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'Anti-social’? Cambridge cyclists responsible for just seven out of 4,400 anti-social incidents

Pavement cyclists and red light jumpers are a problem, say police, but there's no evidence in reports...

Cambridge cyclists branded ‘anti-social’ have been responsible for just seven out of 4,400 incidents of anti-social behaviour in the city, a study has found.

Sir Graham Bright, Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner, has said that he is plagued by reports of “inconsiderate cyclists, particularly in Cambridge and Peterborough, when comments include bicycles without lights, riding on pavements and cyclists running red lights,” according to Cambridge News.

But a Freedom of Information request found that very few of these incidents are ever reported to police, despite campaigns involving undercover officers looking for rogue cyclists.

In the 4,400 anti-social behaviour occations in the last year, 40 mentioned cycling - but many included cyclists being "cut up by motorists", abused by pedestrians, clashes with motorists, and damage to a cycle.

Sir Graham said: "However classified by the police and whatever the statistics reveal, we are aware that this is an issue that aggravates a large number of people, especially the old or infirm who cannot always see or hear cyclists approaching.

"I would encourage more people to cycle as it reduces congestion, has tremendous health benefits and is environmentally friendly.

“However, riding a bike without consideration for others has inherent dangers to both the cyclist and other road users, be they pedestrians, motorists or other cyclists. I would urge all road users to travel in a safe and responsible manner and with road safety uppermost in their mind."

Back in 2012 we reported on one undercover sting in Cambridge, where a cyclist gained a criminal record after he faced a Magistrates’ Court trial for cycling on the pavement.

David Arnold, 35, was one of 40 cyclists who were caught on the pavement in Arbury Road in a police sting.

They were all offered the opportunity to pay a fine, but Arnold refused, saying that the footpath had been mixed use further along, and there had been no signage to indicate bicycles were no longer permitted.

He was convicted of riding a pedal cycle on a footpath after a one-hour trial at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court, and was fined £30 plus a £15 victim surcharge. The fixed penalty notice that he was offered on the day would have been a £30 fine.

And earlier this year we reported how Cambridge MP Dr Julian Huppert condemned “thoughtless cyclists” who put pedestrians in danger, but said better infrastructure needed to be provided so people to ride their bikes safely without posing a risk to those on foot.

Dr Huppert, co-chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, was speaking after meeting a pensioner who was injured after a cyclist collided with him on a footpath in the city.

The meeting with the man, who did not wish to be named since he is afraid of reprisals, also involved an official from the Highways Department at Cambridgeshire County Council.

The pedestrian fell down an embankment and struck his head on a parked vehicle as a result of the incident, which took place on a footpath between Brooklands and Trumpington Road.

He told Cambridge News: “It’s frightening and I was dazed and badly shaken. The female cyclist apologised but then rode away and I had to sit on the grass for a while before I felt able to get up.”

The pensioner claimed that he had been the victim of inconsiderate cycling on a number of previous occasions, leaving him with bruises.

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15 comments

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Beaufort | 8 years ago
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Spend some time in Cambridge and see what you think. As a pedestrian you have to be completely switched on..if not you'll be taken out or verbally abused at best.

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Simon.R replied to Beaufort | 8 years ago
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as a Cambridgeshire cyclist, I'd be willing to enter into a wager that considerably more pedestrians and cyclists are injured (or worse) by cars, vans & trucks or abused / intimidated by their drivers.

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Cantab replied to Beaufort | 8 years ago
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Beaufort wrote:

Spend some time in Cambridge and see what you think. As a pedestrian you have to be completely switched on..if not you'll be taken out or verbally abused at best.

Almost entirely disagree. Most of the pedestrians in the city centre are entirely feckless and freely wander out straight in front of cyclists and motorists alike. It is only due to the relative good sense and reactions of both that there aren't more incidents. Any verbal abuse they're getting is almost certainly deserved for their gormless meandering into the path of traffic.
There are bad cyclists and drivers (not least the taxi drivers who seem to have a collective inability to comprehend the purpose and rules of bike lanes) in Cambridge, but the majority of bad cycling I see are people who are a danger to themselves not others.

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Sam Saunders | 8 years ago
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The special case of cycling arouses anxiety in a lot of people. People complain and sometimes they even report things if a police officer is avalable. In practice however they do very little about them.

Contrast this with people's completely rational fear of motor vehicles. This fear makes them take inconvenient and uhealthy measures to keep themselves and their children well away from the roads where vehicles are a hazard and a source of real danger. What people do tells us much more about their genuine concerns than their grumbling.

Venting to a spare Police Officer about a stray cyclist feels like it's worth trying and that it's socially acceptable. Asking for a safe street for children to walk or cycle along on their way to school seems like asking for the moon. People do the first but neglect the second. Police officers and politically appointed office holders are, in this sense, just like everybody else. They see and feel the trivia and try to intervene. They know, at the deepest level, the danger elsewhere but they take it as an immutable fact of life and learn to live with it.

We live in a very disordered culture. See a very recent short tale about a cycle ride and a police officer from Bristol. over here

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joffpaice | 8 years ago
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Are people really being terrified by bike riders? Seems pretty pathetic to me. Unlike cars, bikes have a relatively short stopping distance so if there's a pedestrian in their path a bike can brake relatively quickly and prevent an accident. I'd like to know the figure for how many people are getting killed or injured by being run into by a bike. It's probably worse off for the bike rider if they crash into a pedestrian in any case. I've been to Japan and people ride their bikes on the pavement all the time there and I don't think it's a problem. If cyclists are being prosecuted for not having lights/cycling on the pavement/going through red lights then shouldn't pedestrians be prosecuted for crossing the street not at a designated crossing etc?

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bdsl replied to joffpaice | 8 years ago
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joffpaice wrote:

shouldn't pedestrians be prosecuted for crossing the street not at a designated crossing etc?

That's not illegal in England and Wales. Thankfully we don't have a crime of jaywalking.

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Housecathst | 8 years ago
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Mean while, motorists continue to kill in excess of 5 people a day in this country and are responsible for 20,000 serious injuries a year.

But we'll continue shuffle deck chairs on titanic by dealing with a couple of anti social cyclists.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to Housecathst | 8 years ago
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Housecathst wrote:

Mean while, motorists continue to kill in excess of 5 people a day in this country and are responsible for 20,000 serious injuries a year.

But we'll continue shuffle deck chairs on titanic by dealing with a couple of anti social cyclists.

Add in traffic pollution effects and you can increase that figure ten-fold.

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jonathing | 8 years ago
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Mr Arnold's conviction is the reason I never use shared use paths. I stand the chance of being struck off the register and losing my livelihood if I get a criminal record. It's just not worth the risk of a council arbitrarily changing their mind about an section of footway.

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jacknorell | 8 years ago
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Quote:

“However, riding a bike without consideration for others has inherent dangers to both the cyclist and other road users, be they pedestrians, motorists or other cyclists...

I'd love to see his logic behind cyclists causing a danger to motorists... except by being forcibly inserted via the windshield at high speed.

And of course some platitudes about inherent dangers, not even giving consideration about what or whom is hurting people on the roads.

Lazy speech by a lazy-thinking police officer.

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cat1commuter replied to jacknorell | 8 years ago
1 like
jacknorell wrote:

Lazy speech by a lazy-thinking police officer.

He's not a police officer. And he's completely unrepresentative of Cambridge city. He was elected by the Conservative countryside wards.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to cat1commuter | 8 years ago
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cat1commuter wrote:
jacknorell wrote:

Lazy speech by a lazy-thinking police officer.

He's not a police officer. And he's completely unrepresentative of Cambridge city. He was elected by the Conservative countryside wards.

On a 15% turnout, it seems.

PCCs are a bad joke.

Edit - looking it up, he got 32,000 votes out of 600,000. Quite a mandate.

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jacknorell replied to cat1commuter | 8 years ago
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cat1commuter wrote:
jacknorell wrote:

Lazy speech by a lazy-thinking police officer.

He's not a police officer. And he's completely unrepresentative of Cambridge city. He was elected by the Conservative countryside wards.

As a police commissioner he does speak for local policing, regardless of how representative he is.

You're right about him not being an officer of course, my fault.

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Ric_Stern_RST | 8 years ago
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i'd ask Sir Graham where this plague of reports is, because they don't appear in the FOI. What a tit.

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gazza_d | 8 years ago
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PCC has a very finely ground axe it seems.

I presume by his focus on almost non existent anti-social cycling that drunkenness by people on weekend binges and whenever football matches are on never occurs and everyone are perfectly well behaves.

What about all the anti-social speeding etc & parking

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