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LAWBREAKER: the shocking truth of a road.cc staffer's ride to work

We pap our own chap to find out how easy it is to bend the truth

As an employee of top cycling website road.cc, Oli might be expected to set an example behind the handlebars.

And indeed he does. A bad one.

Despite being a vocal campaigner for cycling, the 24-year-old flouts the rules with astonishing regularity.

Watched on his four-mile journey home from his home in Oldfield Park to road.cc towers, Oli committed at least 1,345,661 offences, risking hefty fines.

 

ONE: he CAREERS through a red light, narrowly missing a pedestiran and oblivious to the danger he's putting car drivers in.

TWO: he WEAVES through pedestrians on a crossing, this woman is clearly very UPSET by his reckless behaviour.

THREE: he SAILS through another red in town as obedient, tax-paying motorists wait patiently in line.

FOUR: he TEARS along the pavement as frail elderly women and fair-haired children jump for cover

He didn't do any of those things, of course.

In picture one Oli went through the standard stop line just as the light was turning amber, and by the time he'd passed the ASL and entered the box to go straight over onto the cycle path, it was red. The woman crossed on a red man, so she gets into the frame.

In picture two Oli is entering from a side road just out of shot, he never went over the crossing at all.

In picture three the light in shot is red, but the light controlling the lane Oli is in is on green filter to let traffic round the corner. That light is out of shot though.

In picture four he's riding along a cycle lane, albeit a badly marked and fairly pointless one. but you can't see that because the cars are in the way.

So is this what happened to Jon Snow? Well, we don't know, not without seeing the sequences of shots that the photographer took. I doubt we'll get that privilege though. If you want to make someone look like a law breaker, though, it's not that hard.

While we were out and about we thought we'd see if we could catch any motorists breaking those rules of the road. We're fairly pleased to report that there was a very low level of mobile phone use on the streets of Bath today. Okay, still some people jabbering away (we didn't manage to get any good shots of them) but much less than the last time we conducted an impromptu straw poll. Maybe it's because it's the summer holidays and there's not as much traffic, maybe the message is getting through. Let's hope it's the latter.

Not everyone was behaving impeccably though. Our favourite transgression was this chap, driving with a dog on his lap.

Here's a woman jumping the red on the way into town...

Here's an artic doing the same thing...

And here's a woman having a quick read at the lights.

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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20 comments

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OldRidgeback | 13 years ago
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I think the Daily Mash describes Mail readers rather well:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/say-'nutjob'-not-'daily-mail-reader'%2c-says-minister-201007292956/

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jazzdude | 13 years ago
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Hmm are there laws against reading while stationary and driving with a dog on your lap?

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dave atkinson replied to jazzdude | 13 years ago
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jazzdude wrote:

Hmm are there laws against reading while stationary and driving with a dog on your lap?

not specifically, but:

144 You MUST NOT
* drive dangerously
* drive without due care and attention
* drive without reasonable consideration for other road users

148 Safe driving and riding needs concentration.
Avoid distractions when driving or riding such as
* loud music (this may mask other sounds)
* trying to read maps
* inserting a cassette or CD or tuning a radio
* arguing with your passengers or other road users
* eating and drinking
* smoking

149 You MUST exercise proper control of your vehicle at all times

the MUST/MUST NOT means those ones are laws, not advisory instructions

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Myriadgreen | 13 years ago
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To be honest, I suspect that anyone who reads the Daily Wail/Fail/Bail/etc etc is so blinkered in their world view that they will believe anything that rag-only-fit-for-litter-tray-lining so called NEWS paper cum gossip mag writes.

Yes, people do jump lights on bike, especially when I am waiting like a good girl for a green light. Or they go up on the pavement. I get my revenge by being fitter than them and cycling past them just down the road, to prove that you dont need to jump the lights to get somewhere faster!

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Oli Pendrey replied to Myriadgreen | 13 years ago
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Myriadgreen wrote:

I get my revenge by being fitter than them and cycling past them just down the road, to prove that you dont need to jump the lights to get somewhere faster!

This is my favourite commuting game  1 Only last night I was waiting at some lights at the bottom of a hill when someone came past me, through the red lights, hopped on to the pavement to cut the corner and away up the hill. I caught him about half way up the hill and turned to give him a wink as I breezed past him  3

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Pierre | 13 years ago
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Very nicely done.  1

: P

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Kim | 13 years ago
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:LOL:

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nivagh | 13 years ago
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Disgracful behaviour from a non tacks paying road clogging scrounger. just the other day I was going to the Waitrose half a mile from my house for some WKD and sum rolling papers when i had to weight for a cyclist pushing her BIKE on a PEDSTRIAN crossing (while not wearing a helmet). And when i got ther (late) it was busy and there was no spaces for my Hummer when i got into the carpark. so I had to park across a couple of disabled spaces instead, but it wasnt all bad because their closer too the doors, lol

 39

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simonmb | 13 years ago
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A splendid retort to yesterday's story. Splendid!

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elbooch | 13 years ago
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Good stuff. But then again showing the Daily Fail is full of rubbish is like shooting fish in a barrel with an ICBM.

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Recumbenteer | 13 years ago
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How dare you! The Daily Nazi is the paragon of lies truth!

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alotronic | 13 years ago
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Point well made...

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jezzzer | 13 years ago
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never liked that oli anyway

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dave atkinson | 13 years ago
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Quote:

Why blank out the number plate? surely the powers that be need to have a word with the woman who was in such a rush that she drove through a red light?

well, like i think we've ably demonstrated, that picture don't prove nuffink  3

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Jon Burrage | 13 years ago
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Why blank out the number plate? sure ly the powers that be need to have a word with the woman who was in such a rush that she drove through a red light? Ah, I see!

Proves a point though, it is very easy to illustrate an argument any way you want to with some crafty photography and creative words.

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jobysp | 13 years ago
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Ha ha. Excellent  1

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pickles | 13 years ago
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Great stuff, guys! I hope that you've fired this disgraceful character for bringing the proud name of Road.cc into disrepute.

What's that sound? Oh, it's Matt Seaton sharpening his holier-than-thou pencil again.

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dave atkinson | 13 years ago
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Nope, she's just cleared a KEEP CLEAR section, she's okay on that front. who knows, maybe it's the highway code...

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harvey.grainger | 13 years ago
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RE: the lady reading at the lights, is she completely in front of the Stop line; with her rear wheels stopped over it, or has she decided to stop in a ASL?

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John_the_Monkey | 13 years ago
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HAT, chaps, a career in investigative journalism at Britain's favourite newspaper surely awaits!

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