Blatant fibs from the cops.

[domtyler]

A thousand punctures be upon you.

Oh shoot!!

Is it too late to retract? I, er, really meant to say it was an intelligent and well considered contribution to the debate.

 

[domtyler]

While the City Police claimed previously this enforcement was about
targetting all road offences and in the email below the aim is stated
as to "deal with all offences committed on a public road", all the
figures cited by the police relate to offences of people cycling only.

Partisan, selective, descriminatory.

Unfortunately I believe you do have a good point in that the CoL police cyclists do seem to have the mandate of cracking down on other cyclists which has done nothing to contribute to their popularity.

 

[Mr Pig]

For years cyclists have been allowed to do whatever they want, .... cyclists have assisted the powers that be to target them for years, by being irresponsible,

How can you disagree with that? It's obviosly true.

If two hundred cyclists are fined for jumping red lights then so what? Two hundred cyclists must have broken the law! But let's ignore that and throw a strop about the lack of car drivers fined. One has sod all to do with the other. If you brake the law you deserve to be fined. The fact that someone else broke the same law and was not fined is irelevant.

Car drivers are not all demons and cyclists are not all saints. If you're not realistic about the situation people will just see you as a biggot.

 

[Riding in Circles]

Oh shoot!!

Is it too late to retract? I, er, really meant to say it was an intelligent and well considered contribution to the debate.

Maybe spindrift should have them, he can stay at home and not worry about the nasty policemen that are all conspiring against him then.

 

[spindrift]

How can you disagree with that? It's obviosly true.

It's a myth that cyclists are not targetted, as I've shown.

 

[Andy Pandy]

the majority of cyclists are law abiding

That point is very debatable. Here in Belfast, I would say, the majority ride on the pavement. Sitting at a junction in London recently, of the 20 or so cyclists that went by, only 1 stopped at the lights. I think we have to accept that there are many crap cyclists out there.

 

[PBancroft]

I really don't see what the problem with any of this is.

Let's assume that cars did run the red, not just going through at the tail end of amber. Let's assume that the Police were turning a blind eye and focusing on cyclists doing it.

So what?

Don't break the law and the Police won't have to "target" you because they won't get any result from it. And as I said earlier, we don't know what the parameters of this exercise was - it may well be that they defined RLJ as when the light had been red for a number of seconds.

Yes, cars can be bloody dangerous, and drivers do some very daft things, but it would be naive to suggest that cyclists don't, that they don't put themselves and other people in danger and a fine is a pretty good slap on the wrist and incentive not to do it again.

 

[Riding in Circles]

No it's not obviously true. Some cyclists, just as some drivers, break the rules. Catrike's comments were let down by the failure to distinguish clearly that the majority of cyclists are law abiding.

I'm afraid his comments, and yours, only get a 2/10 - you must try harder.

That's true, most are law abiding, my bad on that.

 

[andyfromotley]

This subset of cyclists jumping red lights and riding unlit at nights, riding the pavements, traveling against traffic etc... have screwed it for the rest of us, if you want to get angry with someone, try those brainless fools.

That'll be me then. hey ho.

As i said a more complete and utter waste of police time i would struggle to imagine! Thats the trouble with the city of london police, bunch of parochial inbreeds. Sooner they get subsumed by the met and given some proper work to do the better.

You could always get together and organiase a huge go slow as a protest at this deliberate targetting of cyclists, not to mention the waste of police time and ineffectiveness pontlessness of the whole thing. i would even come down and join in.

Fire away

andy

 

[Riding in Circles]

I have to agree that the City of London Police are notorious for being biased against cyclists. In part this seems to arise from the fact that they are controlled by the Corporation of London - and thus subject to pressure from individuals who are overwhelmingly car drivers.

Which is a pity, as the City force were the first to have a modern cycle unit and these officers were always pleasant when they policed Critical Mass. They were a really nice bunch of guys who sympathised to a greater extent with the experiences of London cyclists.

Do they have anything to do with the office of the mayor?

 

[Riding in Circles]

No. The Mayor of London has influence over the Metropolitan Police Authority - but the City of London Police are a separate force, overseen by the Corporation of London (headed by teh Lord Mayor of London rather than the Mayor of London).

It's about time that the City of London Police were subsumed into the Met Police, as happened with the Royal Parks Police. But then again, the Met aren't exactly the friends of cyclists, as their behaviour since they took over the policing of Critical Mass has shown for example.

I wonder if that will change now that the mayor is a cyclist, I heard that the police had turned the Critical Mass ride into a shambles but have not been on one for years.

 

[Mr Pig]

...the majority of cyclists are law abiding.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

 

[Mr Pig]

Ahhh, sorry about that (said a pig wiping away a tear with his trotter). Which planet is it that you live on again?

 

[Mr Pig]

If you pulled your head out of your arse and and looked around once in a while, you might find that I am right.

Of course you are. And well mannered also ;0)

 

[Cab]

Of course you are. And well mannered also ;0)

I'll wager that a smaller proportion of cyclists than motorists knowingly break the law regularly. Or, in other words, near as dammit every single motorist speeds and goes through amber or red lights when they could stop, whereas many cyclists don't RLJ and speeding laws don't apply to us anyway.

So, on balance, we're the most law abiding road users that there are.