He's already said he walked the bike there. And that the car park is on private land......so how does this qualify as 'joyriding'?
Fair point... I see it as joyriding, although it may not fit the legal definition if such exists.
He was riding at 45mph, untrained, uninsured and in a car park on an untaxed motorcycle for which he has no paperwork. If he could gain access, so can others: Dog walkers, the elderly, other cyclists, parents teaching their children to cycle in a car park (as I did with all three). We can all agree that Matthew is a public-spirited chap who means well, but the law is the law and this was illegal.
The
'private land' thing is odd... This was a stretch of
private land big enough to do 45mph on... My impression (I may be very wrong) is that it was
privately-owned land not on the public highway, rather than
land to which nobody but Matthew had access. If so, that is an offence. I call it joyriding; others may not.
I am not shouting from the saddle of a moral high horse... I've already said I was banned at sixteen, before I even had a license... and I lost mine for roaring around on the public highway. In my youth I was a dreadful scalliwag and broke every rule there was. I learned to drive in a friend's car in France with no license, insurance or real idea of which side of the road I ought to have been on. We drove at night to be inconspicuous. Nobody quite realised how I'd gone on holiday and come back knowing how to drive but without a license.
But... I did not preach and bleat and holler and play the
Mighty Moral Mouse of Highway Rectitude.
I do not scold Matthew and with my past I am in no position to do so... but I can point out the incongruity of his position regarding his own obligation to remain within the law and that of other people.
I'm perfectly happy for him to be cut some slack. Had I not been given many, many chances as a youth, I might still be waiting for my license to be returned.
But I still call it joyriding. Others may differ.
