"Cracking down on cyclists"

[JT]

Mrs JT just received this email from our local Cambs police e-cops service:

Subject: Cracking down on cyclists

CYCLISTS REMEMBER... pavements are for people!  When you get on your
bike, remember to put your cycle helmet on and go on the road.  Even
when you cycle slowly, you still risk knocking someone over on the
footpath.  We can, we have and we will continue to stop cyclists
flouting this rule by means of warnings and if necessary, issuing a £30
fine.  Some cycle helmets cost less than that and it doesn't take a
minute to get off your bike and walk with your bike on a pavement if you
haven't got a helmet.

Also, please remember that Bridge Street in the city centre is also a
prohibited area.  Monday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm, there is no
cycling. Please have some consideration for pedestrians on Sundays and
get off your bike during busy periods.  The prohibited area is clearly
marked by signs at the top of Bridge Street where it meets Cathedral
Square, a sign in the middle and one at the end near to the crossing at
Bourges Boulevard.  As you continue onto Bridge Street by the courts,
please remember to use the cycle lane outside the courts and as you go
over town bridge, please walk with your bike on the pavement or put your
cycle helmet on and bike on the road.

Thanks for your co-operation.
Your City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team


A swift response has been sent reminding them that helmets aren't compulsory and enquiring what has prompted the email. In my experience pavement cycling is not an issue in this area as it has 20mph speed limits and many, many speed bumps.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

 

[Wobbly John]

I was invited to Peterborough's Green fair a month or so ago to perfom on the Wobblebike. I got told off for riding on the pavement by the City Nazis Wardens. Obviously i'd been spotted on the CCTV. 

[Pete]

Does it really say "Cracking down on cyclists": those exact words - rather than "cracking down on anti-social cyclists" or some such wording?  The message is clear enough...

Of course the whole thing may be a spoof - sent out by the cager lobby or some other idiots perhaps, in order to discredit both cyclists and the police.  Have you looked carefully at the E-mail - for URLs that don't point to where they purport to, for instance?

[hellymedic]

Does it really say "Cracking down on cyclists": those exact words - rather than "cracking down on anti-social cyclists" or some such wording?  The message is clear enough...

Neither PC Plod nor Joe Public knows the difference between an anti-social cyclist and any other person on a velocipede. That way we can all get tarred with the same brush and Daily Wail readers can be smugly satisfied...

[Zoidburg]

Whenever I read the term "cracking down on (insert group here)" I know its yet another ill advised rant blaming a minority for the down fall of society

Teenagers, cyclists etc etc

Its at that stage that I read no further

[JT]

Does it really say "Cracking down on cyclists": those exact words - rather than "cracking down on anti-social cyclists" or some such wording?  The message is clear enough...

Of course the whole thing may be a spoof - sent out by the cager lobby or some other idiots perhaps, in order to discredit both cyclists and the police.  Have you looked carefully at the E-mail - for URLs that don't point to where they purport to, for instance?

Yes it really says that. And, yes, it's really from the police.

[teethgrinder]

Can I send a reply to this rubbish?

[dkahn400]

So if you haven't got a helmet you can still walk everywhere, pushing your bike on the pavement. Yes, that makes sense.

[Cunobelin]

Knowing Cambridge - ask if they can also crack down on illegal parking on the same pavements at the same time.

[Cunobelin]

HAs someone flagged this to the CTC?

I will cross post, but an original copy might provoke a formal response.

[hellymedic]

Knowing Cambridge - ask if they can also crack down on illegal parking on the same pavements at the same time.

Yebbut cyclists don't pay backhanders, which makes them 'fair game', right?

[Wowbagger]

I think that publishing their email address on every cycling forum might get the sort of response they want.

Also, a few dozen letters to the Cambridgeshire Chief Constable will probably waste enough of his staff's time to make it worth his while to ensure a word is had in the appropriate ear.

[dkahn400]

I'm confused. Are you allowed to keep your helmet on when you are pushing your bike on the pavement?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I'm confused. Are you allowed to keep your helmet on when you are pushing your bike on the pavement?

Not on Sundays.

[Gattopardo]

So don't cycle on the pavement, or if you do be polite and courteous (speller checker came up with curvaceous) to pedestrians.

But please point out that helmets are personal choice (where's the two fingers smilie?) and not law.  One of the things I like about boris is that he cycles with out a helmet.

[Gattopardo]

I'm confused. Are you allowed to keep your helmet on when you are pushing your bike on the pavement?

Not on Sundays.

Is that your day of rest?  If so you are petula clarke.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

*goes downtown*

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

'wouldn't completely surprise me if they wanted to crack own on every cyclist.  Has someone been talking to someone else in the local golf club? 

[Pete]

Knowing Cambridge - ask if they can also crack down on illegal parking on the same pavements at the same time.

Based on JT's profile - I think this refers to Peterborough not Cambridge (correct?).  Not that that mitigates the slur on cyclists....

[JT]

Knowing Cambridge - ask if they can also crack down on illegal parking on the same pavements at the same time.

Based on JT's profile - I think this refers to Peterborough not Cambridge (correct?).  Not that that mitigates the slur on cyclists....

Correct, the email is from Cambridgeshire Police.

No response yet to my reply (well, Mrs JT's reply actually).

[iakobski]

As you continue onto Bridge Street by the courts,
please remember to use the cycle lane outside the courts and as you go
over town bridge, please walk with your bike on the pavement or put your
cycle helmet on and bike on the road.

Ooh I wish I had a photo of this abomination. The cycle lane (actually path) is a paved area wich looks exactly the same as the rest of the pavement apart from a sloping kerb at each side. Going north it feeds you onto the pedestrian crossing (without any signs or pavement markings). Going south, towards Town Bridge (note the caps, that's the name of the road) it feeds you on to a little section of road, then right, up a narrow lane with high kerbs which then spits you out on the wrong side of the road, on a one-way system, facing the traffic! This is the one place in the world where a "dismount" sign would be appropriate (or a complete redesign).

Also, following a huge reconstruction of Town Bridge, the pavement has been widened and there is tactile paving indicating this will be a cycle path as soon as they get round to putting the signs up, so it's hardly surprising some people are cycling on it.

[giropaul]

Walking past my local police station recently (usually closed of course!) someone left the staff car park on a bike (with uniform trousers but an "off duty" top), cycled down the footpath to the main road and then continued along the foot path.

[Gattopardo]

Walking past my local police station recently (usually closed of course!) someone left the staff car park on a bike (with uniform trousers but an "off duty" top), cycled down the footpath to the main road and then continued along the foot path.

Same in london, wonder if you write back to the email originators that the police cycle riders will alos not ride on the pavement.

[tonycollinet]

I wonder if they would feel the same way about a communication regarding a:

"Crackdown on Police"

Targeting corruption/brutality/general lack of knowledge of the law etc?

Because of  course - if one policeman does it, they all must be!