167 cyclists – and just four drivers – fined in police crackdown during Tour Down Under

Police in South Australia fined 167 cyclists – and just four motorists – as part of a recent two-week campaign, coinciding with the return of the Tour Down Under as a WorldTour race, apparently designed to focus on “the behaviour all road users”.

Operation Safe Cycling ran for two weeks from 9 January and targeted the Tour Down Under route, mostly centred on Adelaide and the surrounding area, as well as being implemented across South Australia, InDaily reports.

167 cyclists were fined during the operation, and a further 270 cautioned for road safety offences, while only four motorists were fined during the same period, with 17 receiving cautions.

During the same two-week period, one cyclist was killed and eight others seriously injured on South Australia’s roads.

A spokesperson for South Australia Police said that the force was unable to provide a breakdown of the fines and cautions issued.

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However, during a similar campaign in 2021 – when 18 drivers and 347 cyclists received fines – most of the penalties issued to cyclists were for not wearing a helmet.

The law requiring cyclists to wear helmets in Australia, first introduced in 1991, remains contentious with campaigners who regularly undertake protest rides and claim that it discourages cycling.

A 2019 article by law professors Julia Quilter and Russell Hogg argued that the country’s mandatory helmet laws “have become a tool of disproportionate penalties and aggressive policing”.

In New South Wales, the host of last year’s world road championships in Wollongong, failure to wear a cycling helmet is the most-commonly issued on-the-spot fine in the state.

> Australia’s mandatory helmet laws "have become a tool of disproportionate penalties and aggressive policing" say researchers 

In the wake of Operation Safe Cycling, and the hundreds of cyclists stopped by officers during the Tour Down Under, South Australia Police’s Bob Gray said that the casualty numbers for cyclists in the state underline the need to “share the road safely”.

“This highlights the vulnerability of cyclists – they invariably come off worst if involved in a collision with any other vehicle,” Superintendent Gray said.

“Both cyclists and drivers need to be aware of each other, actively look for each other and share the road safely.”