Cyclists get pulled for 39mph in a 30 limit.

[markemark]

Cars weigh some 20 times more than a cyclist. They’re 5 times wider and less manouvereable. On encountering a pedestrian they’re more likely to hit them and massively more likely to kill them.
Decades of road stats backup the theory that speeding cyclists are a non issue not worthy of laws or punishment. How many people have been killed by a cycling breaking the speed limit in the last 50 years? Enough to warrant a change in the law?

You can kill someone with a pencil. There are no laws in possessing a pencil. Nor should they be.

 

[DaveReading]

Not quite sure what you are trying to say there.

I simply mean that if you're going to be hit by an object travelling at 30 mph, then I hope (because I wish you no ill) that it's by a bike and not by a motor vehicle.

 

[Dogtrousers]

You're all focusing on whether it is wrong or right for a cyclist to do 39mph on a 30mph road. Let's grant that they shouldn't do this and it is a public safety hazard. What I want to know is why the police decided to stop the cyclists instead of every single car on that road that's going at 45?

Because cyclists going that quick is an incredibly rare event, as opposed to cars doing the same which is utterly mundane. So rare it made the news. It probably relieved the monotony of the officers' day.

 

[Gunk]

You're all focusing on whether it is wrong or right for a cyclist to do 39mph on a 30mph road. Let's grant that they shouldn't do this and it is a public safety hazard. What I want to know is why the police decided to stop the cyclists instead of every single car on that road that's going at 45?

How do you know they didn’t, surely they weren’t there on a campaign just to catch speeding cyclists?

 

[newts]

Perhaps plods intention was to make cyclists aware of potential risks?
Unfortunately, as a social media post it will just fan the flames for the cycle haters.

 

[Deleted member 121159]

How do you know they didn’t, surely they weren’t there on a campaign just to catch speeding cyclists?

Well they decided to single out a small group of cyclists in their Twitter post while I'm absolutely sure there were plenty of cars on that road and everywhere in Devon and Cornwall that day travelling at dangerous speeds. So I'm not sure what their intentions are other than to encourage the usual manic 'get cyclists off the road' rant from motorists. And by doing so, they are indirectly emboldening aggressive drivers to bully cyclists. It's like that time when an idiot fixie rider killed a pedestrian in London and everyone was fixated on cyclists decimating the elderly.

 

[Alex321]

You display remarkable optimism in the behaviour of humans.

It isn't about the behaviour, other than what they can physically do.

When you can see the zebra from a couple of hundred yards away, and the approaches are not obscured, then it isn't physically possible for a pedestrian to suddenly appear just as they step onto the crossing.

 

[Alex321]

Because cyclists going that quick is an incredibly rare event, as opposed to cars doing the same which is utterly mundane. So rare it made the news. It probably relieved the monotony of the officers' day.

It isn't "incredibly rare".

Fairly uncommon, particularly in built up areas, but not that exceptional.

I'm by no means a fast cyclist, but most of my rides have points where I exceed 30mph. Today my maximum according to Strava was 39.6mph (My wahoo had it as 44, but I never believed that).

 

[glasgowcyclist]

It isn't about the behaviour, other than what they can physically do.

When you can see the zebra from a couple of hundred yards away, and the approaches are not obscured, then it isn't physically possible for a pedestrian to suddenly appear just as they step onto the crossing.

You’re assuming that every person seeking to cross will only do so at a designated crossing.

 

[classic33]

When? I call bull shoot.

No, it's physical not quasi legal or spurious. The person you hit with a car at 39mph is massively more likely to be killed than the one hit with a bike. Plus, it's massively easier to do 39mph in a car than on a bike. I'd say it's pretty much impossible to do 39mph on a bike by accident: even downhill, you'd know you were going for speed. We need laws against motorists doing an easy, thoughtless, more dangerous action, which should not be diluted with freak cases of people doing more difficult less dangerous actions.

I'd feel awful but it wouldn't have anything to do with what the speed limit was. Now you answer me this, please: would you only feel bad if you killed someone by riding too fast for the road conditions if you were also faster than the signed speed limit?

And if you break either your neck or back, or that of the person you collide with. Whatever you happen to be on/in at the time.

There's roads round here where the brakes are being covered, and you'll still be close to 40mph keeping pace with motorized vehicles. Doing it with assistance from gravity alone, no pedalling required

 

[Alex321]

You’re assuming that every person seeking to cross will only do so at a designated crossing.

Please tell me where I have said anything which could lead to that conclusion.

 

[Time Waster]

I want to see the pedestrian who can hit 39mph. I sure he'd break records in the sprint disciplines I Paris next year.

Anecdata alert. When I was a young kid in the 70s a friend rode his bike into me. It was one of those fat, small tyred kids bikes with the stabilisers not long taken off. I doubt very much he was capable of going fast but we both ended up in a heap balling our eyes out then running home for a big plaster on some part of our bodies.

I wonder what a 70kg male on a 7kg bike going at 37mph when hitting me as an 87kg pedestrian would feel like. I don't think I'll be saying n it was OK because he doesn't have the kinetic energy of a car or SUV! I'm sorry if this goes against the entitlement majority feeling but I'll stick to my beliefs that I as a cyclists will obey the same speed limits as cars have to. I sure you guys will do what you want to.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Please tell me where I have said anything which could lead to that conclusion.

I quoted the relevant post in my reply.

You appear to focus on the zebra crossing, when there’s no reason a pedestrian wouldn’t, or couldn’t, attempt to cross elsewhere.

 

[Time Waster]

There's a road through two hamlets and past a primary school halfway between them that has a not that steep but long hill that I could start from a standstill and one pedal stroke to get moving before freewheeling and easily reach 40mph. In my youth when things didn't cross my mind like now I used to get to 60mph before a quick brake and scary bend at 40mph or so.

Back then it was a 60mph speed limit. More recently 30mph and I think 20mph now. As to driving down there I never felt comfortable driving above about 40mph down that stretch because of school, houses, farm entrances, bends, narrow country road, high hedges, stopping distance, sightings, etc. Sometimes speed limits are guides only and a slower speed makes more sense.

 

[TheDoctor]

I want to see the pedestrian who can hit 39mph. I sure he'd break records in the sprint disciplines I Paris next year.

Anecdata alert. When I was a young kid in the 70s a friend rode his bike into me. It was one of those fat, small tyred kids bikes with the stabilisers not long taken off. I doubt very much he was capable of going fast but we both ended up in a heap balling our eyes out then running home for a big plaster on some part of our bodies.

I wonder what a 70kg male on a 7kg bike going at 37mph when hitting me as an 87kg pedestrian would feel like. I don't think I'll be saying n it was OK because he doesn't have the kinetic energy of a car or SUV! I'm sorry if this goes against the entitlement majority feeling but I'll stick to my beliefs that I as a cyclists will obey the same speed limits as cars have to. I sure you guys will do what you want to.

I actually ran that experiment when I was 18 or so. Doing about 30mph down a hill, near a school. Small child ran into the road from between parked cars. I hit the child and went for a short flight. The child had a big bruise IIRC, I had a broken collarbone and the bike was totalled. Kid went to school, I went to hospital.