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“Expect a ticket”: Drivers obstructing cycle lanes fined by Merseyside Police

Police crack down on illegal parking in new experimental bike lane on Kingsley Road

Police in Liverpool have cracked down on motorists illegally obstructing cycle lanes after a complaint was made about a car which had been parked in one of the lanes on the Kingsley Road for days.

Responding to the complaint, Merseyside Police’s Roads Policing Unit visited the area in Toxteth and issued a number of tickets for “causing an unnecessary obstruction”.

> Enforcing cycle lane would prevent drivers from parking (illegally) outside Presbyterian church, claims Dublin elder

The unit took to Twitter to highlight and share images of the offences, and to warn drivers against parking in the lanes. “If you have a drive way, use it,” the tweet read. “There are also parking areas on the side of the road where the Police vehicle is. Please do not obstruct the cycle lane or pavement or you can expect a ticket”.

The response to the police’s action was generally positive, with one Twitter user urging the unit to “keep this up until the message gets through!”

> Councils get new powers to fine drivers parking in bike lanes

The newly-installed Kingsley Road cycle lanes form part of an experimental £1.3 million investment into traffic infrastructure in the area, which also includes the creation of a new temporary one-way system, a 20mph speed limit, and resurfacing works.

Incidentally, the one-way system was installed to allow for more road space for formal parking, to avoid motorists obstructing the cycle lane. A decision will be made in June on whether these changes will become permanent.

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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17 comments

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Rik Mayals unde... | 2 years ago
5 likes

There's a sandwich shop around the corner from me, every day without fail there are a long procession of vehicles, usually vans and trucks, which park half on the pavement, on double yellow lines. pedestrians struggle to pass on the remainder of the pavement, and those with buggies must walk around the vehicles into the road to pass.

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Hirsute replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 2 years ago
2 likes

I just watched this - and people complain about escooters in the pavement !

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leicestershire-59894959

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wtjs replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 2 years ago
3 likes

Come on BP! You, of all people, should know that if they can't be bothered to do anything about this Passat VO53 BLK crossing the double white lines, with a different plate on the trailer from that on the car, carrying sheep (probably), with a child in the front seat not wearing a seat-belt (probably) and travelling on a public road without road-tax, then they're going to choose tea and doughnuts at the station over bothering with trivia like double yellow lines, blocked pavements etc

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HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
4 likes

Related point: there was a pavement parking consultation in 2020, and we're still waiting for the results/change in policy.

Anyone know when we can expect to hear something?

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chrisonabike replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
16 likes
HarrogateSpa wrote:

Related point: there was a pavement parking consultation in 2020, and we're still waiting for the results/change in policy.

Anyone know when we can expect to hear something?

It's been temporarily left on a footway for a sec while the government are "just popping in" to the free market.

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ktache replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
6 likes

I hope they have left their BOLAS on...

 

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eburtthebike replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
4 likes
HarrogateSpa wrote:

Related point: there was a pavement parking consultation in 2020, and we're still waiting for the results/change in policy.

Anyone know when we can expect to hear something?

It will arrive shortly after the consultation on the review of road laws, from seven years ago.  Don't hold your breath, and anyway, you peds are not only a minority, you obstruct drivers!

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SimoninSpalding replied to HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
0 likes

Not sure, but I know Scotgov have just launched a consultation on this subject. Just don't ask why I know, because I can't remember!

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alchemilla | 2 years ago
2 likes

They only 'cracked down' after a complaint was made, then seemed to find several examples of bad parking. Why hadn't these vehicles been ticketed anyway, already? They say 'expect a ticket' but I doubt very much if that's true, as staff shortages will mean their attention is diverted elsewhere before long.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to alchemilla | 2 years ago
2 likes

Op Park-Safe was one the WMP RHRT used to run as well as the close pass, catching mobile phone use from buses and speed cameras. There used to be alot of success for them all and plenty of support on twitter (apart from the odd "Catch real criminals" or "donut eating wasters in front of a keyboard" type comments). So WMP decided to get rid of the team. 

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AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
7 likes

The amount of drivers who believe double yellows do not count if they go halfway onto the pavement is staggering. The trouble is most of the time the police ignore it and only councils get involved. 

Police / Councils should also be able to enforce parking offences via camera. This crossing regularly has people parking on the zigzags, sometimes two before the it leading back to the island. A camera on one of the poles facing it would soon stop it from happening. 

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chrisonabike replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
6 likes
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

The amount of drivers who believe double yellows do not count if they go halfway onto the pavement is staggering. The trouble is most of the time the police ignore it and only councils get involved.

I thought it was only allowed if you deployed your BOLAS?

Although round my neck of the city I think you're OK if you don't touch or straddle the yellows as it's very common to have cars completely on the footway if wide enough.

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Captain Badger replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
4 likes
chrisonatrike wrote:

I thought it was only allowed if you deployed your BOLAS?....

WOOHOOO!

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chrisonabike replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
2 likes

Presumably the reason why people can get parking tickets but not get done for driving on the pavement is (apart from the bizarre "crane defence" leading to the need for video) that this has: a) effectively been decriminalised b) but e.g. councils are allowed to declare their own "administrative punishments" per by-laws? Is that it?

(With trepidation; I can sense a well-known and recently discussed lawyer looming...)

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ktache replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
5 likes

But how else would the drivers just pop into Gregg's?

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SimoninSpalding replied to ktache | 2 years ago
1 like

Use it as a drive through?🤣

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ktache | 2 years ago
4 likes

Just good!

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