Letter to the Mercury

After seeing some of the negative comments on the Leicester Mercury website in response to the article about our Get Behind the Bike Box campaign, our press officer Eric Ludlow felt compelled to respond. Here’s his letter to the Editor (or you can click here to read the full text in a Word document).

East Midlands Cycle Forum report

Our friends from Cyclenation have posted an excellent report on their blog of the East Midlands Cycle Forum which we hosted in October. Big thanks to everyone who helped organise and all those attending.  Here are a couple of their photos.

Mat Scull reporting on LCCG’s achievements over the past year and talking about what the future holds

Linda Goddard explaining how Leicester Women’s Velo and Breeze rides are encouraging more women to cycle.

‘Bike boxes’ enforced in London

Transport for London, the Met and London Police are stepping up enforcement of Advanced Stop Lines, commonly known as ‘bike boxes’.  You can read a piece about how this is being done, on the TfL website, but here are some helpful points from the Met on the rules for ASLs.

 

 

Advanced Stop Lines (from met.police.uk website, )

Some signal-controlled junctions have Advanced Stop Lines (ASLs). ASLs help motorists and cyclists by providing an area for cyclists to wait in front of traffic when the lights are red. Cyclists in this area are more easily visible to motorists, and have space to move off when the lights turn green.

Motorists, including motorcyclists, MUST stop at the first white line reached if the lights are amber or red and should avoid blocking the way or encroaching on the marked area at other times, e.g. if the junction ahead is blocked.

Motorists
Do not enter the ASL box when the light is red – this space is reserved for the safety of cyclists.

Crossing the first or second ASL line when the light is red makes you liable for a £100 fixed penalty, three points on your licence, and endangers vulnerable road users.

If the traffic light changes from green to amber and you cannot safely stop before the first stop line, you may cross the line but must stop before the second stop line (Highway Code rule 178).

Cyclists
Do not cross the second stop line while the traffic signal is red. Contravening a traffic signal is against the law, and could result in a £50 fine.

Myth Busting

Myth: There’s a car in the ASL box – the driver must have committed an offence.

Not true. The offence is committed when the vehicle enters the ASL box when the light is red. If the vehicle enters the box and the light changes to red, no offence is committed

Rule 178 of the Highway Code states:
If your vehicle has proceeded over the first white line at the time that the signal goes red, you MUST stop at the second white line, even if your vehicle is in the marked area.

We don’t want motorists to wrongly believe that they shouldn’t stop in the ASL box under any circumstances – this might cause someone to panic, drive through a junction and cause an accident.

Myth: Motorbikes are allowed in the ASL.

Not true. The law applies to motorbikes and scooters, too.

Myth: Entering an ASL is a specific offence.

Not true. Entering an ASL when the light is red is an offence under section 36(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, regulation 10 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 and Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988. The offence is jumping a red light and could result in a £100 fixed penalty and three points on your licence.

Myth: Police don’t enforce ASLs.

Not true. The Cycle Task Force and our colleagues across the MPS regularly report and warn drivers for contravening this law and are supporting Transport for London’s ASL campaign. Any Police Constable (not a Police Community Support Officer) who witnesses an ASL offence taking place can enforce and must provide evidence that they witnessed:
◾ The front of the vehicle cross the stop line
◾ The moment the traffic lights changed
◾ The traffic lights were all working

If the officer sees the vehicle in the zone without witnessing all three of the above, then there is no prospect of prosecution against a burden of proof of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. In any case, the driver could simply have been obeying rule 178 of the Highway Code (see above).

Seville’s transformation

Cycling – 0.2% of trips in 2000.

87 miles network cost about $43 million to install between 2007 and 2009.

Seville’s engineers built a network of comfortable separated bikeways connecting the city that now carries 7% of all city traffic.

The city expects 15% of all trips in Seville to be made by bike in 2015.

The €32m cycle network carries 72,000 cyclists on weekdays compared with the city’s underground system, which cost €600 million and carries 40,000 people daily.

Wow.

There’s more from peopleforbikes.org and the London Cycle Campaign.

Comedy Councillor of the Year award

Currently in pole position is Councillor Richard Eastley of Lympstone near Exmouth. Here’s an article in his local rag about a new cycle path which includes this quote –

“From where the trail comes out on Sowden Lane, with the narrowness of the road there, if you’re driving a car you’re very likely to get bumped by cyclist, and if you’re old you worry if you will be allowed to drive afterwards, because if you hit cyclists or a pedestrian the driver is nearly always deemed at fault.

“These cyclists come down at a rate of knots – they don’t even look some of them.

“I object to any increase in cyclists through the village until something else is done to take them away from the centre of the village.”

Priceless.

The London Mayor’s Vision for cycling.

In short – we’re just a bit envious. More here, the very interesting document is here. Can’t wait to see it when it’s all done.

The Times – Seven cycling myths unpicked

Good article from The Times.

Is Berlin the safest city to be a cyclist?

We don’t know (and the Dutch / Danes may disagree) but it looks better then the UK for cycling right now. Not a bus, taxi or truck in sight.

Link here

Nottingham MP attacks the symptoms, not the illness.

Without wishing to start the helmet debate, this story is best read after the ‘Is Berlin the safest city to be a cyclist?’ story and comparing the environment which people are expected to ride in here with one where lots of people cycle.