NO PENALTY.

Regular visitors to this blog will be aware that amongst my pet hates are cyclists who feel that it is ok to cycle along pavements when there are perfectly good roads that we can all cycle on.....So it was of some interest to me today when I saw two police officers with a radar gun measuring the speed of vehicles travelling along a straight and wide residential road close to my home.

What I had noticed was a cyclist (male/about 20yrs old/mountain bike) riding his bike towards the officers along the opposite pavement. He hadn't noticed them as they were partially obscured from his view by a parked van.

I wondered if he would be stopped or ignored by the officers so I decided to watch for a bit. As he got closer to where the police were standing one of them spotted him and crossed the road and stopped him. The officer appeared to explain to him the error of his ways and after telling him to ride on the road allowed him to carry on his way.

In my view that is the problem -NO PENALTY. Riding along the pavement IS an offence for which a penalty CAN be issued but penalties don't seem to be given out all that often.
A couple of months ago cyclists were being stopped for breaking the 10mph speed limit along the promenade-again no penalties issued- just a warning.

Now this is interesting because I believe that until cyclists start getting fined for these offences thay will continue to stick two fingers up at the law and carry on cycling on the pavements-jumping red lights etc etc..
Is it any wonder that vehicle drivers seem to get uptight about cyclists when there doesn't appear to be any fairness in the application of the law.