scripted, but you have to approve of its messages. In fact, Dublin Cycling Campaign was involved in the background, and it’s a credit to the RSA that they took on board the well-known points from cycling advocacy we made.

Above is a screen-grab from the TV ad, and below it an image from the submission Will edited in early 2012. Let’s hope drivers around the country actually take notice and start giving cyclists the space we deserve. Click here to see this and other RSA ads.

The RSA also published a series of three ads aimed at cyclists last year. This time the RSA consulted us throughout scripting and filming. Though there was a list of niggles that advocates had with the final product -why hi-viz on every cyclist!?- the advice it gave, ‘you’ve as much right to your road space as any other road user, so ride with confidence and command your lane’ was a first in an Irish official context, and marked new ground for the promotion of cycling. Each of the three ads also took time to highlight some of the benefits of cycling, yet another piece of good news for us!

This series sadly wasn’t aired on TV, but you can view them here.