A man was ordered to pay £220 this week for cycling through a red light, prompting the Institute of Advanced Motorists to call for bicycles to be allowed to ride through some red lights.
32-year-old Jurjys Renins was fined £220 for failing to stop at a red signal in Norwich city centre, as well as a £22 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.
Police district commander Superintendent Dave Marshall has urged cyclists to stop at red lights for their own safety, particularly if going straight at crossroads.
Denmark cyclists allowed to turn right at red lights
He told the Eastern Daily Press: “This is a significant issue. It’s extremely dangerous because vehicles travelling through green lights don’t expect to see cyclists going through ahead of them.”
Supt Marshall said the offence also causes “a lot of upset between motorists and cyclists.”
However, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) told road.cc though all road users should respect the law, the UK should consider allowing cycles to proceed through certain red lights, as Denmark has done.
Bicycles turning right on red was found not to increase collision rates after a two year trial on 33 Danish junctions, and the movement will become legal from 1 September on those junctions.
Martin Woodhouse, Norfolk and Norwich branch secretary of the IAM, said of cyclists jumping lights: “They are breaking the law but perhaps we should be looking at amending the interpretation of the law to make it safe for them to do so in certain circumstances.
“Cyclists going through red lights are probably more of a danger to themselves than anyone else. If they have a collision with a car, it’s them who is going to come out of it worse off.”
Norwich Cycling Campaign secretary, Margaret Todd, said there needs to be more enforcement for all traffic offences, not just for cyclists.
“We think there has been a drop in traffic enforcement. We don’t think cyclists should be treated any differently,” she said.
38 thoughts on “Man fined £220 for cycling through red light”
£220 for cycling through red
£220 for cycling through a red light? In North Wales you can paralyse 2.75 cyclists for that!
handlebarcam wrote:
That was my first thought before I even read the article! (just the headline)
It’s not just Denmark. This
It’s not just Denmark. This very august publication reported on Paris coming to the very same conclusion
http://road.cc/content/news/157275-cyclists-paris-allowed-ignore-red-traffic-lights
If it’s a pedestrian crossing
If it’s a pedestrian crossing, but everyone has finished crossing and it’s obvious that no-one else is going to cross, I see no reason not to just continue riding (excluding the fact that it’s a red light, of course).
The ridiculousness of seeing
The ridiculousness of a cyclist sitting at a red light, especially a ped crossing, when there is no one around for miles. Though watching automatons get irrate about it is good craic.
unconstituted wrote:
It *really* winds them up if you slow on amber and then stop for the red light, too – most motorists think that’s when they should be accelerating…
brooksby wrote:
The danger is that’s when they do accelerate. And they’re looking at the lights rather than the cyclist who’s stopping for the amber. It’s one of my pet fears, so I’m an amber gambler.
brooksby wrote:
I never stop on amber as I can’t be certain the car behind me is stopping. Therefore ( with no brake light) it would be unsafe to stop.
wycombewheeler wrote:
It *really* winds them up if you slow on amber and then stop for the red light, too – most motorists think that’s when they should be accelerating…
— brooksby I never stop on amber as I can’t be certain the car behind me is stopping. Therefore ( with no brake light) it would be unsafe to stop.— unconstituted
When I am a car driver I am reluctant to stop at amber as drivers behind could crash into me. I make a habit of rolling forward as I intend to stop, lights or roundabouts, or give way signs. As a cyclist I would be even more wary of stopping with following traffic. But at least you can be very close to the kerb.
When I am king it will be a
When I am king it will be a capital offence to push the pelican crossing button and then cross without waiting for it.
The strange world of crime &
The strange world of crime & punishment.
£400 fine for an incident where no-one was hurt (see above)
£35 fine & 3 points for killing a cyclist (http://road.cc/content/news/73826-taxi-driver-fined-%C2%A335-3-points-his-licence-after-cyclist-killed-collission)
Who get the £22 victim
Who get the £22 victim surcharge…..the red light?.
I disagree. You could argue
I disagree. You could argue that its ridiculous for any traffic to have to sit at a red light at a pedestrian crossing if there is no one crossing.
I think it would just muddy a poor situation that already exists.
1961BikiE wrote:
Whats muddy about the difference between a bicyle and a car.
If people can’t distinguish between themselves driving a car and being on a bicycle they shouldn’t be on the roads.
Visual guide:
Car
Bicycle
1961BikiE wrote:
Anyone has been able to turn right [with care] on a red light in the US for 30+ years, unless a sign says otherwise.
Reading between the lines
Reading between the lines here this guy was probably not just tentatively passing through the lights after checking them. Nor was he likely to have been receptive to some unofficial advice given, because for him to go to court over it and receive such a hefty penalty, is not from an early guilty plea that’s for sure.
Well we all moan that these guys give a bad name to the rest of us, and vilify motorists when they do it and it’s dangerous, so it is only right we should support that action was taken against this guy.
The punishment seems somewhat excessive in comparison to more serious offences though, perhaps IAM should be petitioning the government to change the weight of sentencing and not the law, the law isn’t the problem, it’s the punishments that are unfair and weighted against cyclists.
What really annoys are the
What really annoys are the lights which sense -and wait for- motor traffic.
So apparently its “safer” for me to stop at a deserted junction wait, sometimes several minutes for a car to turn up and then continue, now with the car or cars right behind me than it would have been for me to carry on my merry way with no motor traffic anywhere near me.
Must be Mad wrote:
In these situations I deploy ‘Sunday morning protocols’ act as you would at an unlit junction.
Must be Mad wrote:
If you find one that doesn’t trigger for a bike (notwithstanding non-conductive carbon contraptions, obviously!), then you should give the local highways authority a ring. They can and do tune them, but they need to know about them first.
durandal wrote:
And if my bike is carbon?
Tempted to just sit there blocking cars from reaching the sensor and cause a jam.
durandal wrote:
But carbon is conductive.
durandal wrote:
most of the junctions around me have not extended the sensors or added extra sensors in the cycle lane leading to them… sometimes, the only cycle specific sensors are only in the main box itself, which most of the time, you can’t get into cos some moton has gone halfway over their stop line leaving no room for you…
Must be Mad wrote:
Proceed with caution as the light is defective. Report the defective light using an app. I use Fix My Street.
When I am king it will be a
When I am king it will be a capital offence to push the pelican crossing button and then cross without waiting for it.
Maybe they could make the lights change quicker then. Some politicians say they want us to walk and cycle more, but then when it takes forever and a day for the pedestrian lights to change, as car after car goes past, you get the message about who is really important/prioritised.
HarrogateSpa wrote:
This.
I often lament city ‘design’ while I, and 5-10 other pedestrians, wait, in the pissing rain, for one car, with one dry occupant in comfort, to crawl up a side street in Manchester city centre. What are we waiting for? The rapture? An appearance by one of the Kardashians? No: to walk 6 yards to another bit of the city centre. The hierarchy in town centres and neighbourhoods is arse-about-tit.
This country’s going to to hell in single occupancy Nissan Qashqais.
davel wrote:
When I am king it will be a capital offence to push the pelican crossing button and then cross without waiting for it.
Maybe they could make the lights change quicker then. Some politicians say they want us to walk and cycle more, but then when it takes forever and a day for the pedestrian lights to change, as car after car goes past, you get the message about who is really important/prioritised.
— davel This. I often lament city ‘design’ while I, and 5-10 other pedestrians, wait, in the pissing rain, for one car, with one dry occupant in comfort, to crawl up a side street in Manchester city centre. What are we waiting for? The rapture? An appearance by one of the Kardashians? No: to walk 6 yards to another bit of the city centre. The hierarchy in town centres and neighbourhoods is arse-about-tit. This country’s going to to hell in single occupancy Nissan Qashqais.— HarrogateSpa
Err, what are you waiting for? If it’s safe to cross, do!
“Jaywalking” isn’t an offence in mainland UK, although strangely I think Northern Ireland is different.
Duncann wrote:
Err, in my example, the car.
Point: pedestrians have to wait for cars.
Not the point: pedestrians can cross roads. But thanks anyway.
[/quote]This country’s going
[/quote]This country’s going to to hell in single occupancy Nissan Qashqais.[/quote]
totally, totally, brilliant, there are millions of those wanbe off roads about aren’t there
davel wrote:
This is my thinking too. When I’m squashed in on a busy urban residential road that has parallel parking, I’m aware that we could have 100m of full-lane segregated cycle roadway if we were willing to prioritise the 1000 people on bikes over the 20 occasional-use car owners using the space as a car park.
HarrogateSpa wrote:
Can I add to your legislation that pedestrians (usually looking down at their phones) who push the pelican crossing button when there are no cars within sight get a bloody good shoeing………pisses me off as I do stop at every red light regardless of the situation
Right, a FPN is £50. So
Right, a FPN is £50. So either this is a contested FPN or something else.
The question is what the charge was?
bendertherobot wrote:
Being a lippy arse?
bendertherobot wrote:
The minimum fpn for not stopping at red light is £100 + 3 points on your driving license,presumably the magistrates converted points to extra fine & added aggravating circumstances ? Max is £1000
Awavey wrote:
Right, a FPN is £50. So either this is a contested FPN or something else.
The question is what the charge was?
— Awavey The minimum fpn for not stopping at red light is £100 + 3 points on your driving license,presumably the magistrates converted points to extra fine & added aggravating circumstances ? Max is £1000— bendertherobot
It’s a non endorsable as it’s on a bike.
Good to see that fearless
Good to see that fearless investigative journalism by the newspaper has revealed that,
“Mr Renins is not the only cyclist who has failed to stop at a red signal”
I’d never have know this otherwise. The Eastern Daily Press has done the nation a great service.
I’ve not much sympathy tbh, I
I’ve not much sympathy tbh, I wish more people on bikes were caught and prosecuted for running red lights. The fine seems a bit on the heavy side, should be more like a bus lane or parking fine.
But RLJs are twits, a pox on them.
It appears from the EDP
It appears from the EDP cyclist-jumping-reds follow up count that this was a pedestrian crossing so IAM statment doesn’t really apply here at all, I have no issue with cyclists going through those if the peds have already crossed since pressing the button and no one is waiting. At the other end of the road mentioned though Norwich city centre is roadworks with temporary 5 way lights, those need harsh penalties for jumping even though the wait times are horrendous but it does stop you meeting a bus head-on in a single lane
It would have been worse had
It would have been worse had he been cycling through red light district Haha!!
what would his Mrs have done to him lol