Cambridge cyclists to face course or fine if they break law

[Dan B]

It's easy to forget that for every confident and educated road cyclist - Most of us here I would have thought, there is probably 10+ who have grown up jumping off curbs on cheap full sussers bombing round to mates houses.

one of the above groups is dangerous, the other just moans a lot

Mostly dangerous to themselves only, thobut

 

[mjr]

Certainly in Cambridge, there are a lot riding without lights, or with rubbish lights, and you also get a lot on international students that don't have any idea about how to cycle on UK roads.

But do they kill or injure anything like as many as the loads motoring around without lights or without any idea about how to drive on UK roads?

In Cambridge, you sometimes also get English fools who screw up a junction and find themselves on the right-hand-side of the road (Sidney Street thank heavens, so only cycles oncoming who were much more forgiving than motorists are when one makes that sort of mistake).

By the way, about the one-way bit of Bridge Street and Sidney Street: is there a proper route sign at the point where it changes or still only a little sticker on a CCTV mast? Is there still any good reason why southbound riders are made to do two sides of a triangle through the much narrower Trinity Street and much busier Market Place instead? Is it just to make bikes travel further and conflict with many shoppers as possible because Cambridgeshire County Council hates us?

 

[Dave 123]

All cyclists in Cambridge should be rounded up and branded.... they're all evil!

 

[Drago]

Mostly dangerous to themselves only, thobut

But do they kill or injure anything like as many as the loads motoring around without lights or without any idea about how to drive on UK roads?

Oh, that makes it ok then.

The justification for bad behaviour that someone somewhere else is doing something far worse doesn't wash with me.

 

[glenn forger]

Don't be stupid drago. Cops have limited resources. It makes sense to target the road users who are doing the harm.

 

[Drago]

Now now, no need to be rude. I thought better of you.

Priorities are set locally, and if that's what the locals have marked as a policing priority the dibble are compelled by the Home Office to act upon that locally identified priority.

If cyclists had all been behaving like saints then the locals would've voted something else into the top 3. They made their own luck with this one.

The solution lies with the cyclists. Instead of moaning that car drivers and murderers do far worse - which they do, but its an irrelevance - they can all ride impeccably fora month, no courses allocated, and the dibble will have nothing to do. Moaning that car drivers, rapists and murderers are doing far worse -which they are - will change nothing, making it an observation of zero validity. The best way not to get busted is to behave, not a difficult concept to grasp.

 

[screenman]

many bad cyclists will grow up to become bad motorists later in life.

I also do not go with this " it is a money making scheme" total tosh, these schemes costs more than they take in.

 

[Stephen C]

But do they kill or injure anything like as many as the loads motoring around without lights or without any idea about how to drive on UK roads?

No, but on a day to day basis I have to watch out for other cyclists more than cars I find in general cars are very predictable, but when a cyclist finally decides to leave the pavement in front of me without any warning or shoulder check, it can be just as dangerous.

 

[glenn forger]

Cyclists are 2% of traffic and cause 1% of pavement injuries to peds. So cyclists are less likely to injure anyone EVEN AFTER you account for the disparity in numbers.

 

[jarlrmai]

Weird the usual people who go on about limited police resources when we talk about enforcing laws on mobile phones are the ones saying it's all fine to devote resources to this, "Local priorities" give me a break, you mean pandering the moaning general motoring public.

Even enforcement is all I want to be honest.

 

[Drago]

Cyclists are 2% of traffic and cause 1% of pavement injuries to peds. So cyclists are less likely to injure anyone EVEN AFTER you account for the disparity in numbers.

And ...?

Shoplifters cause zero deaths, but that's not a reason not to try and catch them.

"Leave me alone, Johnnie Spottiebum over there is being much naughtier" is the sort of reasoning you hear in primary school playgrounds.

One would like to think you argument would rely on reasoning, not on picking out words in capital letters.

 

[screenman]

At what point does breaking the law become socially acceptable? I presume only cyclists breaking the law will get punished, so what is the problem with that.

 

[jarlrmai]

Nothing pisses me off more than law breaking cyclists, mainly because they give ammunition to people whom are anti-cyclist.

The issue here is that the argument given when we bring up issues such as the lack of police enforcement of mobile phone laws, or close passing not being considered careless driving, or red light jumping by cars etc etc is that the "Police have limited resources" and are dealing with serious criminals etc. So this indicates that perhaps this is not true in Cambridge and that it has been decided that there are enough police officers dealing with murders, rape, robbery and all the drivers jumping red lights, encroaching in ASL's parking in cycle lanes, driving carelessly etc etc so they have spare people to deal with rogue cyclists who in the pecking order of traffic offenses are probably the least dangerous to others (not including pedestrians)

 

[Racing roadkill]

Good, it might drum some sense into the wreckless one's thick heads.

 

[mjr]

At what point does breaking the law become socially acceptable? I presume only cyclists breaking the law will get punished, so what is the problem with that.

The problem is that it almost certainly means fewer resources for people breaking the law and causing greater harm. I'm not saying breaking the law is socially acceptable - I'm saying let's have a crackdown on the killers rather than the nuisances.