Anti-social Cycling

A Grimsby man who was fined £750 when the bike he was riding on the pavement struck a five-year-old child has claimed that he was forced to ride there because the adjacent road was too dangerous.

Police in York have been out in force to catch cyclists riding at night without lights, issuing almost 100 fixed penalty notices.

The campaign, called Operation Image, began last November. Police stopped anyone seen riding a bike after dark without lights and the cyclists were issued with either a £30 fixed penalty ticket or a suspended fixed penalty notice that gave them a fortnight to ensure working lights were fitted to their cycle.

Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke has urged Norwich City Council to improve cycle route provision in the city. Clarke, who is MP for Norwich South, issued the call following a public meeting allowing constituents to air grievances in which cyclists riding on pavements emerged as a key concern.

The Department of Justice has revealed that the number of cyclists who have been prosecuted at magistrates’ court for failing to stop at red traffic lights more than halved from 55 in 2006 to 22 in 2007. The figures have been eagerly seized upon by the Daily Mail as fuel for its ongoing campaign against so-called ‘lycra louts.’

Preliminary data released by the Department for Transport yesterday suggest that the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads is on the rise, growing by 19% to reach 820 in the quarter ended June 2009 against the comparable period in 2008.

It’s a given that cyclists feel threatened by the behaviour of some drivers – understandably so, given their vulnerability when faced with half a tonne of metal box being driven by someone who may not even have registered their presence – but it seems that pedestrians increasingly feel the same way about those of us on two wheels.

Norwich has become the latest city to launch a crackdown on anti-social cycling, with nearly 200 riders stopped by police in the Earlham Road area for cycling on the pavement or riding without lights.

Eco-friendly saviours of the planet or self-regarding maniacs who represent hazard to road safety? That’s how British political magazine The Spectator is billing a debate it’s holding in London on the topic ‘Cyclists are a menace’. It will be held at Savoy Place on Monday, November 30. And cyclists are being urged to attend to have their say.

Eighty-four cyclists in Oxford were handed £30 penalty fines by police for not having bike lights – the equivalent of one every two minutes. Police carried out an operation in High Street in the city centre between 6.30-9pm on Tuesday evening, reported the Oxford Mail.

The crackdown was timed to coincide with the clocks going back one hour last weekend, which marked the start of British winter time. Having gone back on Sunday te nights will be longer and darker and cyclists are encouraged to be safe and easy to see this winter.

Cambridgeshire Police yesterday launched a clampdown on anti-social cycling in the university city, issuing on-the-spot fines to people riding without lights, jumping red lights or riding on the pavement. In Cambridge as in other university towns and cities this is pretty much an annual event at this time of year. However, this year's clampdown has attracted extra attention after a so-called 'bike rage' attack in the city centre.