Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => On The Road => Topic started by: JT on 17 August, 2008, 01:23:53 pm
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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.
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::-)
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I was invited to Peterborough's Green fair a month or so ago to perfom on the Wobblebike (http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~talizmar/xntrick/wobblebike.htm). I got told off for riding on the pavement by the City
Nazis Wardens. Obviously i'd been spotted on the CCTV. ::-)
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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?
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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...
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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
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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.
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Can I send a reply to this rubbish?
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So if you haven't got a helmet you can still walk everywhere, pushing your bike on the pavement. Yes, that makes sense.
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Knowing Cambridge - ask if they can also crack down on illegal parking on the same pavements at the same time.
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HAs someone flagged this to the CTC?
I will cross post, but an original copy might provoke a formal response.
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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?
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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.
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I'm confused. Are you allowed to keep your helmet on when you are pushing your bike on the pavement?
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I'm confused. Are you allowed to keep your helmet on when you are pushing your bike on the pavement?
Not on Sundays.
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So don't cycle on the pavement, or if you do be polite and courteous (speller checker came up with curvaceous) to pedestrians. :thumbsup:
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.
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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.
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*goes downtown*
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'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?
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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.... >:(
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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I'm confused. Are you allowed to keep your helmet on when you are pushing your bike on the pavement?
;D I knew that helmet had a use didnt know what though
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If you have the e-mail address, can you PM it to me, or send me a copy of the e-mail. I quite fancy responding to this.
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CYCLISTS REMEMBER... pavements are for people!
Chilling! Are cyclists no longer classified as people?
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If you have the e-mail address, can you PM it to me, or send me a copy of the e-mail. I quite fancy responding to this.
I'd rather not at the moment. We're still waiting on a response to our reply but if that ever arrives and it isn't a grovelling apology, I might reconsider.
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Reading it again, the City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team seem to be under the impression that the reason people ride on the pavement is that they don't have a helmet. Read that way it almost makes sense in a sort of parallel universe way.
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Reading it again, the City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team seem to be under the impression that the reason people ride on the pavement is that they don't have a helmet. Read that way it almost makes sense in a sort of parallel universe way.
Yes, I see where this is going ...
So the answer is - buy helmets for pedestrians, so they can safely walk in the road.
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Reading it again, the City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team seem to be under the impression that the reason people ride on the pavement is that they don't have a helmet. Read that way it almost makes sense in a sort of parallel universe way.
Yes, I see where this is going ...
So the answer is - buy helmets for pedestrians, so they can safely walk in the road.
Full face so they can hide their faces from the CCtv :thumbsup: and take up a five finger discount.
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Actually what if the bikes exceed the 20mph limit?
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Actually what if the bikes exceed the 20mph limit?
Posted speed limits on roads do not generally apply to cyclists. Exceptions to this have to be specifically applied for (to the secretary of state?)
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Actually what if the bikes exceed the 20mph limit?
Posted speed limits on roads do not generally apply to cyclists. Exceptions to this have to be specifically applied for (to the secretary of state?)
Do you know if the application has been done? If it hasn't lets speed up and down the intimedating the cars and pedestrians ;D
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The press version is a little more balanced:
Police crack down on two-wheeled pavement pests (http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Police-crack-down-on-twowheeled.4383211.jp)
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In my experience pavement cycling is not an issue in this area as it has 20mph speed limits and many, many speed bumps.
Pavement cycling is a huge problem in central Peterborough. Some adults I've spoken to believe there is a local bylaw allowing pavement cycling anywhere there aren't signs explicitly prohibiting it. It also isn't helped by cycle paths that become pavement without warning or means to get on to the road. The 20mph area is north of the city centre, the area in the email is to the south where the cycle paths are disjointed and variously cross dual carriageway, pedestrianised areas and the new, improved 5-lane bridge. For a city that proclaims itself a cycling flagship, and is almost completely flat, it's a disgrace.
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In my experience pavement cycling is not an issue in this area as it has 20mph speed limits and many, many speed bumps.
Pavement cycling is a huge problem in central Peterborough. Some adults I've spoken to believe there is a local bylaw allowing pavement cycling anywhere there aren't signs explicitly prohibiting it. It also isn't helped by cycle paths that become pavement without warning or means to get on to the road. The 20mph area is north of the city centre, the area in the email is to the south where the cycle paths are disjointed and variously cross dual carriageway, pedestrianised areas and the new, improved 5-lane bridge. For a city that proclaims itself a cycling flagship, and is almost completely flat, it's a disgrace.
The area I was referring to was Hampton which has 20mph speed limits.
We subscribe to our local police email alerts. Local in this case being the Orton and Hampton area. I was unaware that this crackdown was Peterborough-wide.
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Ah! I see!
Sorry, I thought when you said "this area" you were referring to the area discussed in the email.
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The press version is a little more balanced:
Police crack down on two-wheeled pavement pests (http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Police-crack-down-on-twowheeled.4383211.jp)
Indeed, not only is that press report reasonably well balanced (so far as I can tell from a distance) there is even a cyclist-supportive comment from a driver.
Pavement cycling is a problem in many places (I have experience of Reading) and one of the causes is as referred to somewhere in that Telegraph article - it is far from clear where cyclists can and cannot go (apart from being on the road, obviously) and so while I detest the constant dodging I have to do as I walk along the footpath, I do have some sympathy with these cyclists.
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Ah! I see!
Sorry, I thought when you said "this area" you were referring to the area discussed in the email.
But I thought I was.
As I said, as far as we were concerned that email came from our local police station in Hampton and was sent to the Hampton and Orton subscribers only. We've never had any emails from them that weren't specifically Orton/Hampton related.
Until now.
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The press version is a little more balanced:
Police crack down on two-wheeled pavement pests (http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Police-crack-down-on-twowheeled.4383211.jp)
But...
And on Friday city police swooped on illegal riders spotted flouting the highway code and slapped Fixed Penalty Notices on 18 of them.
'Flouting the highway code' is not in itself an offence and ought not to attract a FPN. Only flouting a specific traffic Law can do that.
The 'comments' below that article are of course the usual 'assortment'....