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

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!

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?)

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.

oooooooooh  is HE back?

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.

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.

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?

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

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

Pillock

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.

Ogmios Ep5 is up by the way

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.”

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. 

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.

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.

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

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."

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.

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...

Morgoth985 wrote:

Who knows?

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