Cycling laws to be overhauled.

[Slick]

One of the comments after the piece this morning was that cyclists are answerable to no one. If one of the changes comes from this is some form of registration then it will affect everyone, but it will be too late to do anything about it.

 

[chriswoody]

[QUOTE 5346494, member: 43827"]Roads are a shared space and responsibility for safety must be shared.[/QUOTE]

Exactly, what British needs to seriously look into is presumed liability. Britian is one of the few countries to not have this as far as I recall.

Here in Germany, if a Car knocks me off my bike, then their presumed to be at fault and the onus is on them to prove otherwise. The same law also applies if I send a pedestrian flying through my cycling, the onus being on me to prove that the pedestrian was at fault.

It's quite noticeable the overall efforts that people go to at times to be aware of their surroundings and act accordingly. It's not some magic panacea though and like everything it has its faults, but if Britian really wants to get serious about increasing cycle use then I feel that this is something that should be looked into and change everyone's attitude on the road.

 

[Paulus]

One of the comments after the piece this morning was that cyclists are answerable to no one. If one of the changes comes from this is some form of registration then it will affect everyone, but it will be too late to do anything about it.

Cyclists are surely answerable to the police as much as any other road user? I do smile when the registration question rears it's head. At what age would a cyclist need to be registered? As soon as a child learns to ride a bike aged 3 or 4, would it go on bike size, or as soon as the rider can go on the road, which brings me back to the age of the rider?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Laws are worthless without the infrastructure to enact them, one of the reasons I believe there is so much bad driving these days apart from the entitlement that everybody feels that they should be allowed to or not, whether they are fit & capable of doing it is there is no Policing of it. My commute is 36 round trip, I very very rarely see a Police car, the only exception is with blues & two's going somewhere, not just general Policing.

You can make the law as tight as you want, but if nobody is going to stop people breaking the law it may as well not be there.

 

[Slick]

Cyclists are surely answerable to the police as much as any other road user? I do smile when the registration question rears it's head. At what age would a cyclist need to be registered? As soon as a child learns to ride a bike aged 3 or 4, would it go on bike size, or as soon as the rider can go on the road, which brings me back to the age of the rider?

It wasn't my comment but a common misconception. I think their point is when a driver does something wrong they are immediately identifiable whereas cyclists are not.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

[QUOTE 5346560, member: 9609"]I think as far as traffic goes, the police have given up. Apart from attending accidents they now don't bother with traffic laws[/QUOTE]Agreed so why bother making tighter rules which are just going to be flouted as much as existing ones are, the only people who will gain are the lawyers drafting them with their fees

 

[mjr]

Laws are worthless without the infrastructure to enact them, one of the reasons I believe there is so much bad driving these days apart from the entitlement that everybody feels that they should be allowed to or not, whether they are fit & capable of doing it is there is no Policing of it. My commute is 36 round trip, I very very rarely see a Police car, the only exception is with blues & two's going somewhere, not just general Policing.

You can make the law as tight as you want, but if nobody is going to stop people breaking the law it may as well not be there.

I often see the police on my road. The driving is still shockingly illegal. I agree.

 

[mjr]

It wasn't my comment but a common misconception. I think their point is when a driver does something wrong they are immediately identifiable whereas cyclists are not.

How are they? Number plates only identify the vehicle, it's much more difficult to get a clear picture of the driver's face and even more difficult to capture evidence of stuff like using a phone in their lap, dash or centre console. Cyclists are far easier to identify, unobscured by a metal container.

 

[Lonestar]

Should the review of the law be widened further to include peds that walk in front of a cyclist, causing the rider to fall of and be injured?

While staring at a mobile phone is my particular bugbear....Had at least four motorists recently step right out of the front of their vehicle just as I was passing because they just don't bloody think.A side road round here holds the record for me for kids dashing into the road without lookingObviously I know of the dangers of this particular street and modify my cycling appropriately.

Pedestrians drop their guard down backstreets,also.

 

[MontyVeda]

If the law regarding cycling is going to be overhauled to bring them more in line with motoring offences.. then surely we'll just be able to excuse ourselves of fault by simply claiming that the injured party 'came out of nowhere'?

 

[night cycler]

[QUOTE 5346560, member: 9609"]I think as far as traffic goes, the police have given up. Apart from attending accidents they now don't bother with traffic laws[/QUOTE]

The traffic police have not given up, but there are not enough officers generally, whatever their role.
The responsibility for police numbers has to be with the home secretary.

I am amazed that no one within the gov or in the realms of police federation etc asked the question-“What will happen if we (the police) cannot cope?” It would appear that one answer is “We will pay for overtime which would have financed 10,000 new officers? (See BBC link).

Overtime cost £1.7bn in five years and the Police Federation said money spent in 2017-18 alone could have funded at least 10,000 new police officers.

So, not much different to the NHS paying way over the top for agency nurses & doctors. How many operations etc could that sort of thing paid for.

If Mps were paid on their performance there wouldn’t be so many of them wanting to do the job. What chance have we got when they vote for their own pay rises-I despair.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44900455

and here....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40060677

 

[Apollonius]

Registration is just not going to happen. It is impossible, unenforceable and cannot be implemented. Just like Brexit then...

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Registration is just not going to happen. It is impossible, unenforceable and cannot be implemented. Just like Brexit then...

I appreciate you are casting a hook, but there is a difference, Brexit will happen I doubt registration will.

 

[jefmcg]

There was a girl there trying to argue that it was transport laws as a whole that need updating

What a sophisticated child she must have be! Or did you mean "woman"?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

What a sophisticated child she must have be! Or did you mean "woman"?

At what point do they change Grammatically, not Biologically?