CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Edinburgh South: Day of Action
(57 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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Good grief.
Sounds like Eric Pickles has hacked their twitter account.
Posted 11 years ago # -
What a load of guff. Like one commenter said, let them join me on my commute and see what it's actually like for cyclists.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Cycling on the pavement is neither dangerous or inconsiderate cycling - it is a seperate offence. You don't get issued with a fixed penalty notice for dangerous cycling - it's the most serious cycling offence and the equivalent of dangerous driving. Speed limits don't apply to non-motorised vehicles.
I know it's twitter - but this seems a tad cavalier for the police (which I suppose is in line with the nice way code view of cyclists).
Posted 11 years ago # -
Would you like ask them on twitter what the cycle speed limit is and ask them for proof to back up their claims?
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm assuming the officers won't be cycling on the pavements themselves... And are fully versed in the intricacies of ASL enforcement so they can be dishing out plenty of on-the-spot fines for passing the stop line on red.
Posted 11 years ago # -
[snip] .. cyclists will face on the spot fines..[/snip]
Hmmm is this tongue in cheek as some younger students still have acne?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Perhaps someone could make a Freedom of Information request to see how many drivers Police Scotland have fined for stopping in an ASL? and then use that to beat up the Police about it when they come up with Fines for cyclists who enter ASl's incorrectly or hover just in front of an occupied ASL?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Can certainly be mentioned, but wouldn't get anyone off a fine - general legal principle that you can't complain that the law has not been applied equally (so for example a driver caught speeding can't say to the police that the guy behind him was also speeding but they didn't stop him).
Posted 11 years ago # -
No, but it's more along the lines of "why are 95% of your random stop and search participants black people when they make up just 10% of the population?" I guess...
Posted 11 years ago # -
This is probably just a "be seen to do something" PR campaign and encourage student cyclists to be on their best behaviour.
If the whole of St Leonard's finest are out on their bikes patrolling, that can only be a good thing as they are more likely to come across bad driving!Posted 11 years ago # -
Poor cycling craft is more of a nusiance for others as opposed to driving with unroadworth cars. I want to see a crackdown on drivers who are driving with busted lights.
On a 7 mile cycle through Corstorphine > Haymarket > Gorgie last night, I noticed three cars with busted front lights - one of which didn't have a functioning side light so the passenger side of the car was completely unlit at the front.
They were the ones I noticed. There must have been a few more that I didn't spot.
Posted 11 years ago # -
There were 340,347 motoring offences recorded by Scottish police in 2012/13. I don't think cyclists can really complain that the police are somehow discriminating against them.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@MeepMeep +1 on the busted lights. I started telling drivers in traffic that their lights are busted, but there's too many to count.
Posted 11 years ago # -
A point I made on Twitter is basically if you're going to be out in a specific area targetting road users then why not target them all, rather than issuing a grand proclamation that it's only cyclists you're after?
I've no problem with errant cyclists being brought to book at all. But the way the South police guys have gone about it is pandering to that Daily Wail mentality.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"I started telling drivers in traffic that their lights are busted, but there's too many to count."
I don't generally bother, but there was one particular guy I had to tell. Mainly because he was driving a 60s Corvette and I wanted to ask him about the car.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I have been mostly out of circulation (and off my bike) this week - have St Leonards been taken over by the SPG all of a sudden?
Their chaps and chapesses on bikes have always seemed pretty reasonable - is it just whoever is operating the twitter account has gone all Jeremy Clarkson?
Posted 11 years ago # -
There were 340,347 motoring offences recorded by Scottish police in 2012/13. I don't think cyclists can really complain that the police are somehow discriminating against them.
Is that recorded by physical officers, or does it include all the automated enforcement?
Personally I still think the balance would come out to show they mostly focus on dodgy drivers, but it's hard to see much past the glee with which crack-downs on cyclists are announced.
Posted 11 years ago # -
<Adopts Keith Lemon voice>
"So, what is the message?" :-D
That really is laying it on a bit thick. I've no problem with them doing it, if they do it well. Just wait till the EEN gets a whiff of it - I can imagine the comments section getting very lively :-(
It would make for an interesting video to see if they are so intent on catching cyclists that motorists doing wrong get away with infringements, particularly of the ASL.
Posted 11 years ago # -
This is the southside where, after they reduced the speed limit to 20mph, the average speed of cars was 21mph and 75% of vehicles observed were seen breaking the speed limit?
Or is it some other southside where the police actually enforce the law?
Will we be seeing cyclists targeted at the Dalkeith Road-E Preston St junction while the police completely ignore the cars stopping in the ASLs?
Just asking...
Posted 11 years ago # -
So, any bloody cyclists get the book thrown at them this morning? Maybe the rain has kept the police off their bikes.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I thought from some of the tweets that they were going to be around St Leonards so rode in that way, but I think it's just that the officers would be coming from there. So didn't see any polis at all...
Posted 11 years ago # -
One van parked on the road down from the hill, presumably waiting to radar-gun people going down the hill or the wrong way up it. One van and two cars going south up Bank Street. Otherwise, nothing. I went through MMW and past Pollock especially, too.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Two officers on Leven Terrace fishing for 'salmon'. They had just caught one student looking guy and looked to be issuing him a fine.
I've no problem with them enforcing this offence at that location as there is no need to cycle the wrong way up that street when there are perfectly adequate alternative routes where you can cycle legally. I've lost count of the number of times I've looked to pull out of Valleyfield Street only to see someone cycling the wrong way down the street.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I find this incredibly irritating - the police cyclists I saw the other day in Marchmont were ambling in the door zone and not adopting primary on Strathearn road going west, when doing anything else is really dangerous in my opinion - unless miraculously all the parked cars have disappeared.
My problem is that drivers with no knowledge of any of the literature and who haven't got on a bike in years think that good cycling is gutter cycling, whereas the opposite is true. Are the police going to be castigating good cycling (e.g. strong primary) as drivers often see that as a nuisance?
Posted 11 years ago # -
There were 340,347 motoring offences recorded by Scottish police in 2012/13. I don't think cyclists can really complain that the police are somehow discriminating against them.
^^^ This.
I also don't think 'automated' offences should make any difference to the value of the numbers. The fact lots of folk are being caught automatically means that the police can spend more time pursuing those road users that can't be caught automatically.
Posted 11 years ago # -
There were 340,347 motoring offences recorded by Scottish police in 2012/13. I don't think cyclists can really complain that the police are somehow discriminating against them.
Don't you think there is an issue of scale? How many drivers are there in Scotland? How many hours are spent behind the wheel vs on a bike? Personally I'd expect the number of offences recorded to be much higher if the law were more appropriately enforced. A Scotland wide day of action could probably get 300k recorded offences in a day! Every person driving into an ASL after the light changes is an offence, every driver reaching the 10% threshold is an offence, every bald tyre, blown light, empty screen wash bottle.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"I also don't think 'automated' offences should make any difference to the value of the numbers. The fact lots of folk are being caught automatically means that the police can spend more time pursuing those road users that can't be caught automatically."
No problem with them booking cyclists doing things that are wrong, and no suggestion that drivers don't get caught doing things, but it's the way the message goes out, and going out specifically to police a bit of road but only looking at one of the road users there, reinforcing the opinion of the public that cyclists are a 'danger' (those were the words of the police). Or, as I said above...
"A point I made on Twitter is basically if you're going to be out in a specific area targetting road users then why not target them all, rather than issuing a grand proclamation that it's only cyclists you're after?
I've no problem with errant cyclists being brought to book at all. But the way the South police guys have gone about it is pandering to that Daily Wail mentality."
Posted 11 years ago # -
Every person driving into an ASL after the light changes is an offence, every driver reaching the 10% threshold is an offence, every bald tyre, blown light, empty screen wash bottle
Of course, all of those things should be enforced, so should cycling the wrong way up a one way street.
The Police do have "days of action" on Speeding, and seat belts (recently), and drink driving, and..., the list goes on.
To me it's a bit like saying (outrage example of scale coming) we should only focus on violent Bank Robbery, and forget all those trivial bike thefts where no one was really affected.
You don't, you enforce/investigate all regardless of scale.
Posted 11 years ago #
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