novaBBS - uk.rec.cycling

<https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/16/registration-plates-and-insurance-for-cyclists-on-table-in-review-of-road-laws>

QUOTE:
Bikes could be made to have registration plates and insurance as
ministers weigh up bringing speed limits for cyclists into line with
those for drivers.

The government is also considering the possibility of cyclists receiving
licence penalty points and fines if they break speed limits or run red
lights, the Daily Mail reported.

It comes as the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, proposed a Whitehall
review of how cyclists who flout the law can be tracked down by police.

“Somewhere where cyclists are actually not breaking the law is when they
speed, and that cannot be right, so I absolutely propose extending speed
limit restrictions to cyclists,” he said. “Particularly where you’ve got
20mph limits on increasing numbers of roads, cyclists can easily exceed
those, so I want to make speed limits apply to cyclists.

“That obviously does then lead you into the question of ‘well, how are
you going to recognise the cyclist, do you need registration plates and
insurance and that sort of thing’. So I’m proposing there should be a
review of insurance and how you actually track cyclists who do break the
laws [via identifiable markings].”

There has been an increase in people using bicycles to get around in
recent years and it is understood the government is keen to implement
any new rules in 20mph zones in particular.

Mandatory insurance for cyclists is also on the table, with Shapps keen
to set up a review despite the fact he may no longer be in his role when
a new prime minister is elected by Conservative party members on 5
September.

He added: “I don’t want to stop people from getting on their bike ...
But I see no reason why cyclists should break the road laws, why they
should speed, why they should bust red lights and be able to get away
with it.”

If riders injure or kill pedestrians, mandatory insurance would allow
the victims or their families to secure compensation in the same way
they could make claims if someone was hit by a car or van."
ENDQUOTE

Come on! It is WAY BEYOND TIME that those proposed changes were made.

And perhaps the licensing laws should be amended so as to classify any
hole in the ground where alcohol is consumed as an unlicenced pub.

On 17/08/2022 01:51 am, JNugent wrote:
> <https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/16/registration-plates-and-insurance-for-cyclists-on-table-in-review-of-road-laws>
>
>
> QUOTE:
> Bikes could be made to have registration plates and insurance as
> ministers weigh up bringing speed limits for cyclists into line with
> those for drivers.
>
> The government is also considering the possibility of cyclists receiving
> licence penalty points and fines if they break speed limits or run red
> lights, the Daily Mail reported.
>
> It comes as the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, proposed a Whitehall
> review of how cyclists who flout the law can be tracked down by police.
>
> “Somewhere where cyclists are actually not breaking the law is when they
> speed, and that cannot be right, so I absolutely propose extending speed
> limit restrictions to cyclists,” he said. “Particularly where you’ve got
> 20mph limits on increasing numbers of roads, cyclists can easily exceed
> those, so I want to make speed limits apply to cyclists.
>
> “That obviously does then lead you into the question of ‘well, how are
> you going to recognise the cyclist, do you need registration plates and
> insurance and that sort of thing’. So I’m proposing there should be a
> review of insurance and how you actually track cyclists who do break the
> laws [via identifiable markings].”
>
> There has been an increase in people using bicycles to get around in
> recent years and it is understood the government is keen to implement
> any new rules in 20mph zones in particular.
>
> Mandatory insurance for cyclists is also on the table, with Shapps keen
> to set up a review despite the fact he may no longer be in his role when
> a new prime minister is elected by Conservative party members on 5
> September.
>
> He added: “I don’t want to stop people from getting on their bike ...
> But I see no reason why cyclists should break the road laws, why they
> should speed, why they should bust red lights and be able to get away
> with it.”
>
> If riders injure or kill pedestrians, mandatory insurance would allow
> the victims or their families to secure compensation in the same way
> they could make claims if someone was hit by a car or van."
> ENDQUOTE
>
> Come on! It is WAY BEYOND TIME that those proposed changes were made.
>
> And perhaps the licensing laws should be amended so as to classify any
> hole in the ground where alcohol is consumed as an unlicenced pub.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL <>

We have to put the brakes on reckless riders
Commentary by Melissa Kite

The last time I rode my horse on the country lanes of Surrey, I nearly
didn’t come back. All thanks to a gang of cyclists.

Only a few steps from the gate of the stable yard, a racing club in
formation swarmed downhill towards me, spread across the lane. As poor
Darcy began to panic, I screamed: ‘No, please!’

But they kept on coming. The bikes swirled around Darcy and suddenly she
was spinning in circles – right into the path of a car behind me. I
clung to her neck to stop myself falling, and saw the look on the
driver’s face. We were so close I think we both thought I was about to
end up on the bonnet. To this day, Darcy trembles when she hears the
faintest whoosh of a bike.

Anyone prepared to hurtle past a woman clinging to the neck of a
terrified horse is not safe to be on the roads unlicensed and uninsured.

That’s why I’m delighted that, as the Mail reports today, Transport
Secretary Grant Shapps is hinting changes might be in the offing –
including speed limits and registration plates for these menaces of the
road who have earned the nickname ‘Lycra louts’.

This is long overdue. Many vulnerable road users have not been as lucky
as I was to escape unscathed from encounters with the two-wheeled terrors.

Of course, most cyclists are law-abiding and just want to get safely
from A to B while enjoying a bit of exercise. But just as the rules of
the road are there for a minority of bad drivers, a small number of
dangerous cyclists risk tainting the good name of the majority and
should be kept in check.

Some cyclists flagrantly break the law: running red lights, ignoring
pedestrian crossings, weaving in and out of lanes and mounting
pavements. But as Mr Shapps points out, speeding on a bike isn’t
illegal. The political power of the cyclist lobby is now such that other
road users are made to bow down before it.

And this, in many cases, has gone to cyclists’ heads. They think they
can get away with anything. In 2016, 44-year-old mother-of-two Kim
Briggs died when she was hit by a cyclist as she crossed the road in
east London. Her killer, Charlie Alliston, then 18, was illegally riding
a bike with no front brakes. He shouted ‘Get the f*** out of my way’
before smashing into her.

Yet he was jailed for just 18 months because no law existed to charge
him with the equivalent punishment of causing death by dangerous driving
– indeed, he had to be convicted under Victorian legislation dating to
the time of the horse and trap.

I dislike red tape and am an instinctive libertarian, but we need a
system of parity between all road users. As my experience shows, the
situation is dire in the countryside, where weekend cycling clubs are
increasingly using the public roads as a racing track. And it’s not just
the accidents they cause. It’s their anti-social behaviour. The
atmosphere in many once-genteel areas has been ruined by the arrogant
mentality of cyclists, hurtling along with selfish aggression.

Of course, there is no excuse for motorists not taking care around
bikes, and all incidents of negligence by cars are deplorable. But while
we rightly insist on good driving, it’s time for cyclists to take some
responsibility, too.

Infrastructure in our cities increasingly favours cyclists at the
expense of drivers, pedestrians and everyone else.

Very often in the congested city streets, cyclists are the only people
going more than 20mph – and sometimes without wearing a helmet or while
listening to music on headphones. Boris Johnson, himself a keen cyclist,
rightly called behaviour ‘absolutely nuts’ when he was London mayor
after a spate of deaths in 2013. As long ago as 2012, a survey found 57
per cent of cyclists had jumped a red light – and things seem no better
now. In February, police in Hackney, east London, caught 18 cyclists
running red lights in 90 minutes.

One way or another, riders have got the idea that they can do what they
like. Well, it’s time we did something about it.

Mr Shapps’s plans are a good start, but politicians must stand up more
firmly against the cycling lobby. They must stop kow-towing to groups
such as Cycling UK, which seem to rule by force of numbers.

Their slogan is ‘Giving us a Louder Voice’. Recent changes to the
Highway Code, letting bikes hold the centre of the road, show how noisy
they already are.

The freedom given to bikes has gone too far. We need to make cyclists
accountable.
END

Subject	Author
YES!!!	JNugent
Re: YES!!!	JNugent
Re: YES!!!	RJH
Re: YES!!!	JNugent
Re: YES!!!	Spike

"Nuclear war can ruin your whole compile." -- Karl Lehenbauer

aus+uk / uk.rec.cycling / YES!!!

aus+uk / uk.rec.cycling / YES!!!