Cycling: issues/noticeboard

[Applespider]

LM - my mother picked me up two packs in the spring. If you can't find em, let me know and you can have one of them.

[Laddy Muck]

Gosh, how very kind of you Applespider. I shall try the Peckham and Brixton branches again next week and let you know. Thank you SO much for your thoughtfulness.

[ianr]

Peckham Lidl is undergoing refurbishment. It were nobbut an empty shell last week.

[Laddy Muck]

Oooooh thanks for that, ianr. Jolly decent of you! Brixton/Sydenham it is then.

[HamsterLB]

Laddy Muck Wrote:

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> Cyclists at risk from plan to introduce longer

> lorries.

>

> If you are opposed to this, send objections to

> your MP at www.writetothem.org.

PMS

[Saturn 5]

The Bicycle Film Festival 2011

[bon3yard]

Not sure if its been covered elsewhere in this thread but I just wanted to vent a little spleen at the amount of times on my morning commute to London Bridge from Dulwich I find vehicles obstructing the green cycle boxes at traffic lights. whats the law with regards to this infringement? Its seems to be widely flouted and really sets my teeth on edge. Whinge over...and yes I am a damn near flawless cyclist who never runs red lights and will frequently stop to help old ladies/inebriated hobos across the road.

[binary_star]

bon3yard Wrote:

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> Not sure if its been covered elsewhere in this

> thread

Not this thread, but: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,561178,561638#msg-561638

Winds me up as well!

[Laddy Muck]

Are you talking about the Advance Stop Lanes? It's really irritating when vehicles block this area. As far as I know, where traffic lights are red or amber, all drivers have to stop at the white line where the lane/area begins. This is enshrined in law (the Road Traffic Act). It is also in the Highway Code.

You are right about this law being widely flouted though. I do remember the LCC having a campaign on this a while back - I'm not sure how far they got though.

[binary_star]

This will wind you up even more (my bold for emphasis have removed some copy from the original letter)...

Dear XXXX,

I am am happy to give the Metropolitan Police Service interpretation of the legislation which covers advance stop lines (The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002).

[CoL Police have never fined a driver who blocks a cycle box (ASL)].

This reflects the common misconception that cycle boxes can be enforced in the same way as yellow box junctions. In fact, there is no specific offence of stopping in the cycle box. The legal position is as I described in my fairly sparse response below; the ASL merely repositions the stop the line for vehicles other than cycles. Indeed, the legislation states that a vehicle that crosses the ASL as the light changes to red must stop at the second stop line - effectively, this provides a defence for the driver who enters the box in slow moving traffic when the light is green (or changing) but then becomes marooned when the light changes to red.

Taking the above into account, a police officer who arrives at a traffic light to find a vehicle stationary in the cycle box would have no way of knowing whether the vehicle entered the box before or after the light changed to red. Because the offence description is "proceeding beyond the stop line when the red light is illuminated" an officer must witness the vehicle crossing the ASL against the red light. The driver can then be ticketed for a traffic light contravention. Most forces (including the Met) are unable to provide statistics for the number of drivers ticketed for contravening an ASL because the offences are statistically indistinguishable from convential red light contraventions.

To answer your two questions:

For the reasons given above, The Metropolitan Police Service is unable to ticket or prosecute drivers for stopping in ASL cycle boxes...The driver of a vehicle who contravenes a red light at an ASL is liable for the same penalty as if he/she contravened a conventional stop line (it is the same offence).

Regards,

Jon Plant.

Well that's not the position of the City of London Police - they fined 57 people for "Code 024A - Stopping Beyond Advance Stop Line" from Oct 2006-June 2008.

[Saturn 5]

F**king hell, a pretty lightweight sentence. Bus driver must have lost his temper.

[LadyDeliah]

17 months for attempted murder is disgusting

[binary_star]

I was quite surprised at the length of the sentence but then it happens frequently, motorists either get done for dangerous driving or GBH rather than murder/manslaughter. Makes you wonder why there is no such thing as "death by dangerous knife weilding". From a while ago now but this guy only got an extra 7 months for deliberately reversing into a family of cyclists. Of the little girl the father was towing in the trailer:

"Emily was left unconscious for six days with serious head injuries.

She also suffered a broken jaw, nose, blurred vision and four lost teeth."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2869009.stm

GBH? Right.

Edited for typos.

[henryb]

Two years for attempting to murder a four year old and her father- that is appalling. Poor family. I wonder how long he actually served. That man is clearly an on going danger to society and the sentence should reflect that.

The QC's quote is appalling :

"Incidents such as these, appalling as they are, will not be tolerated by the courts."

Two years is way too tolerant!

[Annette Curtain]

From The Telegraph.

[quote name=Carl Baxter' date=' 36, became pale during sentencing, took off his watch and produced a razor blade which he ran across his arm, spraying blood on to the walls.

He was led away in handcuffs, staggering to the cells at Hull Crown Court before being taken for treatment at a hospital in the city.

Baxter, who weighs 20 stone, was involved in a hit and run incident in which Emily Kirwin suffered a fractured skull, lost five teeth and has been left with a squint.

She was being towed in a buggy by her father Stephen, 52, on a Sunday morning cycle ride in the Yorkshire Wolds on June 23 last year when Baxter's black Range Rover passed within two feet.

Baxter, who later gave himself up, had previous convictions for reckless driving and assaulting a motorist who he considered had braked too hard in front of him.]

The guy's mentally ill, no?

He needs psychiatric treatment as well as locking up.

[binary_star]

Annette Curtain Wrote:

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> The guy's mentally ill, no?

Hard to tell from a BBC news article, but if he is, his barrister didn't use it as a defence, or didn't manage to convince the jury he was:

"Baxter, of Shipman Road, Market Weighton, admitted dangerous driving and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm against Mr Kirwin and his daughter.

In mitigation, Simon Jack [his barrister] said Baxter had been under considerable strain after his father became seriously ill.

He added that six drivers working for Baxter would lose their jobs if a custodial sentence was imposed.

The court heard Baxter had previous convictions for driving offences and one for assault in another road rage attack in 1994."

http://www.trucknetuk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28723&start=0

Neither presumably did his legal team from his previous convictions. Most articles I've read say he produced a previously concealed razor blade, which seems more convincing than having slit his wrist with a watch, but whether or not that makes him mentally ill who knows.

[Applespider]

As most of you may know, the Times are running a 'Save our Cyclists' campaign after one of their reporters was badly injured while commuting to work. While I don't entirely agree with how dangerous they are presenting cycling as being, nor support some of their suggested options for making it safer, there's no doubt that they are helping to raise the profile of cycling safety. Their campaign made the recent cross-party Parliamentary debate on cyclist safety happen (the editor apparently called many MPs to ask them to attend) which I know that Tessa Jowell attended, at least in part.

I wanted to draw attention to their latest effort though. They're trying to use crowd-sourcing to identify cycling hazards in London so that they can draw more attention to them and try to get them fixed. This has to be a good thing. They're looking for everything from pot-holes, lack of ASLs, disappearing cycle routes, metal manhole covers on corners to where gyratories have no provision. Definitely worth taking a mental ride through your cycle commute and noting down the places where you either have to have eyes in the back of your head, or where you know you have to do something different (illegal?) to make it work for you.

Link to the Times Cyclesafety map

[Saturn 5]

If you want London to be more like Holland then please sign the petition to the mayoral candidates.

[Saturn 5]

I'd like to recommend Balfe Bikes for their help and knowledge today. They did a great job on my Trek Mountain Bike.

[Loz]

Saturn 5 Wrote:

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> If you want London to be more like Holland then please sign the petition to the mayoral candidates.

I had very nearly signed before I realise you weren't at all interested in the cannabis laws. Disappointed.

[anotherrichard]

That has left me very flat Lorenzo!!!

[AGW3]

Another thumbs up for local bike shop Balfes who did a couple of really good jobs on my wife's hybrid yesterday.

[Saturn 5]

Gutted for Vicky and Jess today, can't believe they have been disqualified.

[joepud]

Have bc bikes changed hands I went in today and notices they all had Balfes Bikes tops on and some new staff?

[bon3yard]

It was Balfes a long time before it was BCs.