Reports have been reaching us that Chelsea Bridge has been the focus of a police crackdown on cycling on the footway. Cycling on the wide footway on the east side of the bridge - which is plenty wide enough to accomodate cycling - is an established practice, and the signage up until recently had indicated that it was legal - there's a 'shared path' sign on Grosvenor Road north side, just before the bridge, and no subsequent signage to contradict this, indicating that cycling was permitted on the eastern footway. It seems there's now a well-hidden 'no-cycling' sign, low (about waist-height) on the steel structure of the bridge, and that's the cue for ticketing cyclists who in most cases weren't aware of the change in status of this route.
A shame the police's law-enforcement zeal doesn't extend to other offences committed on Chelsea Bridge. At night, 15% of vehicles are exceeding 39MPH. Over 24 hours, 15% of vehicles exceed 32MPH, which indicates that when congestion isn't preventing it, speeding is commonplace. (Source: Cyclists in the City)
What usually happens is the police turn up mob-handed in one location for a couple of days, in response to some local busybodies, then you won't see them again for years...
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Prosecuting cyclists on the footpath is entirely justified, if the 'no-cycling' sign is prominent.
ReplyDeleteSince the authorities seem completely disinterested in prosecuting drivers of motor-vehicles that are parked on the pavement and were presumably driven there. There is undoubtedly a significant bias against cycling and cyclists. A bias that is entirely justified by the extreme and overwhelming deadly menace presented by cyclists on the pavement to pedestrians, when compared with benign motor-vehicles, who everybody knows are almost totally harmless.
An examination of the UK statistics shows the reason for this bias:
Between 1998 and 2009, pedestrian fatal casualties* on the pavement:
Caused by Pedal cyclists: 3 – The appallingly high rate of one every 3 years two hundred days.
Caused by motor-vehicle drivers**: 862 - The extremely low rate of only slightly over one every five days.
Notes:
*Assumes 10% of pedestrian casualties occur on 'pavement or verge', as was the case in 2007-2008.
**Drivers includes motorcycle riders.
DfT figures.
As we can see, cyclists are a menace and clearly the most significant danger to the walking public. ;)