Crackdown on cyclists

wafflycat said:

Lynn News article, on local plod having a crackdwon on pavement cyclists.

Now I'm all in favour of cyclists being on the road where they are
supposed to be and off footpaths, but in the case of King's Lynn, it's a
bit rich. KL has vast numbers of the dreaded white paint outline bikes
on what was one day, a perfectly ordinary footpath, and all of a sudden,
the white outline bike makes this a 'facility'. No wonder KL cyclists
get confused ....

I assume this is a draft of the letter you're about to fire off to the
paper? Looks excellent to me - go for it!

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at
the population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as
walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.

wafflycat said:

http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news?articleid=3077335

Lynn News article, on local plod having a crackdwon on pavement cyclists.

Now I'm all in favour of cyclists being on the road where they are
supposed to be and off footpaths, but in the case of King's Lynn, it's a
bit rich. KL has vast numbers of the dreaded white paint outline bikes
on what was one day, a perfectly ordinary footpath, and all of a sudden,
the white outline bike makes this a 'facility'. No wonder KL cyclists
get confused - the vast number of white outline bikes on footpaths send
out a signal that it's okay to cycle on what is, to all intents and
purposes, a footpath. Indeed, I avoid cycling in KL due to the vast
number of the painted outline bikes on footpaths. If you cycle on road
you get yelled at to "Get on the cycle path!" and if you're on the cycle
'facility' which happens to be no more than an ordinary footpath except
for the odd white paint oultine bike on it periodically, you get yelled
at to "Get off the footpath!" No wonder that there seems to be a problem
with footpath cycling in KL, the clear message sent out by officialdom
is that it's okay to cycle on the footpath, as they've painted so many
damned outline bikes about the place.

In Cambridge they had a recent crack down and issues FPNs to cyclist
using a particular bit of pavement cut through. After the local cycle
campaign pointed out to the police that with the lack of certain signs
it was not actually illegal to cycle there I gather the police have
agreed to refund the fines.

Tony

wafflycat' w*a*ff?y?cat*@?btco*nn?ect.com said:

http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news?articleid=3077335
Lynn News article, on local plod having a crackdwon on pavement cyclists.

Now I'm all in favour of cyclists being on the road where they are supposed
to be and off footpaths, but in the case of King's Lynn, it's a bit rich. KL
has vast numbers of the dreaded white paint outline bikes on what was one
day, a perfectly ordinary footpath, and all of a sudden, the white outline
bike makes this a 'facility'. [...]

Last I saw, they don't do that in KL any more, but the councils seemed
reluctant to remove or fix old farcilities.

However, Gaywood was left in an inconsistent, confusing and sub-standard
state. The shared-use paths were mostly rebuilds, so are wide enough and
have good flat low-friction surfaces, but they start and stop and cross
roads many many times, with priority at only one road crossing IIRC.

There was also no merge shown from the cycle tracks around KES onto the
road towards the clock, so I'm not surprised they're having problems there.
Unless they've added either a merge or a no-cycling sign between NCN1's
crossing Lynn Road and the Gaywood filling station, I'd expect fixed
penalty notices to fall if challenged. The markings used to be unclear.

I'm mystified why they're targetting the schools area again. That's a
place where we should be increasing cycle use, to reduce the motor traffic
congestion at peak times. It looks like a cheap revenue-generation trick,
exploiting an area with confusing layouts and lots of inexperienced
cyclists. There are plenty of places where pavement cyclists are a
problem, like the 'suicide bombers' who jump off the paths from Guannock
Terrace into London Road. I've dropped the police an email to ask.

Quoted message said:

[...] If you cycle on road you get yelled at to "Get on the cycle
path!" and if you're on the cycle 'facility' which happens to be no more
than an ordinary footpath except for the odd white paint oultine bike on it
periodically, you get yelled at to "Get off the footpath!" [...]

FWIW, neither of those happened to me in 7 or so years in KL, but both of
those happened to me within 3 months of moving to Weston-super-Mare.

Regards,
--
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