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‘Dangerous cycling is not a priority,’ police force says

No cyclists have been prosecuted for traffic offences in St Albans or Harpenden during the past two years, a Freedom of Information request has found

Anti-social or dangerous cycling “has not been flagged as a priority”, police in Hertfordshire have said, after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request found that no one has been prosecuted for cycling-related offences in St Albans or Harpenden since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The FOI request, submitted by the Herts Advertiser, revealed that Hertfordshire Constabulary has not logged any cycling offences or taken any action against cyclists in the two locations during the past two years.

> “No plans to introduce registration plates” for cyclists, insists Grant Shapps 

The newspaper submitted the request in the wake of a controversial proposal by then-transport secretary Grant Shapps – the MP for the nearby Welwyn Hatfield constituency – to implement tougher laws for cyclists and to review how people on bikes who break the law can be tracked and prosecuted, including the much-derided and swiftly discarded pledge to introduce bike registration plates.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire Constabulary told the newspaper that the lack of cycling-related prosecutions is a result of the police force’s decision to prioritise educating and informing motorists of their responsibility to keep more vulnerable road users safe.

The spokesperson also explained that, since 2020, there have been no incidents resulting in serious injuries or fatalities in which a cyclist was at fault in St Albans.

> Bike rider fined £440 for “dangerous cycling” 

“Anti-social or dangerous cycling has not been flagged as a priority in St Albans,” the police spokesperson said. “Local policing priorities are updated using feedback submitted by members of the public via our community voice platform echo, and through local forum meetings.

“We do support national road safety campaigns, in conjunction with the Hertfordshire Road Safety Partnership, but as per the latest Highway Code cyclists are now considered vulnerable road users and as such the priority for these campaigns is to educate and inform other motorists about their responsibility to use roads safely, to ensure that they are safe for all users.

“If someone was seen to be cycling dangerously or in a manner that puts other road users at risk, and this was witnessed by an officer, they would seek to engage, educate and inform them.

“In terms of our Road Policing Unit, a cyclist would only be prosecuted if they were the cause of a serious injury or fatal road traffic collision – none of which have occurred in St Albans, therefore the lack of prosecutions/offences recorded.”

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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28 comments

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Cyclist against... | 1 year ago
0 likes

I have to admit that even as a cyclist , I'VE had a go at cyclists who in my opinion are the ones giving us all bad names. Im not one of the lycra brigade type cyclist , but have seen many an incident involving them , from going through a zebra crossing , to shooting through red lights and zipping in and out of traffic willy nilly. Have confronted a few of them and tried to educate them but sadly you cant educate idiots.

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alansmurphy replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
8 likes

As someone who rides in lycra on 50 to 100 mile jaunts, commutes in a suit and waterproofs and wears whatever the hell I like when taking the kids for a pootle down the lanes... My riding doesn't change based on my attire!

I could quite easily suggest that someone dressed 'normally' like yourself is the menace... You know, teenagers on MTBs wearing trackies, deliveroo riders in combats, piss heads in jeans

Twats are twats regardless of clothing or vehicle choice, don't join them by being so narrow minded!

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to alansmurphy | 1 year ago
2 likes

Heartily agree. I do wear lycra mostly whether leisure riding or commuting and see people commuting in "normal" clothes commit cycling described by the original poster. (although I do wonder what cycling through zebra crossings entail?)

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Hirsute replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
5 likes

I've seen many instances of this from people in normal clothes, so not really sure why you single out lycra.

I do wear lycra because I was fed up with wearing out my trousers commuting to work.

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Clem Fandango replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
6 likes

oooooooooh  is HE back?

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Rendel Harris replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
7 likes

For someone whose username proudly proclaims them to be "against anti cyclist morons" you seem to be using precisely the terminology ("lycra brigade") used by anti-cyclist morons as well as falling into their lazy habit of classifying an entire demographic of road users on the basis of the type of trousers they choose to wear. Round my way (South London) I'd say the top five dangerous types of cyclist are:

1. Delivery riders

2. Illegal ebike riders (often 1&2 are combined)

3. Drunk/stoned riders

4. Macho teenagers on MTBs 

5. Riders texting or using their phones for satnav (not necessarily the ones speaking on their phones, the ones using their phones in a way which requires them to look at the screen)

None of the above are notable for sporting lycra.

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JustTryingToGet... replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
6 likes
Cyclist against anti cyclist morons wrote:

Im not one of the lycra brigade type cyclist

My cycling behaviour is generally better in lycra than in my cookie monster onesie.

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S13SFC replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
2 likes

Cyclist against anti cyclist morons wrote:

I have to admit that even as a cyclist , I'VE had a go at cyclists who in my opinion are the ones giving us all bad names. Im not one of the lycra brigade type cyclist , but have seen many an incident involving them , from going through a zebra crossing , to shooting through red lights and zipping in and out of traffic willy nilly. Have confronted a few of them and tried to educate them but sadly you cant educate idiots.

 

And where exactly do you see this not happening?

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hawkinspeter replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
4 likes
Cyclist against anti cyclist morons wrote:

I have to admit that even as a cyclist , I'VE had a go at cyclists who in my opinion are the ones giving us all bad names. Im not one of the lycra brigade type cyclist , but have seen many an incident involving them , from going through a zebra crossing , to shooting through red lights and zipping in and out of traffic willy nilly. Have confronted a few of them and tried to educate them but sadly you cant educate idiots.

FFS....

...and onto my ignore list

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brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
2 likes

Their first post, just to unload that dump...And no further engagement...  Not very subtle, is it?

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Muddy Ford replied to Cyclist against anti cyclist morons | 1 year ago
2 likes

Pillock

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JustTryingToGet... | 1 year ago
4 likes

"In terms of our Road Policing Unit, a cyclist would only be prosecuted if they were the cause of a serious injury or fatal road traffic collision – none of which have occurred in St Albans, therefore the lack of prosecutions/offences recorded.”

Needs to be louder for the dickheads at the back

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Awavey | 1 year ago
5 likes

Well I notice the Herts Ad is an Archant publication,same group who own the majority of local newspapers in Suffolk & Norfolk, it being based in Norwich, though actually owned by Newsquest now I think.

And it's a fairly common tactic of that stable of publications, to "create" stories out of FOI requests into the police as filler, some more examples like these that are very similar tone

https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/all-16-cyclists-fined-riding-paveme...

https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/fall-in-cyclist-fixed-penalty-notic...

Inevitably they promote lots of reader debate in comments, more so on Facebook and ad clicks which generates revenue, so you can see why they do it as local newspapers just dont make any profit anymore.

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kraut replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
3 likes

Look at the twitter feed of the person who raised the FOI request. It's utterly pathetic, he's complaining about old ladies cycling on the pavement in St Peter Street (the high street in St Albans, often massively traffic congested, no cycle infrastructure at all).

Yeah, I'm not surprises the police aren't prioritising enforcing the law against old ladies getting home from the shops a bit more safely.

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steaders1 | 1 year ago
5 likes

Most police forces just don't even bother enforcing the laws with motorists so you can see why cyclist are a lower priority

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Clem Fandango | 1 year ago
11 likes

"cyclists are *now* considered vulnerable road users".........FFS

Still, progress of sorts I suppose

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Clem Fandango replied to Clem Fandango | 1 year ago
5 likes

Ogmios Ep5 is up by the way

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Sriracha | 1 year ago
0 likes
Quote:

...no one has been prosecuted for cycling-related offences in St Albans or Harpenden since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I don't get this - if someone runs a red light, or ploughs into a pedestrian on the pavement, or whatever, do the police stop to ask themselves first what vehicle was used, and whether it was on their priority list? Surely that's not how it works.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
6 likes

Did you read to the bottom. The last line states

“In terms of our Road Policing Unit, a cyclist would only be prosecuted if they were the cause of a serious injury or fatal road traffic collision – none of which have occurred in St Albans, therefore the lack of prosecutions/offences recorded.”

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Jetmans Dad replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
5 likes

Sriracha wrote:
Quote:

...no one has been prosecuted for cycling-related offences in St Albans or Harpenden since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I don't get this - if someone runs a red light, or ploughs into a pedestrian on the pavement, or whatever, do the police stop to ask themselves first what vehicle was used, and whether it was on their priority list? Surely that's not how it works.

They stated there had been no incident where cyclists were responsible for a case of death or serious injury and those are what would be prosecuted. 

They also pointed out that if a cyclist was seen committing an offence (such as running a red light) they would be spoken to. 

Quote:

“If someone was seen to be cycling dangerously or in a manner that puts other road users at risk, and this was witnessed by an officer, they would seek to engage, educate and inform them.

Seems pretty straightforward (and sensible) to me. 

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hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
6 likes

Seems very reasonable to me. Are they any good at dealing with cyclist cam footage for capturing poor and dangerous driving?

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Morgoth985 replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
14 likes

Who knows?  But that's not the point.  They've shut up the rabble rousing local rag, by a calm and clear explanation of the facts, so that seems like good solid British policing to me.

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CyclingGardener replied to Morgoth985 | 1 year ago
5 likes

This is my 'local rag'. The item was on the front page and I'm looking forward to lots of fun encounters with self-righteous idiot drivers tomorrow - thanks, Herts Ad! Might provide a good opportunity for a letter explaining the real issues for road safety though.
Unfortunately, the actual article does not come over as the police shutting up the rabble rousers, but more like shocked indignation at their lackadaisical attitude. Not that St Albans is exactly swarming with cyclists - if I remember rightly, Herts has the highest per capita car ownership in the country.

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lesterama replied to CyclingGardener | 1 year ago
2 likes

Dreadful and biased write-up with a clear us-and-them story to preach.

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Patrick9-32 replied to lesterama | 1 year ago
6 likes

That article is agressively anti cyclist and seems to be based on one twitter user's anti cycling agenda. They carefully gloss over the fact that there have been no serious incidents caused by cyclists and make pains to finish the article with a quote saying that cyclists are a menace. 

Could easily have been reframed as "local twitter user harasses and publicly shames cyclists despite no evidence of their behaviour being cause for concern."

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Patrick9-32 replied to Patrick9-32 | 1 year ago
3 likes

Gerald Quinlan is a very sad, very weird man. if you look on the hashtag mentioned in the article it is literally just him posting multiple photos of people just trying to go about their day avoiding what look to be incredibly hostile roads by riding slowly on quiet, empty pavements, causing no issues whatsoever. There is a thread of like 5 images of an elderly person cycling using the pedestrian crossing clearly showing her face, how creepy.

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paulnettles replied to Patrick9-32 | 1 year ago
0 likes

Just spent ten minutes browsing his Twitter. While I couldn't see any anti cyclist stuff it could well have been hidden in plain sight amongst the extensive anti-trans vitriol he is constantly retweeting. And that tells me as much as I think I want to know about this bloke...

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hawkinspeter replied to Morgoth985 | 1 year ago
0 likes

Morgoth985 wrote:

Who knows?

I was hoping some locals might have experience with them and would answer

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