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.

She isn't being obtuse you are.

Explain how you are going to enforce the law on children, especially those under 12?

They can cycle around on their own and do in my area to go to places like school. A couple of the councils put their cycling bylaws on signs on lampposts but they aren't enforceable on children 12 and under.

I've also seen groups of school boys doing wheelies and stupid things on the road. The van and car drivers know they just have to wait.

Drivers are identifiable and it doesn't seem to be helping much

Identification isn't helping the deaths and injuries caused by drivers every day. And maybe if you learnt to spell, you might be taken seriously.

I stopped reading at the first paragraph with the glaring innacuracy. Cyclists DO NOT have to adhere to posted speed limits. The limits are for motorised vehicles only (e-bikes excluded).

If you're going to post tory dead cat shit at least try and gain a simple understanding of the law first 🤦‍♂️

Of course it’s helping.

What a bizarre thing to say.

Watching Talktv this morning there was a lady who had lost her mother due to an e-scooter rider on the pavement.

In 2022 there were 12 deaths associated with e-scooters - 11 were the riders of the scooters and one was a pedestrian who was struck by an e-scooter. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12747545/Interactive-map-reveals-e-scooter-crashes-happened-near-12-deaths-1-492-injuries-year.html

In an average year, five people die PER DAY on the roads https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/uk-road-safety

So I guess you have to ask yourself why the channel is focusing on an issue that causes one fatality per year instead of five per day? Could it be a rightwing channel trying to get you riled up in culture wars so you don't look at the full picture?

It's the same as when they try to make people begrudge asylum seekers for being holed up in a dismal hotel, instead of talking about the vastly bigger sum of tax avoidance that goes unpunished each year.

And while we're at it, doesn't this stuff about Kemi Badenoch trying to delay payments to subpostmasters then sacking the head of the post office for opposing it absolutely stink? Like absolutely stink of old fish guts and there's probably more to come out

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68337728

I’ll start getting worked up about cyclists when we stop living in a world where almost every driver breaks the law on a regular basis and when cyclists start causing anywhere near as much death and injury as cars do. In the meantime I’ll keep encouraging more people to cycle - since that will result in safer roads than driving.

See there you go - "get off the pavement". I literally said in my post this isn't about "pavements", it's SHARED USE PATHS that are legally designated by the council for cyclists to use as well.

E.g. this council explanation: A shared path is designed for all types of users including pedestrians, wheelchair users and cyclists. Some shared paths may be identified by signs showing a white bicycle and pedestrians on a blue background. If you come across shared paths with a dividing white line, segregating the cycle and pedestrian space, please keep to the correct side.

The trouble in my city is they often don't have designated sides, and don't put many signs up. They like to use these silly pavement markers that people don't notice.

I'm not excusing any cyclist who tries to tour de france along a shared path in an obnoxious fashion. But even just trying to slowly pootle along them you still need other people to show a smidge of awareness that they may be cyclists and to sometimes look where they're going or not meander wildly.

Not really. If you want to kill someone and not go to jail or suffer any consequences, do it with your car!

Trash bait.

I've been knocked and bumped by so many cars cycling, and hurt myself badly repeatedly trying to avoid pedestrians stepping into the road, flinging arms in my face, etc.

I'm also a driver. I see how other cars treat cyclists and it is shocking. Many pass cyclists way too close, refuse to allow access to the bike box at the traffic lights etc.

The police spend a huge amount of time dealing with mental health emergencies. They've also lost thousands of experienced officers.

Maybe if the Tories hadn't decimated mental health provision, and the police service, then the police would have time and resources enough to target minor crimes like cyclists speeding.

Don't blame the police for having to ration their limited resources, blame the government that limited the resources

It's an attempt to regulate a problem that doesn't really exist. Some of the things you advocate are law already (or recommended) but any more red tape would inconvenience the law-abiding majority and be ignored by everyone else, and police would accord that a very low priority.

I'm not saying that all cyclists are perfect but the balance of risks is certainly not as you imply. And I would like to see a crackdown on those very powerful e-bikes which are more like electric mopeds and are already illegal. So better application of existing laws in trouble hotspots is the proper solution.

There are thousands of fines and court sentences issued for RTA, custodial sentences included.

Since when do bikes stop at traffic lights, the three this morning in the early hours on my way to work all rode stright through red traffic ligts. I have every single one on dash cam cannot report any of them.

When im walking with my child its not unusual to get knocked out of the way or barged past by cyclists who mount the pavment at traffic lights, just to go round them.

They are a bloody nuisance.

Cyclists can't win. They cycle on a shared path and pedestrians shout 'get off the pavement!'

They cycle on the roads and impatient car drivers get 'get on the cycle path!'

Never understood the absolute rage car drivers seem to have at cyclists being on the road. The amount of impatient and agressive car drivers on the road driving dangerously is the problem, not cyclists and the handful who cycle through red lights.

I think it's because cycling still carries a sense of freedom and wellbeing, whereas driving maybe once had that vibe but is now more about stress, environmental harm, imposition of rules, rising costs etc.

I drive and I cycle and I walk. Cycling is far and away the most fun and makes me feel lovely, despite the occasional run in with twatty drivers and aggressive pedestrians.

I wonder how many interviews Talk shite Tv have done with the families of cyclist fatalities have been mown down by bad drivers. Let me guess, a big fat zero.

Culture wars nonsense aimed at the hard of thinking to get them frothing is the only strategy left for the govt and its supporters now.

I tell you who is an enthusiastic cyclist - Boris Johnson. You know, the one who said 'let the bodies pile high' while hosting lockdown parties at the Downing Street flat his girlfriend decorated with gold-leaf wallpaper funded by a dodgy party donor...

Cyclists, pedestrians, and horse riders have an inherent right to use the road. From any age.

Drivers are there by licence only. Cars are guests on the roads. Many forget that they can only drive by permission, not by right. Cars dominate at the moment, but I think there will come a time, some decades hence probably, when they are much reduced.

And they should pay road tax too! Am I right OP?!

I think North Korea is the only country to have tried this, which gives you an indication about why it's not sensible. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/17/north-korea-where-bicycle-licence-plates-are-non-negotiable-grant-shapps

I'm a cyclist and a driver. I see many, many more examples of motorists breaking the law than I do cyclists.

As a cyclist I am acutely aware that I am much more vulnerable on the road than a motorist. I don't ride through red lights because the chances of me being hit and injured are high.

The 20mph argument is ridiculous. Unless it was in a very steep downhill, I couldn't get to 20mph on my bike. But motorists regularly do more than 20mph in those zones. There's a 20mph zone in a village near me. Every time I slow to 20 as I'm approaching in my car, I get some impatient motorist up my backside or occasionally overtaking. Even though the reason it's 20mph is that it's outside a primary school. I've never been harassed or overtaken by a cyclist on that stretch.

You seem to be conflating e-scooters with pushbike. They are completely separate modes of transport.

Ha ha! Ever been to Amsterdam, where there are designated cycleways everywhere? But cyclists are still crazy for riding fast on pavements, ignoring traffic lights, ignoring pedestrian crossings, etc. The one place I've been knocked over by a cyclist was Amsterdam when some moron decided to ignore the designated cycle lane because other cyclists were going to slow and instead ploughed into me in the marked pedestrian walkway alongside, and then just cycled off ignoring my cuts and bruises. That was after several near misses in Amsterdam centre, again from cyclists in busy pedestrianised areas!

Some surprisingly sensible comments on both sides on a cycling thread. But there are still some strange views about.

One of them that never goes away is “cyclists are more at risk, so there”. It’s weird how so many cyclists don’t ever think about the consequences for others of their behaviour on the road even if cyclists come off worse. If a cyclist causes a bad accident in which they’re catastrophically injured, they cause appalling shock and trauma to others. It’s not some ‘I’m the only vulnerable one here so everything’s on you, Mrs car driver’ situation. All road users owe a responsibility to each other, legally and morally.

I’m not saying that car drivers don’t carry the major burden of ensuring safe use of the road. Of course they do. But it’s not a free-for-all for cyclists because their choice of transport is less inherently dangerous in a collision.

This mindset also seems to be behind the unconvincing argument that helmets put cyclists at greater risk. That’s a way of trying to avoid inconvenience by blaming everyone else.