Even more cyclists now breaking the law

[DistingusedSocialCommentator]

Most drivers and pedestrians will be aware of this as many have seen or been victims of a cycle rider.

Watching Talktv this morning there was a lady who had lost her mother due to an e-scooter rider on the pavement. The show had a lawyer on talking about what I agree with, IE cyclists are very hard to identify if they get away from an accident.

E-scooters we all know are against the law unless provided for by your local council in central London. Several times over the years, me and the family have had close calls with them on pavements and parks as they zoom down, you cant hear them and they often dress in all black clothing.

Push bike riders are travelling faster and faster as many more have those battery packs on them

With the introduction of 20mph zones in vast areas of London, even more, push bike riders are now breaking the law, EG travelling well over 20mph in a 20mph and passing slower cars travelling at 20mph We are all aware how some push bike riders have ignored the rules for years, EG jump red lights, ignore pedestrians on crossings, cause accidents and walk of or rise off and now, much more able to break the speed limits off 20mph with almost 100% impunity and some that at red lights get o the pavement and cross a red light that way or some just ride on pavements

For the record, note, Its some cyclists not all but we have all seen them more so as going to work, or dropping off children at schools the speed of some of these riders

The Talktv debate also talked about those who kill people while riding a push bike/scooter, I think they said the maximum prison sentence was two years (I may be wrong) but the laws needed vast improvements.

This had been talked about a lot before but nothing happened.

AIBU proposes that all cyclists have number plates/easily identifiable markings, all have insurance, all have a bell and lights, and all wear a helmet and hi-vis jacket (This would in my judgment make many more riders more responsible for their actions and our roads/pavements safer for all)

The police need to be more proactive on e-scooter riders. However, as cyclists are almost impossible to identify, my proposal as above will aid the police and hopefully, modify the dangerous behaviours of those cyclists that are now regularly breaking the law, EG, travelling at more than the speed allowed, jumping red lights, putting pedestrians at risk on crossings and pavements.

I bet you many people would have taken their number and the dangerous cycle rider most likely caught and banged to rights

oooh dangerous cycle rider 👻 sneaking up and causing a widespread menace to society 😂

fks sake you are absolutely ridiculous op

If anyone needs to identify me on a bike it's easy. I'm fat, female and bobbing along at about 5mph. I wear a yellow helmet. You can't miss me. CCTV will definitely identify me.

Also, some of the bike lanes are flipping dangerous. One that comes to mind is the stretch from Hammersmith down King St to Turnham Green Church. It's criss-cross alobg the road, people do not look where they are going crossing from the island bus stoos and on one side it's so bloody narrow I have fallen off about three times after contact with a cyclist coming the opposite way.

The problem in general is that cyclists and vehicle drivers just hate each other. Councils, TfL & the GLA can't plan a safe route for both cyclists and other vehicles if a solution bit them on the bum. London is not designed for road sharing, the roads are too narrow or too decrepit.

Also bike sharing schemes are totally out of control and too easily accessible to people who really shouldn't use them.

The war continues. It had been, it is, and will forever be, a fight.

The problem in general is that cyclists and vehicle drivers just hate each other

Everyone hates cyclists and there's nowhere safe for them to ride.

Ride on the road - drivers hate it

Ride on the pavement - even if it's completely empty - it's against the law and pedestrians hate it even if there's space

Ride on a CYCLE path - the dog walkers hate it because they insist on using it (I wonder if the Netherlands had the Covid-related boom in dog ownership and now has the same issue!)

It's a bit of a mystery to me where cyclists are actually supposed to ride!

I don't pay road tax (legally) for my car!

Not the best post on the thread - a very badly informed one. In the few countries where bikes have to be registered (and helmets made compulsory) cycling reduces massively.

It is completely disproportionate for the harm caused by cyclists, and as I said above, registering cars doesn't stop drivers behaving incredibly badly,

Sunflowerseeds - it may not necessarily be a war forever. Countries can change their mindset. Holland wasn't always a cycling country, that began with the campaigning of a father after his son was killed on a bike. The cult of the car doesn't have to be the only way. I think the future will see a drop in private car ownership and a rise in more sustainable forms of transport.

Have you ANY figures on accidents caused by cyclists doing any of the above?

A lack of thought into what you post is very clear with your absurd idea of number plates on Hi Viz.

Ever wondered by no country has compulsory registration plates on bicycles? Even Singapore dropped the idea.

Why are you ad many others here that I'm guessing are cycle riders so anti-identification details bing attached to the cycle or hi-vis jacket?

Many people have several bikes, so an ID on hi-vis is best. This will also allow the cycling insurance to travel with the reg number and the person named on the insurance.

This will change the entitled behaviour of many push bike riders that ATM are fearless because they know there is next to no chance of getting caught when they break the law

So, please, whay are you so anti-ID for cyclists??

That’s fair. But if vocal cycling campaigners continue to adopt the view that cars are inherently bad and car use should be opposed, there’ll be antagonism. It works in reverse as well, of course. It’s when (some) cyclists’ evangelical self-importance meets (some) drivers’ unpleasant sense of entitlement that things go wrong.

So if car owners could accept the rights of cyclists and cyclists would admit to the value and necessity of motor vehicles, we’d all be better off.

So, please, whay are you so anti-ID for cyclists??

Please, 'whay' do you keep posting the same thing over and over again?

Clearly you've not read the whole thread.
There are many that are anti-cycle ID but no one, no one at all has said why they are so against ID. As you know, jump a red light on a cycle today as many do in cities, there is a 999.999999% chance of being caught. With ID on the bike or Hi-vis jacket, jump the red lights, ride on the pavement, cut across a crossing when pedestrians re crossing, there will be an 80% chance that someone will catch them on their dash cam or council cctv.

Until some rider comes up with a sensible reason not to have push bike riders ID something like a car reg, as above, I and other will continue to ask this question

Thans

Easy one, impractical as to set up a national registration DB would be extremely expensive, you d need licences and taxes to pay for it, then you'd need a cycle test, hardly fair to fine cyclists if the state hasn't made sure they know the rules.

Almost 8m people regularly cycle in the UK and that doesn't include children, so how would you police all of that?

So what you really want is to legislate bicycles off the roads.

You also haven't linked to the real figures on cyclists causing all these injuries?

Probably because you cannot, which is pretty much how the thread on no strike on Doctors went, ignore the evidence.

🙄

It was so good during early lockdown to have the streets free for walkers and cyclists - yet even then the drivers used the opportunity to speed.
We need to limit car engines so maximum speeds of 20mph in cities and 40mph in the countryside are imposed. The more countryside pavements, cycle paths and subsidised public transport the better. 80mph on motorways is fine as I shan’t be cycling on them!
Give over with the registration plate as a resolution to illegal behaviour. It doesn’t work for cars, the police have powers to seize illegal bikes (and scooters) but don’t use them.

Easy one, impractical as to set up a national registration DB would be extremely expensive, you d need licences and taxes to pay for it, then you'd need a cycle test, hardly fair to fine cyclists if the state hasn't made sure they know the rules.

Why would you need a test? It is the driver’s/rider’s responsibility to make sure they know the rules, just like any other law.

Motor vehicle registration started in 1903. Driving tests were introduced over 30 years later in 1935. My grandfather started driving in the 1910s so he never took one. Despite that, he managed to keep a clean licence until he passed away in the late 1970s.

Ok but anyone can use the road. Do you hold an 8yo to the same level of responsibility as a 30yo? If not, where's the cut off point?

How do you prove who was riding a bike?

If a bike gets nicked, what happens then (I'll tell you what doesn't happen - the police give zero percent of a shit)

Cars have chassis plates and serial numbers etc and it's a criminal offence to mess with these, so you can't splice up different parts of a car to make a whole as you can with a bike. What do you do with bikes, make it a criminal offence to get new handlebars without permission? If not, what is the bike?! What are you registering? Can you sell on parts?

I can't believe people would contemplate using public money and police time on this rather than investing in usable bike lanes so cyclists stay off pavements.

Easy one, impractical as to set up a national registration DB would be extremely expensive, you d need licences and taxes to pay for it, then you'd need a cycle test, hardly fair to fine cyclists if the state hasn't made sure they know the rules.

Of course the rules are known, the state has published them in the bloody Highway Code.

The onus is on the person in charge of a vehicle, the cyclist in this case, to know the rules.

You cannot treat riders and bicycles as "motorists" without training, why would a non car driver know the rules of the roads or how to cycle properly in accordance with all the new laws specific to bikes, lighting, tyres/tread depth, mudguards, braking requirements.

The test fees would also be needed to help fund the quango needed to register the 8m cyclists in the UK, manage ID, proof of address, change of address, new riders, issue fines, provide ID info to the authorities, points on the licence so riders could be banned for repeat offences....

Then we'd need testing stations to make sure bicycles are fit for the road, a new BS standard for number plates and Hi Viz jackets and of course a Office for bicycles to regulate the sector eg Ofbike.

what your Grandfather did 90 years ago, is irrelevant, no one today can drive or do what he did.

I noticed speeding drivers during lockdown too. Really stupid.

But I also twice got abused - physically menaced in one case - by cyclists who shouted at me for walking in the road, which I did because the pavement wasn’t wide enough for distancing. On neither occasion was there any difficulty at all in just cycling round me. I think they just thought they were the rulers of the highway then.

I never say that drivers aren’t the right party primarily to regulate. But I think cyclists should among themselves encourage a more mature and sensible attitude. In all respects, including courtesy and safety.

err So why are car drivers required to take lessons and prove they know the law/Highway code....

Or has the law changed and drivers no longer have to take a test etc? as the onus is on them to know this? plus what about children?

either way, you still cannot say how your registration scheme etc will be funded?

As i said early what you and others want is cyclists banned from the roads, you dress it up as a safety argument but its very transparent what you really want.

So you'd make it a criminal offence to break the highway code? Or you'd add new crimes to do that?

Climate change is threatening humanity, the economy is in the bin, Russia is threatening world war but British politicians are going to spend time deciding whether to prosecute 10 year olds whose bike battery runs out. Right...

Why are you and many others here that I'm guessing are cycle riders so anti-identification details bing attached to the cycle or hi-vis jacket?

This will change the entitled behaviour of many push bike riders that ATM are fearless because they know there is next to no chance of getting caught when they break the law

So, please, why are riders so anti-ID for cyclists??

I'm 100% certain no cycle rider can come up with the answer we already know why they don't want reg ID system to easily identify all of them

Many cycle riders dont have insurance so when they injure you and a very small chance of them being caught, they often plead poverty

As I'm sure you know as a driver, the highway code does not have legal force.

An action that breaches the highway code will sometimes also constitute a criminal offence and you can most times get prosecuted for careless driving or worse if you do something that is against the highway code, but that's not the same thing.

Because it won't work, for all the reasons given.
Starting with youngsters mucking about in a carpark on their BMX´s. What are you going to do? What are the police expected to do? Some sort of Keystone Cops chase around the carpark?
Don't forget, those cyclists prone to breaking the law will be exactly the ones not wearing their Hi-Viz ID jacket.

That a bit hair-splitty TBH.

Lots of codes have persuasive legal force. That’s the point of them. It counts against you if you disobey; you just have the right to argue otherwise. In many respects legal obligations work like that anyway through circumstance and mitigation.