Police Campaign on Lights on Bicycles

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Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
Front page of the Cambridge Evening News:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2007/11/01/553a8bfa-99a7-481a-80cf-f8c3dd5974c8.lpf

I approve of enforcing this law, but I would maintain that the language and attention from Plod and the local paper is way wide of the mark.

When you struggle to get local bobbies to do anything about road traffic incidents where you've been hit by a car while cycling in front of witnesses, I can't help but think that prioritising cycle lights is missing the point.
 
Location
Herts
Whilst I sympathise with your views Cab, it is really jyst another example of the easy target.

We hear constant complaints about the proliferation of speed cameras but nobody seems to object to the decrease in detection of DWDC or DD or DUI since the police (stopped/reduced traffic patrols.

It's easy to pull a cyclist and warn/book them for no lights but harder to prosecute a no damage/no injury traffic incident.

I'm not condoning it in any way. I would rather somebody got pulled for DUI and lost their licence than get pulled at 80mph on a 70mph urban freeway at 0300.

NOTE neither are legal.
 

bobbyp

Senior Member
And I assume they'll also be cracking down on cars with dodgy headlights? I see at least 3 or 4 cars each evening with only one headlight operational.
 
OP
OP
Cab

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
I quite agree, cyclists without lights are a 'low hanging fruit' as they say. Easy to target, you can have a press release about how many you stopped, how many fines you got, how many tickets you issued, and then next year with an entirely new population of cyclists on the roads because its a university town you can do the same thing again. And again. And again.

And at no time will you every achieve anything. But you can have your annual blitz, its good publicity :blush:
 
OP
OP
Cab

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
bobbyp said:
And I assume they'll also be cracking down on cars with dodgy headlights? I see at least 3 or 4 cars each evening with only one headlight operational.


So few? I see more than that most evenings :blush:
 

Maz

Guru
Easy targets indeed. Isn't that Magdalene St in the 2nd pic?

Slightly OT, but my bro' got a ticking off from the cops for having lights on his bike with flat batteries, during daylight hours...seems harsh to me, but I don't know what the law says about this.
 

domtyler

Über Member
I think the key thing to bear in mind is this:
Insp Jon Hutchinson, from Parkside police station, said: "It's extremely dangerous to cycle without lights, and puts both the cyclists and other people using the roads in danger.

"We have been to a number of community meetings in recent weeks where this has been raised as an area of real concern by residents in the city and they have asked us to devote more resources to tackling it."

So, the police have met with local car drivers who have complained about cyclists with no lights. They are now going to crack down on cycling.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
good, start with the easy to enforce issues and move onto harder to enforce ones, how hard is that

a cyclist with no lights at night is a serious danger to themselves and others
 

domtyler

Über Member
Tynan said:
good, start with the easy to enforce issues and move onto harder to enforce ones, how hard is that

a cyclist with no lights at night is a serious danger to themselves and others

Compared to what? An uninsured and drunken motorist driving a dangerously un-roadworthy car or a Toddler wielding a plastic cricket bat?
 

gazzaputt

New Member
Location
Bexley, Kent
I don't understand the negative posts here on this.

It's helping people to help themselves. Sorry but your an idiot riding a bicycle at night with no lights. Why shouldn't the police enforce this?

In my book it's welcome.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
gazzaputt said:
I don't understand the negative posts here on this.

It's helping people to help themselves. Sorry but your an idiot riding a bicycle at night with no lights. Why shouldn't the police enforce this?

In my book it's welcome.
Agreed. Get our own house in order, then take and hold the moral high ground (wishful thinking :blush: ).
 

RPM

Well-Known Member
we live in a "cars are king" society.
somewhere along the line, motor vehicles went from being a luxury, to being a god-given right.

cycles are very much a minority, people who ride them are seen as outsiders. chaotic and lawless, beyond legislation. regardless of how the individual may ride in relation to the laws of the road (predominantly designed for motor vehicles)

but you all already know this.

advertising campaigns warning motor vehicle operators to take extra care around vulnerable cyclists? posters asking drivers to look both ways at T junctions?

yeah right.
 

gambatte

Middle of the pack...
Location
S Yorks
"One cyclist a week is either killed or seriously injured on Cambridgeshire roads and 448 bike riders - more than one a day - suffered some sort of injury last year."

Nice figures from them.

But.

In what proportion of these incidents was the lack of lighting a contributory factor? Not that I'm against enforcing the law, but the question jumped out at me straight away
 
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