As 2024 soft pedals its way to the finish line, after being dropped early on in some strong crosswinds, we’ve gone all festive on the road.cc Podcast, as we gathered around the Christmas crackers and opened up the archives to dissect the biggest and barmiest stories from another momentous, and occasionally tumultuous, year in the world of cycling.
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In part one, Ryan, Jack, and Emily, paper party helmets firmly attached, discuss the stories and narratives that jumped out at them during 2024, from the general election and its impact (so far) on cycling in the UK, the ongoing storms battering the bike industry, the latest wave of aero tech (including that aesthetically challenged Giro TT lid), how Shimano dealt with claims its Di2 groupsets could be hacked, Tadej Pogačar’s overwhelming dominance, and one of the greatest days of bike racing ever at the Tour de France Femmes.
In part two, we turn our attentions towards another cycling story that just wouldn’t go away over the last 12 months – town centre cycling bans.
In recent years, Public Space Protection Orders – or PSPOs – have been used by local authorities, with the help of external wardens, to crack down on what councils deem to be anti-social, nuisance behaviour by people on bikes in pedestrianised areas, a method cyclists, however, say simply discourages locals, especially older people, from riding their bikes into town.
This year in Grimsby – the spiritual home of the town centre cycling ban – hundreds have been fined for breaching the local authority’s cycling PSPO, with some penalties even exceeding £1,000 for those who refused to pay right away.
The town’s council even set up a loud speaker on the town’s shopping street during the summer, which played four ‘no cycling’ messages every hour. Luckily, that’s down to two an hour now, after shoppers complained it was “too repetitive”.
Meanwhile, Birmingham City Council has recently proposed a PSPO that would prevent cycling in parts of the city centre, prompting active travel campaigners to brand the plans “clumsy, unworkable, and discriminatory” – although the council has insisted that it is not implementing “a ban on cycling”.
And in Colchester, the local council has been engulfed in a PSPO saga for most of the year, after externally contracted, third-party wardens were accused of running amok and unfairly targeting cyclists – mistakenly fining then £100 for riding their bikes in areas where cycling is permitted, threatening them with a £1,000 penalty if they appealed the fine, “lying in wait” for rule-breaking cyclists, and telling one elderly female cyclist that she wasn’t allowed to use a city centre road because she doesn’t pay “road tax”.
Following a public outcry and a campaign by local cycling activists, the council finally agreed to pause the cycling fines and waive any penalties mistakenly handed out by the oblivious wardens, before announcing last month that it would pursue an ‘education first’ policy from now on when it comes to its cycling ban – a model campaigners say should be replicated across the country.
Ryan is joined by one of those activists who successfully stood up to the wardens and caused a rethink in their local council over how they approach so-called ‘anti-social cycling’.
As well as discussing his group’s campaign against the crude and often incorrect implementation of the city’s cycling ban, Will Bramhill from the Colchester Cycling Campaign told the podcast that cycling PSPOs will always prove controversial until the UK fully addresses its decades-long failure in transport policy, which constantly shunts cyclists away from safe spaces and on to dangerous roads alongside motorists.
“The big problem, of course, is that we’ve had a failure of our transport policy since the 1940s,” Will told the podcast.
“The Dutch have catered for cycling. We haven’t. And cyclists have been pushed off the roads. People still want to cycle because it’s a great way to get about. And if you don’t drive and don’t want to catch the bus, it’s probably your choice of getting about.
“But we’ve had this failure in transport policy, which has caused the present situation where you’ve got cycling on footways.
“If you’re not a cyclist, if you don’t want cycling on footways, then support 20 miles an hour, support cycling infrastructure, because that’s the way ahead. It has to be.”
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-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
10 thoughts on ““If you don’t want cycling on footpaths, support bike lanes and 20mph zones”: Town centre cycling bans and the fight against “cowboy” wardens + the year in cycling reviewed”
I’ve posted before about
I’ve posted before about being 69, lifelong cyclist as my main transport, much of it in, through, under, over London and how it’s bicycles that terrify my less fit and nimble contemporaries and our children with babies in pushchairs. Mere 20mph and bike lanes based on current patterns of implementation are not the answer. The answer, as the essay indicates, is a much deeper rethinking and reworking of our UK transport philosophy and methodology with heavy duty argument and dramatic persuasion to change the air about how we live.
But, for now, let’s remember cycling encompasses far more people than readers of this website. The majority of people on bikes in SE London have no idea that the Highway Code exists. Heavy stealth black ebikes, clothes, no lights or reflectors, hop on and off pavements, zip through and across road traffic, pedestrians, traffic lights, railings, all flat out. They see others do it, and assume that’s the norm. They would do that even if a magic wand created our dream Dutch model tomorrow – because they do it now when there is good cycling infrastructure and they have no excuse. The kinetic energy to transfer into broken bones is frightening. And they are a massive threat to legitimate cyclists. In SE London, psychopath riders are the majority of people on bicycles such that I may start driving my 1-year old granddaughter instead of walking behind her in a pushchair.
Second… now we have a 7-seat 2L diesel Ford Galaxy automatic (2nd hand 60k miles in 3 years bought by family & friends so I can provide taxi service and transport tools for DiY or take stuff to the recycling centre), I appreciate a car that encourages sedate driving. 20mph is easy. But so many cars are horrible to drive at 20mph due to high revving engines and gears set to work best at 30mph. Plus old, large, powerful BMWs can be had for £1,500 by young males to go places with 4 mates each hyping the others up to ignore any sense of risk and responsibility. 50 years ago, we had ex PO minivans or parent’s Austin Traveller. The hot hatches came later and I’d started cycling so didn’t want one
In SE London, psychopath
In SE London, psychopath riders are the majority of people on bicycles
Oh dear! another festive stealth anti-cyclist ☃️
I’ve been to London 3 times
I’ve been to London 3 times in the last 30 years, the occasional visit to Liverpool, Birmingham or Manchster when I leave my rural home. And although I usually never say a negative word about cyclists because there are enough cagers doing that. I can only agree about the number if dangerous and fast two wheelers in all cities. They do usually look like electric motorcycles or souped up double batteried ebikes. But a non cyclist isn’t going to differentiate, and will condem us all. At 66 I’m glad I live in the sticks with cycle paths to 3 towns and the beach and don’t have to put up with the moaning.
E6toSE3 wrote:
The “heavy stealth [? are they invisible to enemy radar?] ebikes” are almost certainly not ebikes but illegal electric motorcycles. The other behaviours you describe do exist in south London, for sure, from about 10% of riders, the majority of those delivery riders on the aforementioned illegal conveyances; nothing like “the majority”.
That’s just nonsense I’m afraid. Go and look at the new Greenwich-Tower Bridge superhighway and see how many riders don’t use it in favour of roads or pavements, 1% if that I’d say and most of those high-speed sports riders legitimately using the road in line with DoT advice regarding speed on cycle paths.
What’s a “legitimate cyclist” please? Someone who doesn’t conform to your arbitrary norms? At the age of 56 I admit that you have 13 years more experience than I of riding in south London, I hope to goodness that if I’m spared the coming decade or so doesn’t see me decay into such febrile ramblings as claiming that the majority of people on bicycles are psychopaths and claiming that I “need” a car in order to protect myself from them.
They are not that stealthy,
They are not that stealthy, anyone can see they are unregistered electric motorcycles. Fortunately some cities have started taking them away and crushing them.
I’m sorry I don’t accept that
I’m sorry I don’t accept that the majority of cyclists are ‘psychopaths’. There are some ‘nutters’ out there – but I would hazard a guess that most of them are young males. And once they are able to drive like ‘nutters’ in a car , they will. With far worse consequences.
I used to live in Bermondsey in the 90s and cycled every day to Euston. There were hardly any cyclists then. Since then there has been a huge improvement in cycle infrastructure.
Indeed – but I think in the
Indeed – but I think in the eyes of many (including some current cyclists clearly) because cyclists are indeed an “out group” a) no-one cares about *why* they might ride as they do, as…
b) … there is a strong focus on any negative or perceived less-than-perfectly “respectful” behaviour
c) any examples of which are then associated with the whole group. And strongly disclaimed by “legitimate cyclists” who are rightly concerned that they will be tarred with the same brush.
I think it’s quite likely that “cyclists” as a whole will get *more* stick for a period before cycling actually becomes mainstream transport (if…) as yes – there will be more people cycling and it won’t immediately be young children, mothers, oaps etc because conditions are still not good enough compared with driving. But the key factor is more people cycling so greater visibility to “non- cyclists”.
UK crap infra designs, planners making non- motorists “fight over scraps” and politicians / media exploiting scapegoating are also deeply unhelpful. But we have dropped or even deliberately disfavoured *all* alternatives to driving for a looong time so it’s a massive uphill battle to rebalance things.
Don’t forget that at least
Don’t forget that at least some of the people claiming to be cyclists themselves, while espousing plainly false notions such as ‘the majority of cyclists are psychopaths’, are just lying trolls
Aggrieved motorists? Not been
Aggrieved motorists?
Not been through London for a while but it does sound like the “bad cyclist” is in evidence there. Albeit I’d bet there are far more of them doing 50mph through the pages of comment pieces and social meeja…
Even where people are vaguely supportive of change, it better deliver benefits immediately, and definitely no “side-effects” even if minor!
And some of us have been
And some of us have been cycling for 60 years, and are surprised by the number of electric motorcycles on the city streets and pavements. I still regularly cycle into my local towns, and don’t need dangerous electric motorcycles or 40mph ebikes getting me banned from the town centre. It seems a lot of this trolling comes from lazy boys who couldn’t turn a pedal without motorised assistance attached to it.