- This topic has 11 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated July 15, 2006 at 8:40 am by Meltown.
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July 14, 2006 at 9:53 am #1038520
A Bristol cyclist is condemning a decision to prosecute him for riding through a red light early in the morning, as a waste of public money.
Chris Adams was issued with a fixed penalty notice by a police officer near Queens Road last December.
He appealed against the fine, but says magistrates went ahead with the case, which involved three costly hearings.
A police spokesman said officers have to respond if they see an offence being committed in front of them.
Inspector Mike Cox said: “Cyclists have a responsibility to the Road Traffic Act.
“We don’t go out to target them, but if it happens in front of us, we have to deal with it.”
He added: “Other members of the public will feel we were right to do this.”
He admitted that police have a range of options when dealing with an offence, but said the officer in this case felt it was necessary to issue a fine.
But Mr Adams, who was ordered to pay £30 with £100 costs, said: “It was 5.55am, I was surprised when the police stopped me, I was the only traffic on the road.
“Not only is it a waste of time and money on both sides, there is another important issue. “We’re living in a world where it’s imperative to get people out of their cars and this sort of thing doesn’t encourage people onto their bikes.”
July 14, 2006 at 10:14 am #1082845stax wrote:A Bristol cyclist is condemning a decision to prosecute him for riding through a red light early in the morning, as a waste of public money.
Chris Adams was issued with a fixed penalty notice by a police officer near Queens Road last December.
He appealed against the fine, but says magistrates went ahead with the case, which involved three costly hearings.
A police spokesman said officers have to respond if they see an offence being committed in front of them.
Inspector Mike Cox said: “Cyclists have a responsibility to the Road Traffic Act.
“We don’t go out to target them, but if it happens in front of us, we have to deal with it.”
He added: “Other members of the public will feel we were right to do this.”
He admitted that police have a range of options when dealing with an offence, but said the officer in this case felt it was necessary to issue a fine.
But Mr Adams, who was ordered to pay £30 with £100 costs, said: “It was 5.55am, I was surprised when the police stopped me, I was the only traffic on the road.
“Not only is it a waste of time and money on both sides, there is another important issue. “We’re living in a world where it’s imperative to get people out of their cars and this sort of thing doesn’t encourage people onto their bikes.”whar did he expect? he broke the law blatantly in front of a cop. He should have just accepted this, paid the FPN and been done with it instead of whinging, now he has to pay £130 instead of £30
If someone had done this in a motor car with the plod (or CCTV ops) watching they would also have been prosecuted
I stop for red lights; going through red in any vehicle is dodgy as this means that another light elsewhere on the junction is green; another road user (maybe even another cyclist) can proceed and there could be a collision. People think there is no other traffic about; but vehicles can appear at speed in this sort of situation.
Can people not spare 30 seconds of their life for the principle of sharing resources equally and letting some others use the road?
people may not like traffic laws when they hold them back (and only for a few seconds) but IME they are some of the few laws in this world achieved through international consensus that increase public safety and encourage citizens to share resources fairly.
July 14, 2006 at 10:45 am #1082851Generally speaking, I would agree with GL that the traffic laws are there to protect road users from themselves and others. However, in view of the time of day it seems quite petty of the policeman to bother reporting this offence, unless the cyclist simply whizzed through the light without bothering to slow down/stop to take stock of the prevailing conditions and just assumed that the early time of day and usual absence of traffic would be his saviour. A spokesman says that because the offence happened in front of the policeman he was obliged to take action; but surely a verbal warning could have been issued on the spot.
Many years ago I was stopped on a bicycle (wobbling leisurely on the pavement late at night), bottle in hand, jazz cigarette discarded discretely, and was allowed to proceed (pushing the bike if I remember correctly) on condition that I emptied the contents of the bottle. Despite my (polite) protestations that I should be allowed to consume the alcohol, the two constables did not take my details; they merely issued a stern verbal warning that if they saw me on the bike again that night they would take action.
I am surprised that they could be bothered with the paperwork in this instance. Was it a slack week for crime? Was the cyclist not white? Was the policeman an overenthusiastic novice? Did the cyclist argue aggressively?
A waste of money if you ask me.July 14, 2006 at 10:52 am #1082853TBF i recon police shud crack down on dangerous cyclists (me being one of them) we’re a dangerous bunch, although we’ve only got a few kilo’s behind us not a few tonnes (like a car) to do damage with,
i quite often find myself flying through pedestrian crossings and junctions without taking the propper precautions, and im no where near the worst that ive seen, (the tourists round cambs are suicidal)
also sum sort off mot for bikes wud be useful, i have been in a crash because i didnt have much in the way of breaks, a car changed lanes infront of me an i cudnt stop dented up their bumper an scratched the car a bit, sprained my ankel a broght rush hour traffic to a halt, all my fault (although im not sure if she indicated) an she was extreemly apolagetic and took all the blame
the roads a dangerous place, we dnt make it any better
July 14, 2006 at 10:58 am #1082846Andy Why? wrote:I am surprised that they could be bothered with the paperwork in this instance. Was it a slack week for crime? Was the cyclist not white? Was the policeman an overenthusiastic novice? Did the cyclist argue aggressively?probably a black rat or a bobby who wants to specialise in Traffic division and themselves a cyclist (cycling forums are often full of old bill, they tend to be into their road racing and time trials etc for the machismo element)
not sure about the racial element Avsom probably would be too frightened to stop a black man on a pushbike in Bristol case he is a tooled up yardie or a clued up socially concious man who knows his rights.
Quote:A waste of money if you ask me.it doesn’t stop the cops (as we have seen with raves); they have power an and endless pot of taxpayers money to prove their points.
After all raves cause less potential disruption than traffic violations; but hundreds of thousands are spent on anti-rave surveillance and tracking down party organisers.
July 14, 2006 at 11:04 am #1082854i recon he just got really arsey about it when thje pigs stopped him,
im sure if he’d ben polite and appoligised nothing would have happened, pigs are generaly safe and dont want any more paper work
an if he’s enough of a twat to appeal against it, then im sure he’s the sort of twat to kick up a fuss with the old bill, im sure he deserves it
July 14, 2006 at 11:07 am #1082852Meltown wrote:TBF i recon police shud crack down on dangerous cyclists (me being one of them) we’re a dangerous bunch,Was the cyclist riding dangerously is the important question for me. As I said, unless he shot through the lights at speed I don’t believe he posed a danger to anyone at that time of day; but without more information about the specific details of the ‘offence’ it is hard to make a definitive judgement.
I will admit that I have ridden in dangerous fashion on the roads many times in the past, but always in the knowledge that any misjudgement on my part would result in severe gravel rash at very least. That is generally punishment enough if it happens. Perhaps cyclists should be forced to take out third party insurance, in case they do have an accident.July 14, 2006 at 11:13 am #1082847Meltown wrote:TBF i recon police shud crack down on dangerous cyclists (me being one of them) we’re a dangerous bunch, although we’ve only got a few kilo’s behind us not a few tonnes (like a car) to do damage with,i quite often find myself flying through pedestrian crossings and junctions without taking the propper precautions, and im no where near the worst that ive seen, (the tourists round cambs are suicidal)
also sum sort off mot for bikes wud be useful, i have been in a crash because i didnt have much in the way of breaks, a car changed lanes infront of me an i cudnt stop dented up their bumper an scratched the car a bit, sprained my ankel a broght rush hour traffic to a halt, all my fault (although im not sure if she indicated) an she was extreemly apolagetic and took all the blame
the roads a dangerous place, we dnt make it any better
I understand what you are saying but if you leave stuff like this to the police thats how you end up with a nanny state that starts to restrict more and more of your life…
July 14, 2006 at 11:24 am #1082855General Lighting wrote:I understand what you are saying but if you leave stuff like this to the police thats how you end up with a nanny state that starts to restrict more and more of your life…yeah i guess so, but thats the balacing act that goverments are trying to complete, number of rules & police (at the mo far to many rules no where near enough police) against peoples freedom
at least we dont live in the land of the free, my mate nearly got nicked for going for a walk in the states, police stopped him half way between two local towns, one of which he was staying, an drove him back to where his parents were stayin!!!!!
July 14, 2006 at 5:37 pm #1082848theres a thread on this on uk.rec.cycling – the people there rightly condemned this idiot.
One pointed out that there are already part time traffic lights in areas where this is safe, so if the highway authorities think the junction would be safe enough not to need lights 24/7 the signals would not be in operation anyway.
Another pointed out even if you felt you could get away with running the red light, if you can’t spot a bobby in full hi-vis uniform (CID can’t stop a vehicle!) or a panda car with half or full battenburg markings (the fluoro yellow/blue squares on modern cop cars in the UK) you’d never see a pedestrian who ran out into the road thinking it was safe because the lights were red…
July 15, 2006 at 12:09 am #1082850sounds like an idiot cop to me
if you ever visit police999 they are always whinging about too much paper work and the loss of liberty (usually to join the BNP)
July 15, 2006 at 8:40 am #1082849globalloon wrote:sounds like an idiot cop to meif you ever visit police999 they are always whinging about too much paper work and the loss of liberty (usually to join the BNP)
for all the cops’ whinging, the custody systems are all computerised now; there is far less paperwork and they have admin staff to do a lot of the paperwork for them.
thats how cops can find the time to arrest people for relatively minor stuff like this.
They do this round here as well, a work colleague told me there were cops right out in the sticks checking cyclists for lights and warning them off riding on pavements. The same cops also keep an eye on anyone under the age of 45 who is about late at night; and stake out potential rave venues.
They are paid for from an “targetting anti-social behaviour” budget from central Government; this funding has been made available to any area with a population of young people and a perceived problem with anti-social behaviour.
They’ve already eliminated most of the gary boys from town by threatening them with ASBO, losing their driving licence and their car….
you should see the resources Suffolk have put into their “summer of zero tolerance”, I’ve never seen so many cops in a small town. Theres no way cops can complain about lack of resources now; they and the middle englanders got what they wanted – after 7/7 the Police resources were beefed up (and a lot more younger people joined up out of a sense of patriotism) so there is plenty of spare resources to enforce other laws.
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