This may or may not be pertinent, but I've noticed that many GPS devices have some sort of position correction programming in them - my Garmin asks if I'm using it on the road and uses that info to help locate me, for instance, while on today's train journey Google Maps on my iPhone kept correcting my position to the nearest road, rather than on the railway line. Had I been Stravaing, I suspect I would have appeared to be slowing down and speeding up quite erratically and dramatically, depending on where the nearest piece of road was.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Cyclists "speeding" (Sunday Times rant)
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Posted 12 years ago #
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Interesting discussion re GPS
Re: furious cycling - happened to catch this article on the interwebs today
http://www.bikehub.co.uk/featured-articles/cycling-and-the-law/CYCLING FURIOUSLY?
It's an in-joke in cycling that cyclists can't be booked for speeding (see below) but can be fined for "pedalling furiously." Many cyclists list being cited for "cycling furiously" as one of their life ambitions. Professor David S. Wall, Head of the University of Leeds Law School, a one-time professor of criminal justice, once listed his hobby as: Cycling (Furiously)However, these legal eagles say they have been unable to find a reference to such a cycling offence in Blackstone's Criminal Practice or in Halsbury's Laws of England.
Which is odd, as Christopher McKenzie, an Australian barrister, pointed BikeHub to these cases: Taylor v. Goodwin (1879) 4 QBD 228, a case where the Queen's Bench Division held, on appeal, that a cyclist was appropriately convicted by a magistrate for furious riding of a bicycle. The dicta of Justice Melor in the case has been cited and followed in a number of cases since: see, for example, Smith v. Kynnersley [1903] 1 KB 788 (cyclist not liable to pay bridge toll) and Corkery v. Carpenter [1951] I KB 102 (cyclist liable for offence where cycling drunk).
There’s no specific offence of “furious cycling”, but as reported by Cambridge Cycling Campaign in 2007, fast-moving cyclists can sometimes be nabbed for “riding furiously”, an offence under the 1847 Town Police Clauses Act. This mentions (under section 28) it is an offence for “Every person who rides or drives furiously any horse or carriage, or drives furiously any cattle.”
So, don’t go herding cows on your bike as you’ll be committing an offence twice over…
However, cyclists – and not just Victorian ones – can be convicted for “wanton and furious driving”.
The wording of S35 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 1948 (c. 58), s. 1(2)) is as follows:
“Drivers of carriages injuring persons by furious driving Whosoever, having the charge of any carriage or vehicle, shall by wanton or furious driving or racing, or other wilful misconduct, or by wilful neglect, do or cause to be done any bodily harm to any person whatsoever, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years.”
For instance, in 2009 supermarket worker Darren Hall was convicted of ‘wanton and furious driving’ after he had ridden on the pavement and hit and killed an 84-year old pedestrian. Hall was jailed for seven months and banned from driving a car for a year. Courts only have this power where a cyclist has injured another party by “wanton and furious driving or racing.”
Posted 12 years ago #
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