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news
Victoria_Street_West,_Grimsby_-_DSC07296.JPGBusiness owners complain cyclists still riding in pedestrianised zone despite council handing out thousands of pounds worth of fines
Cyclists are regularly being handed £100 on the spot fines for riding through a pedestrianised shopping street.
Two years ago, businesses on Grimsby's Victoria Street raised concerns for customer safety following a number of incidents involving cyclists.
Signs which alert cyclists to a ban on cycling along Victoria Street were subsequently installed at the entrances to the precinct.
The area is also patrolled by enforcement officers for North East Lincolnshire Council, who dished out 550 fines in the first 15 months of the ban, which was brought in as part of a Public Space Protection Order in July 2019.
But one business manager has now said she is still worried someone will get hurt by a passing cyclist, The Grimsby Telegraph reports.
She said: "We have families come in with children and sometimes the children wander out the door and it scares me to think there could be a cyclist going past a speed."
Another shopworker said: "You see it all the time everyday. The cyclists don't pay any attention to the signs.
"It is very rare to see anyone walking with their cycle. I look out our window and there is always some one riding past. Some don't care that there are people walking close by and they are going fast on their bikes."
A total of 550 fines were issued from July 2019 to October last year, according to council figures.
Courts imposed fines and costs of more than £9,000 on 14 defendants whose cases were taken to court.
All the cyclists had been issued with a £100 fixed penalty notice for cycling in the pedestrianised area on Victoria Street.
Councillor Ron Shepherd, cabinet member for Safer and Stronger Communities at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: "We will fine you if you put other people at risk by cycling in Grimsby’s pedestrian zone
“Those who choose not to pay the £100 fixed penalty notice, find themselves facing a larger bill in court.
“Enforcement officers patrol the area regularly. Shoppers, businesses and people working in the town centre often complain about nuisance cycling.
“There’s no need to cycle in the pedestrian area – Bethlehem Street and Osborne Street are literally a few metres away and run parallel to it."
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87 comments
On this whole "toddlers exhibiting Brownian motion" thing - how is it that this apparently justifies banning bicycles and yet (much heavier, electrically powered) mobility scooters are fine and dandy?
In theory they are only doing 4 mph as they are limited to that. However the "road worthy" ones can do 8mph and requires the owner to remember to swap speeds. Still will do damage though if the operator panics and just keeps on the accelerator, (as elderly sometimes do in cars).
toddlers should be banned to save the climate. No other decisions a person makes will be responsible for more carbon emissions than creating a new toddler.
“There’s no need to cycle in the pedestrian area – Bethlehem Street and Osborne Street are literally a few metres away and run parallel to it."
This is begging the question - if there is a perfectly good alternative, why would people be risking the fine? I've never been to Grimsby so have no personal experience, but is it possible that the alternative is not in fact very cycle friendly, and people would rather risk a fine than their lives?
There are many ways to deal with pedestrian zones, with or without cyclists.
Signage can 'welcome cautious cyclists'. That's OK, and action can be taken against those who do not respect pedestrians (who, including toddlers, should have priority in shared space). A PSPO can reinforce that approach and authorise town centre wardens to take action as well as police.
If the zone is not the only cycle-permeable route through a town centre, I personally don't mind cycling being prohibited in part of the TC, as long as the options open to cyclists are not so backwater as to be unsafe in personal safety terms or too far from the function of the TC.
If the zone is, for convenience [ie laziness] framed as a no cycling zone, then enforcement could be limited in practice to those actually causing trouble for pedestrians, allowing those cycling at slow pace and/or off-peak hours to be unchallenged (along the lines of Paul Boatengs' letter to ACPO). The trouble with this is that you still officially outlaw those who take a reasonable approach to cycling, and the balance of discretion is solely in the hands of the enforcement officer.
A lot depends on the layout, width and congestion of the street in question. I think some streets are so busy with pedestrian traffic that cycling on them becomes untenable at times. It is surprisingly easy to couch PSPOs in those terms; TROs are harder, imho.
Wouldn't it be easier to get off and push? No point in annoying pedestrians illegally. You were one once.
Why would a careful, considerate cyclist (as I assume all Road.cc readers are) be annoying pedestrians? Also, 'illegally' is begging the question as careful, considerate cycling has bizarrely been made illegal by this ban, whereas cycling is typically a completely legal activity.
I assume you haven't read the comment by Oldfatgit - he most definitely does not find it easier to get off and push.
There is obviously a by law that Grimsby Council have passed to prohibit cycling in pedestrianised areas. Therefore whether you consider if you were cycling safely or not, you are still breaking the law, and subject to the penalities for doing so. Safe cyclists also should respect and follow the law do you not think?
It is not a bylaw it is a Public Space Protection Order which prohibits "Riding a pedal cycle in such a manner causing or likely to cause nuisance, alarm, harassment or distress to any other person or causing or likely to cause any other person to be intimidated."
Many people look at the PSPO and read the 4 words of "Riding a pedal cycle" and stop reading assuming that all cycling has been prohibited, where it clearly has not been.
So the point is how many of these fines are being issued incorrectly?
As TriTaxMan correctly states, it's a PSPO, not a bylaw.
Following the law only makes sense if the law is sensible and just. They could put in a PSPO to ban an ethnicity from pedestrianised areas and it would be rightly demonstrated against (e.g. with civil disobedience). The problem with this particular PSPO is that they're interpreting it as disallowing any cycling which is unjust.
It's also unlawful; EA2010 S.20(3), S.29, S.149.
If I were local, I'd be very tempted to make a trip and enjoy myself a round of daring them to try and fine me.
I never realised that annoying pedestrians was illegal. Fancy....
Not really, no - unless you'd like to give me some detailed, step by step instructions as to how you envision that I do that..?
Don't forget; Not all disabled cyclists are going to be obviously and visibly disabled.
Lovely to hear from you again CB
There's only so much time one can spend embarrassing people on Twitter who claim disabled people can't cycle - need to branch out occasionally
Ban adult pedestrians, they might hit children.
Ban children as well - they're little brats and often hit each other
That's a bigger penalty than for most motoring offences. It's absurd.
Has anyone been in touch with Joe Lycett, perhaps he could help?
He was out campaigning against oil the other week, so he's pro-petrol but anti-oil. Confused individual.
I ride an e-bike because I can't walk very far.
So, if I was to go shopping on my bike - which I often do - would I still be given a ticket?
Even though to me, it is a 2 wheeled version of that disabled scooter in the main image.
It would certainly make an interesting case were you to invoke the Equality Act, previously known as the Disability Discrimination Act.
FOI to grimsby council? How many pedestrians have been injured by cyclists in the last 12 months, and how many by cars?
Is it time for a complete ban on cars within the town?
Businesses claim "Customers might be hit by a cyclist" (Often this is due to the pedestrian not looking, and simply wandering in random directions, and this often results in pedestrians also walking into each other)
Meanwhile councils argue that reducing a speed limit to improve safety is not feasable as "drivers won't respect the new speed limit", so we'll do nothing. . . radical though... do like you do with the cycling rules, ENFORCE IT, with equal vigour.
Naughty, naughty pedestrians! How DARE they walk in a ped. zone in the town centre and not keep their eyes peeled and senses alert for cyclist zooming around them?
How DARE older, infirm people be concerned that cyclists are riding amongst and around them?
If there are so many cyclists riding in the ped zone, and there aren't piles of dead pedestrians lining the streets, the risk is absolutely miniscule, and definitely not worth legislating against. Unless the council and shopkeepers can point to quite a few injury incidents caused by cyclists, this is the old sledgehammer/nut scenario, with added spice of anti-cycling bias.
Given that Public Space Protection Order should only be brought in where there is significant, demonstrated risk, it might be worth one of the people who have been fined challenging this.
I aggree eburththebike.
The wording of the PSPO says "Riding a pedal cycle in such a manner causing or likely to cause nuisance, alarm, harassment or distress to any other person or causing or likely to cause any other person to be intimidated."
So in other words the PCSO's handing out the fines will simply be handing them out for cycling in the area covered by the PSPO forgetting that they have to prove that the cyclist has to be causing a nuisance, alarm, harassment or distress.
not forgetting there are some pedestrians who will be 'alarmed' by cyclists rising uphill at 5mph and many who will consider them a nuisance at all times.
On the face of it, that does seem perfectly reasonable. The way I understand that, simply pootling along bestride your bicycle would be fine, tearing through heedless of others would be fined.
Personally I've never experienced any issues when meandering slowly through pedestrianised streets on my bike, but I can understand why OAPs whose next "fall" might be their last, or parents with young children, would be nervous to the point of being excluded from the space if people were to ride recklessly, or in a manner which would reasonably give them fright.
Does the PSPO specifically state "Pedal Cycle"?
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