Peterborough's Bridge Street cycling ban now being enforced with fines

"He said in May he was nearly knocked over by a cyclist"

So he allegedly has a near miss and gets to change the rules, we can only hope he attempts to ride around London and meets a lorry!

Yes it is daft and symptomatic of a greater problem , however I am puzzled. Just why is getting off and walking your bike for a few hundredvyards an issue?

I must be confused. Bridge Street allows no cycles (but oddly enough is bisected by a huge dual carriageway):

https://goo.gl/maps/vEiKu

And yet, the nearby Long Causeway, connected directly to Bridge Street, does:

https://goo.gl/maps/yrxak

Is there some manner of split in the space-time continuum that makes cycling on these two almost identical pedestrian zones dangerous on one but not the other? Or are councillors in Peterborough just fucking thick?

The city centre bike ban here in Cambridge was one of the triggers for the formation of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign. The ban was lifted in 2005, 12 years after it was introduced in 1993. Now the rule is cyclists give way to pedestrians. We still have some other shopping streets with a ban. It is incredibly hard to get them lifted.

IME Local papers make up whatever inflamatory news they think will get clicks from the silly old buggers that still read that guff (immigrants, benefits, cyclists, muslims, EU etc) and a good proportion of councillers are opinionated gobshites who got the job uncontested and set about revealing their bigotry at the first chance.

thankfully their both as incompetent as they are ignorant.

If anyone wants to "inundate " ( ie send more than three or four emails) this elected councillor you can find him at john.holdich [at] peterborough.gov.uk

You would think that in a city such as Peterborough with its large European population there would be more efforts made to find a solution-lots of people who live there now will be completely (and rightly ) baffled by the actual positive aggression shown towards people just using a bike.

It's just people riding a bike.In a city.In England. In 2015. What a fucking miserable little country we are in danger of becoming

So John Holdich was "inundated" with emails from residents, and insisted that instead enforcement would be more "rigorous".

Well, can we have a bit of rigour from him? Exactly how many emails did he receive in this supposed inundation?

He was nearly knocked over by a cyclist, and people, especially the old and infirm, don't want cycling on Bridge Street ... "it’s the speed and disrespect they show ... people are very rude when I ask them to get off their bike.”

It sounds to me that he already had his own agenda and is using this as a way to impose it on everyone using a bike and teach them a lesson, rather than cater properly for them with infrastructure that keeps them apart from pedestrians.

Sounds like a council prick just doing what he fancies.

Seems a strange response from a council who are largely pro cycling, closed off major routes for the tour of Cambridgeshire and hosted a stage of the 2015 Tour Series which went right along Bridge Street the route in question.
Cycling has exploded round here and and the whole council needs a joined up approach. Sounds like a couple need to move with the times.

I think the long term way to deal with this sort of nonsense is to win over retailers with data on the benefits of cycling to their business. When the local shops are the ones asking to allow cyclists through, that would probably have more influence than anything sustrans might say.

Anyway Peterborough is a dump. Avoid.

“We need to get more enforcement. People are very rude when I ask them to get off their bike.”

This is dreadful considering how polite motorists are when you criticise their driving.

Cyclists are just like everybody else shocker!!

so councillor decides to override the home office guidance....

Councils appear to be numpties everywhere- what a daft idea when there are other much more pressing environment & transport problems....

You'd have thought adding a proper cycle lane through the middle, properly marked and segregated from the pedestrians would be a better option if it's the only sensible route north-south.Then the other parts could be marked for no cycling and fines applied there(ideally with pedestrians (especially those with kids in buggies) wandering down the cycle lanes also receiving the same fines of course.

Will they be banning mobility buggies for the same reasons?

I'm very confused when someone is described as cycling arrogantly or disrespectfully. Does anyone understand what this means?

So, the consultation didn't go as the councillor wanted it to, so blaming 'masses of emails he got'?

Sounds like a suitable target for a freedom of information request for someone local...

I wonder why those against didn't add their response in favour of the ban to the consultation?

'Excuse me Sir, I've stopped you to ask why you're obeying the law?'
Really?