The rider fined for riding in Richmond Park at 41mph has resigned from his cycling club, London Dynamo, although he was not a member of the club when he was pinged descending the park's Sawyer's Hill.
Rory Palmer, 42, was fined a total of £150 after pleading guilty to exceeding the 20mph speed limit in the park on January 2.
Palmer was facing expulsion from London Dynamo, which insists its members obey the Highway Code.
Paul Harknett, chairman of the club, told road.cc that Palmer had joined the club just three weeks ago, and is "embarrassed and apologetic" about the affair.
Harknett says Palmer was new to the area and had not previously ridden round Richmond Park in the clockwise direction that takes you down Sawyer's Hill.
According to Harknett, Palmer "was certainly unaware of possible police speed enforcement, nor their usual trap location at the foot of Sawyers."
He said: "There was no traffic on the descent down Sawyers according to Rory."
Police stop and fine a couple of riders per year, says Harknett but a look at Strava segments such as Sawyer's Hill past Holly Lodge and the notoriously fast descent of Broomfield Hill, now flagged as hazardous shows many many riders going as fast or faster than Rory Palmer.
Given the vast numbers of riders using the park, this is hardly surprising.
"Richmond Park might be the busiest road in the world for cyclists," says Harknett. At weekends, cyclists outnumber drivers three to one.
Park authorities have a challenging task managing the numerous user groups. Harknett is more aware of those issues than most as he chairs the Richmond Park police panel, which brings together representatives of the groups that use the park, local residents and and police and park authorities.
His advice to riders using the park is simple: "Don't take the piss, be observant, be respectful."
Police fine many more drivers than riders, says Harknett, and he believes they take a pragmatic approach to policing the park that helps to keep it a relatively tranquil place and, importantly, helps safeguard the large deer population.
"What we have as exists currently in Richmond Park kind of works," he says. "Despite the vast numbers using the roads it's far safer for cyclists to use the park than the local A roads.
"The police come under enormous pressure to clamp down on cyclists and they are surprisingly pragmatic. Just by parking up they slow people down.
"They do a couple of riders a year but the number of riders who go over 30-35mph must be in the thousands.
"The only way things can get better is through dialog and consultation."
Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park last year called a public meeting to discuss what he called “rising tensions” between park user groups.
But Harknett believes relations between groups, especially cyclists and drivers, have improved recently. "Things are beginning to settle down," he says, "with drivers realising they have to be patient on the hills."
Nevertheless, a follow-up meeting last week set up a working group that is working on initiatives that will improve relations between the different road user groups, improve safety and improve enjoyment of Richmond Park.
"That is the way forward," Harknett says.
Like many cycling clubs that use Richmond Park, London Dynamo has the difficult task of trying to encourage its members to behave responsibly while acknowledging that almost everyone who uses the park breaks the speed limit.
"Police hold us up as an examplar," he says. "They would like more cyclists that enjoy Richmond Park to be members of clubs because we have a code of conduct, we will discipline riders."
Nevertheless there are stories of London Dynamo riders being a little over-enthusiastic as they ride or train in the park.
"We insist riders on club runs wear club kit so if we get a complaint about say a rider flicking a V at a driver in Weybridge we can track them down," says Harknett.
He added that the club has a code of conduct for members (at section 7 of its membership page) and if they are spotted riding inconsiderately, he wants to hear about it.
He told the Evening Standard recently: "We have not been afraid to eject our members in the past, doing so with two cyclists who jumped red lights.”
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53 comments
Well the police would never lie about anything, nor continue lying about it for 26 years...
So the vast majority of riders who go faster than 20mph are not Dynamos. Many will be affiliated to other clubs. And tellingly, you're not questioning why those clubs aren't ejecting them.
Do those clubs ask riders to abide by the highway code and not speed in Richmond Park?
But if you read the notes
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2695/pdfs/uksiem_20102695_en.pdf
the purpose relates to cars, it does not intend to extend the scope to include bicycles into the definition of vehicle, the earlier act does differentiate between motor vehicles and bicycles.
and the really stupid one
so use a mountain bike or a cross bike, and do not put slicks on it!
If you look at the earlier versions they clearly separate cars and bikes into two groups.
The only real solution is a test case, or for another amendment that clarifies.
I wonder if they expel them if they get speeding tickets in their cars as well
All clubs ask members to behave. But you're only concerned about one of them, aren't you?
well no because the files can be edited and digitally doped, and none of the devices used to record Strava data are in any way calibrated or maintained to a standard, if my mobile phone strava data tracks were to be believed Id be the current cycling speed world record holder
I don't think anybody knows the actual rules around speed limits/bicycles in Royal Parks, even the Parks themselves. There have been various amendments to various bits of legislation but it certainly seems from the various cases that have come to light that there's a huge grey area in the middle of it all and even clear even if speed limits do apply, it's not clear if it could ever be legally binding.
Main thing is simply not to be an idiot. Everyone speeds around Richmond Park - drivers and cyclists - but so long as you're only doing about 25mph and not 40, you're unlikely to run into any problems. Same on any road - 53mph in a 50 mph limit and no-one cares; 80mph and you'd be looking at a speeding ticket regardless of how much other traffic was around at the time.
I've got a couple of laps around RP with an average speed of >20mph and I'm nowhere near the top of any of the leaderboards!
This times lots.
Normal advice for driving a car is 'Don't be the fastest thing on the road'. Same applies to riding a bike in what appears to be London's race bike display centre.
I am guessing you belong to LD, as said not fussed, i don't live in London, the only encounter i have had with LD wasn't particularly good. But if your going to organise rides in the park with thru and off, laps etc, suggestions of disciplining riders for breaking park speed limits etc when it seems everyone does... as said it all comes across a bit hypocritical IMO.
I thought case law about this was established in the high court in the 70s when cyclists took the fining for speeding to appeal.
Now the law may have changed, hope not.
I have to say fine seems disproportionate.
Road cc had an article on this last year stating lawyer available pro bono to fight these cases.
If plod applies invalid fines, then is found to do so, then does it again there should be a law making that a crime so we stop the repetitive invalid overzealous use of regulation. Don't agree with fining cyclists got going fast unless thee is really dangerous behaviour in which case use the dangerous cycling laws not speed limits. Stop,limiting people's freedom and get a life!
The Explanatory Notes are not part of the legislation. Statutory interpretation will default to meaning not what may have been meant.
The Explanatory Notes are not part of the legislation. Statutory interpretation will default to meaning not what may have been meant.
The Explanatory Notes are not part of the legislation. Statutory interpretation will default to meaning, not what may have been meant.
Or, to put it another way, it would be unusual for the Explanatory notes to read, "Yeah, we messed up. It was a close one but we can't have those two wheel maniacs getting off on some technical stuff. This should sort it. Oh yeah, there was some car parking stuff as well."
The original Royal Parks 1997 legislation differentiates between "vehicles" and "pedal cycles" under section 3 - Acts prohibited in a Park so "pedal cycles" are not "vehicles". As the speed limit of 20mph only applies to "vehicles" it does not apply to "pedal cylces".
These bits ..(especially para (10) b & c)
Acts prohibited in a Park
(4) use—
(a)any pedal cycle, or
(b)any roller skate, roller blade, skate board or other foot-propelled device
except on a Park road or in an area designated and marked as being for that purpose by the Secretary of State;
(10) (a) ride any animal,
(b)drive or ride any vehicle, or
(c)use any pedal cycle, roller skate, roller blade, skate board or other foot-propelled device
in any manner that endangers or is likely to endanger any person;
(11) (a) use a pedal cycle (other than when it is parked), or
(b)drive or ride a vehicle
between sunset and sunrise, or in seriously reduced visibility between sunrise and sunset, unless it is lit in accordance with the Road Vehicles (Lighting) Regulations 1989(8), and for the purposes of this regulation references in the Road Vehicles (Lighting) Regulations 1989 to a road shall be deemed to be references to a Park road or any other area designated and marked as being an area in which a pedal cycle may be used;
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/1639/made
And anyway, I would argue the statutory interpretation would only default to the usual English usage if there was still no definition AFTER falling back to the Road Traffic Act.
It may well be that he could have been charged under other sections of the Royal Parks legislation, but he wasn't, he was charged with Speeding.
London Dynamo rider acting like a pretentious moron. Surely, it can't be true?!
I can not believe that anyone seriously thinks bikes in Richmond Park stay under 20mph especially on the descents. If that is the Dynamo official position it is utterly laughable.
That's the LD *official* position. The *unofficial* position is "don't get caught".
The rules/byelaws/whatever it is that applies in the parks. I think at the moment it suits the Parks to have them so woolly and poorly defined. A bit of confusion is great for allowing a few not-strictly-legal fines to slip through, keep all the riders (mostly) behaving themselves. From the Parks point of view:
if they say "the speed limit applies to absolutely every human powered vehicle" then someone will take them to court and win cos, as pointed out, not all bikes have speedos, there's no official calibration, what about someone galloping on a horse, blah blah.
If they say "the speed limit does not apply to bikes" then every MAMIL there is going to be hitting 40+ mph on the descents and things will get messy.
But a bit of a grey area - it might be legal, it might not. Job done, people will obey the limit (mostly) just in case it does apply.
They've just introduced a "no drones" law in the Royal Parks as well; that one came about due to some aerial footage of Buckingham Palace which was filmed from a quadcopter launched from Green Park so now all the Royal Parks are no-fly zones for radio controlled aircraft. Again, I'm not sure how easy that one is to enforce or indeed how legal their position is on the subject.
I'd say on the basis of LD's official position, the club secretary must have accepted a very large number of resignations
You can't interpret this legislation using the RTA. It's certainly arguable to look at section 3 as creating its own interpretation. But the SI remains, sadly, silent in relation to the definition of a vehicle. So, as per the original case law, it's likely to include a bike.
As I said previously, I wouldn't necessarily want to test that. But I DO think that the RP's are creating a legitimate expectation of the law NOT applying given that they keep saying that it does not (at least recently).
I don't think the law has ever been tested in court and anyway, the section of the 1997 Act that differentiates between pedal cycles and vehicle would create a very reasonable doubt and trying to argue that section 3 of the act should be ignored in favour of the OED definition of vehicle would likely fail.
They only ever get dealt with by way of a fixed penalty ticket which get paid and not contested. I'd be interested to see the wording on the tickets as they may actually be normal fixed penalty tickets referring to the RTA as I doubt the police have printed some up especially for the Royal parks. If they did refer to the RTA, then again a bike is not mechanically propelled so under the RTA no offence has been committed.
What's going on here is that the police are trying to decide for us but as the UK is not a police state this it's just not on.
This old cc thread on the same subject ...
http://road.cc/content/news/95155-are-police-fining-speeding-cyclists-ri...
finishes off with ...
"It certainly seems to us, therefore, that there's grounds to fight a cycling speeding fine in Richmond Park. A cycling barrister we spoke to has offered to work pro bono (that's legalese for 'for free') if anyone wants to take on Parks police on this, so if you get pinged in the park, get in touch.
Update: I subsequently submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police asking for the legal advice they had received when they decided to start fining cyclists for speeding. They were unable to locate any such advice."
By the way, the OED definition of vehicle doesn't include pedal cycles.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/vehicle
Definition of vehicle in English:
noun
1A thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land, such as a car, lorry, or cart:
the vehicle was sent skidding across the road
a heavy goods vehicle
MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES
One part of the terminal is onshore, and land transport vehicles will be unloaded there.
Possible modes of transport include ambulances, local transport vehicles, military vehicles, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, and rescue boats.
Many buses and large transport vehicles were sent to evacuate the community.
Bike courier transports person & goods via bicycle!
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