John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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53 comments
"A number of times?"
Well I have been cycling on the road in the UK since at least 1970. Club cycling, racing, now a commuter, a clubby, and leisure cyclist.
I have never, even once, in all that time seen a cyclist with a white light on the back. I have seen them with no lights. I've seen them with lights that are so dim they were pointless. I have seen innumerable crazy set ups and get ups over that time. I even recently bought a light for time trialling on a dual carriageway that has a setting so when the sun is in the motorists eyes the light can be set to flash bright red with a a counter flash of green which scientifically speaking will enhance the red.
But white lights on the back. Never. You've been lucky to see two.
When I was a kid (early paleolithic era) a policeman stopped me cycling when I had no lights. I'd been out at the park was late going home it was dusk.
He asked me where I lived, which was a couple of miles away. It was getting dark and he could see it would take me a good while if I walked. Then he said "Look here, there's no one on the pavements so ride nice and carefully, and get off if you meet anyone walking. And don't tell anyone I said so."
Good sensible policing.
I once saw two PCSOs cycling along together in Runcorn in fading evening light, on the pavement, without lights. It's a good job these powers weren't in then, there'd have been a warp in the space-time continuum. Or something.
@ oozaveared
at least three times in the last couple of years. Once I thought it was that, but then it turned out he was just cycling the wrong way down the wrong side of the road!
The other oddity is cyclists in pairs where one has lights and the other doesn't. Don't know what that is about.
from the Highway Code (rule 119):
Are there any signs indicating the operation of the cycle lane in your case? These might be just "no waiting" signs. If the cars are parked in them outside those hours then I am afraid the drivers are allowed to, even though it renders useless the bike lane (but hey ho!, another tick on the sustainable transport list for the local council, though!). If they are parked there during the hours of operation then, yes, they are illegally parked. But don't hold your breath getting anything done about it. I spent years trying to get a local authority to enforce their own parking restrictions in a mandatory bike lane and got absolutely nowhere - I think it is still used as a car park to this day.
Nah - that's the problem, I guess. I never see any such signs in any mandatory cycle lane I know of. So I guess drivers don't know when it applies either (assuming they even know what it is). The Woolwich one seems to _never_ be 'in operation'.
Only applies in the dark and foot or ankle mounted reflectors are a suitable replacement.
I was about to jump on the slating band wagon. But Huppert seems to be one of the best.
This isn't a bad thing to have. If I were asked then I'd say that non lit, RLJ and plain deadly cyclists are the bane of my life as well. Or, to explain properly, one of the banes of my cycling life. The others being what motorists and peds do.
So this is fine. It's sensible.
Also, there is a context to the Anti Social Behaviour Bill. It's broadly as it says. The most common situation where a PCSO will come into contact with a non lit "cyclist" is your hoody wearing on the pavement bmx'er. So this is fine.
Parking is currently the responsibility of councils in much of the country and if you ask a policeman, they'll regret that they can only act when it's clearly dangerous like blocking junctions and crossings. I think this bill should give police and PCSOs power to fine parking and especially pavement parking, even if the local council has adopted the power.
Yes, its right to enforce the lighting laws a bit more but there are buffet problems which should come first like parking.
Its also disappointing to see Julian Huppert go all uncle Tom.
Having read the comments I've noticed an awfull lot of people refering to "pavement parking" and police not doing anything about it, (the police)using the excuse that parking is now upto the local authorities/council and not a police matter.
To park half on and half off the PEDESTRIANS RIGHT OF WAY means that the vehicle has driven on the ped's ROW which is illegal under the road traffic act/regulations so therefore the police can prosecute them, they just chose not to. Giving pcso's extra powers isn't such a bad thing, just wish they could add that one to their list.
Slighty OT, to the main, but anyway.
Pavement parking is a problem, but in a lot of different ways. I live in a victorian terrace the road is approximately 3 cars wide, but houses on both sides and lots of cars. If residents park on the road, then you can not drive down the road? If you park on the pavement then you block the pavement. Can't win really.
Good use of a PCSOs time IMO. Just what they should be used for. Looking out for minor offences and educating people on laws that my save them and others from harm.
I have an employee who rides her BMX on the pavement, with no lights and no helmet. It winds me right up and is incredibly irresponsible. A fine from the local PCSO who patrols our high street would sort her right out.
Helmets aren't required and surely would only increase the injury of any pedestrian she hits?
As for narrow roads, if it's not wide enough to park on without parking on the pavement, go park somewhere else. You don't own the street as a parking space (no matter what one former terraced- street neighbour of mine claimed).
I've been told that because driving is the offence, they have to see them drive on the pavement and not only draw the logical most common conclusion from it being parked there. I don't know if there's case law on that or if the police or CPS are being over cautious.
Don't have any problem whatsoever with this. Just last night whilst driving I encountered a complete moron cycling down an unlit road with no lights, no reflectors, dressed all in black. He was more than old enough to know better too.
So if one is unwise enough to be sans lights in the hours of darkness, what will the PCSO do if you refuse to give personal details? Arrest you? Oh no wait...
MRMO wrote in reply to FATBEGGARONABIKE.
Slighty OT, to the main, but anyway.
Pavement parking is a problem, but in a lot of different ways. I live in a victorian terrace the road is approximately 3 cars wide, but houses on both sides and lots of cars. If residents park on the road, then you can not drive down the road? If you park on the pavement then you block the pavement. Can't win really.
mrmo
Yes you can! you scrap the CAR and buy a BIKE
need the car once in a while... so not really an option. As it is i have 2 bikes, and 2 spare frames, assorted wheels etc. Bikes get far more use than the car, 3k miles in the car and 8.5k on the bike in the last 12 months.
As there appears to be considerably less police officers on the street I am guessing the PCSO's will be doing the work of police officers? On that basis when will they have time to use their new far reaching powers????
That's fair enough. I cycle and drive. I'm amazed by the number of unlit cyclists I see and yes, I've nearly hit a couple, and that has left me shaken and angry. The law aspect is irrelevant. No sane person wants to injure another person. Just use lights when it's dark/dusk if you're a cyclist, car driver, pedestrian on a road with no footpath and aside from the law, we all get home and live to enjoy another day. If it takes a fine to achieve it, then so be it.
,
MRMO perhaps I should have said "the residents" instead of "you", which is what I meant.
this is part of the slow erosion of police duties that was predicted when PCSO's were introduced, and labelled as plastic bobbies policing on the cheap, surrogate police eventually with all the powers afforded police officers but with a fraction of the training.
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