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Cyclists gear up to block roads in mass ride safety protest
Cyclists will gather at the weekend in a mass protest ride about the safety of two-wheeled users on the roads of Edinburgh.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
ENews indulges in misleading and provocative headline
(8 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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wait till they hear about the women riding around...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Okay it's EEN being EEN, but it does prompt the question - will Critical Mass rides in England now be vulnerable to Priti Vile's "obstructing the carriageway" legislation?
Posted 3 years ago # -
Assuming they are carrying locks with them then they could certainly end up on the wrong side of a grumpy copper.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Pretty sure it was Grant Shapps who introduced this "private injunction" road blocking legislation. "Private injuction" being a means to bypass normal process in terms of law-making.
I don't think it applies to Scotland (please correct me if I'm wrong)
Posted 3 years ago # -
Cycle CM rides create no more congestion than Car CM? Most bikes on this will be moving I expect. Car CM is often static and can be found every day on city streets.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I think the legislation is worded such that "go slows" count as 'blocking', although notably the English police never bothered to serve an injunction against a 5mph fuel price protest made by cars and lorries.
Posted 3 years ago # -
If the injunction applied here, I'd be more worried about the bits where some riders have to stop on side roads while the main procession goes by, to discourage <rule 2> drivers from trying to push through, they specifically could be characterised as "blocking the carriageway".
Also it's not just the injunction that has to be considered, if they wanted to the police could decide that Critical Mass constitutes a protest under the new crime bill, and if that gets through the Lords in anything like the state it's in now, it would only take one member of the public to claim they were "distressed or alarmed" or whatever the wording is by the group and the polis could clap 'em in irons and push for up to 51 weeks imprisonment, or just slap every one of them with their new "protest asbos" that could ban them from cycling on roads or in groups or even to engage in pro-cycling advocacy on twitter - and they'd be able to do that without even having to arrest you. Still not clear exactly how much of it would apply in Scotland at all - you'd hope none, but the current lot seem to know sod-all about devolution and care even less, so who knows what she'll try and get away with.
Posted 3 years ago #
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