Bicycle lights at station

[andrewandrew]

Hi all, would appreciate any suggestions or advice please. At a southern rail station I went through the barriers with my bike and was in a hurry to catch my train. A staff member said to switch the lights off on the bike. The bike is a dynamo light so cannot be switched off but goes off once the bike stops moving. The staff member followed me and attempted to block me from going up the stairs to the foot bridge so I went up the stairs around him. At the top of the footbridge as I was about to descend the stairs to the platform the staff member put his hand on me and shoved me back repeatedly stopping me from going down the stairs to the platform; said he was security; he was going to kick me out the station. I replied what you doing? Don't touch me and if you touch me again I will defend myself. He left - possibly to call for back up. I got on the train and left. What do you think of this situation?

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Hello and welcome to Cycle Chat
I have no comment on what happened at the station, but your dynamos, don't they have an off switch?
I used to have a bike with dynamo lights, both back and front had switches iirc.

 

[Drago]

Bicycle lights are a massive no-no on rail premises because of the risk to moving trains should the light should be seen by a driver and misinterpreted as a signal.

In reality it's probably pretty unlikely, but when the safety of hundreds of people is at stake you play every card in the deck and they're absolutely sheet hot on it.

I'm afraid you were very much in the wrong on that one, and he has every right under common law (presuming he's a legit employee) to use reasonable force to eject you. If you'd sparked off you'd potentially be committing an offence of disorderly conduct on railway premises.

Bottom line is it's a safety critical environment and when staff tell you to do something you should comply immediately. If you want to argue to should do so after youve finished obeying their lawful order.

 

[andrewandrew]

Thanks for the info about bike lights on the station. That's news to me. Have had staff at other stations comment on how cool it was to see the old dynamo lights on my bike. I thought he was just giving me hard time for having a bike. The lights don't have a switch - the bike came that way but will be mindful of this in future. Not sure about your point that staff can legitimately use force to detain and remove someone from the station for having lights on their bike. Would have thought it is police need to do that - if there is a crime. But OK noted. Would be good to hear more about this aspect.

 

[Slick]

Bicycle lights are a massive no-no on rail premises because of the risk to moving trains should the light should be seen by a driver and misinterpreted as a signal.

In reality it's probably pretty unlikely, but when the safety of hundreds of people is at stake you play every card in the deck and they're absolutely sheet hot on it.

I'm afraid you were very much in the wrong on that one, and he has every right under common law (presuming he's a legit employee) to use reasonable force to eject you. If you'd sparked off you'd potentially be committing an offence of disorderly conduct on railway premises.

Bottom line is it's a safety critical environment and when staff tell you to do something you should comply immediately. If you want to argue to should do so after youve finished obeying their lawful order.

Pretty definitive.

 

[Mike Ayling]

Hi all, would appreciate any suggestions or advice please. At a southern rail station I went through the barriers with my bike and was in a hurry to catch my train. A staff member said to switch the lights off on the bike. The bike is a dynamo light so cannot be switched off but goes off once the bike stops moving. The staff member followed me and attempted to block me from going up the stairs to the foot bridge so I went up the stairs around him. At the top of the footbridge as I was about to descend the stairs to the platform the staff member put his hand on me and shoved me back repeatedly stopping me from going down the stairs to the platform; said he was security; he was going to kick me out the station. I replied what you doing? Don't touch me and if you touch me again I will defend myself. He left - possibly to call for back up. I got on the train and left. What do you think of this situation?

Red light may be confused with signal lights?

 

[raleighnut]

Hate to do it but I have to agree with @Drago here, safety critical area with Trains using lights to contact them

 

[ExBrit]

I don't think you mentioned if the dynamo is hub or bottle. If it's hub, you can disconnect the wire (how else would you remove the wheel). If it is a bottle there should be a lever to move the dynamo off the tire (or tyre if you prefer). Either way, you should consider spending a few pounds to upgrade your front light to one that has a switch. All of mine have had one.

Short version: You should be able to turn the lights off when you want to.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I had this happen to me at our local railway station. Not confrontational, the staff member asked me to turn of my rear ( red ) light. I explained it was a dynamo without a switch and would go off once the buffer capacitor ran out. He asked me to cover it, all nice and polite, and explained about the risk of train driver / red light. My dynamo was the Brompton wheel kit which comes with a basic rear light. It was easy to swap the rear light for a better one which has a button to dump the capacitor charge and thus turn the rear light off.

 

[steveindenmark]

"Don't touch me or I will defend myself"? They were doing their job. They said you could not go onto the platform with your lights on. This is for safety reasons and you were ignoring their instructions. You sound like an entitled pratt.

 

[albion]

A simple cover does the trick.

 

[Paulus]

Red light may be confused with signal lights?

One of the ways to stop a train in an emergency is to show a red light to the driver, this can be any red lamp, or a red flag.
But,
In this case I think the security person was being a little too over conscious and could of asked the bike owner to just cover the lights with something.

 

[Drago]

TBH, the OP could have simply complied with the lawful order not to take the bike in there with the lights on.

It's then up to the OP to find a solution, not station staff to provide one.

 

[andrewandrew]

Appreciate all the replies. Some additional info. I don't have any red lights on the bike. I went through the barrier and no one said anything at that point. As I was walking to the stairs someone (who later claimed to be the security) behind me shouted 'turn the lights off'. To begin with I thought it was a member of the public as I don't associate lights on bike with anything wrong - if the person had said tickets for eg. that I would understand. I did not turn around either as people often express annoyance about my bike and I try not to engage . The person caught up with me and said 'hey buddy'. The person was wearing high viz vest and jeans and nothing to indicate they were security/staff. I sometimes wear high viz and jeans. I said excuse me and carried up the stairs around the person. At the top of the stairs when I attempted to go down the platform the person shoved me, when I said what you doing don't touch me; defend myself etc that is when he said he is security and he can kick me out. I went down to the platform stood next to a staff who had an ID badge and uniform; he never said anything. I was on the platform several minutes and no one said anything about safety and the security guy never reappeared. Also security can't touch you like that unless they think a crime has been committed so it was all strange. So am a little worried now about the whole thing tbh.

 

[ExBrit]

So the problem started when this "security" staff failed to identify. They need some remedial training.