Ian wrote:
"Richard J." wrote in message
Anyway, if you wheel your bicycle past the stop line on the pavement,
surely you count as a pedestrian then?

How often have you seen a cyclist dismount before using the pavement? They
normally ride along the pavement and expect pedestrians to jump out of the
way, even though it has been offence for 180 years to ride on the pavement.
The police no longer enforce the no cycling on the pavement law as can be
clearly seen in dft_foi_037604.pdf. In 1984 there were 1991 successful
prosecution for cycling on the pavement. By 2003 there were only 82.

Similarly, in 1982 there were 4441 successful prosecution of cyclists for
lighting and reflector offences. By 2003 this had dropped to 166. Careless
and reckless cycling offences peak on the table mentioned above at 398 in
1983. By 2003 they had dropped to 77.

According to dft_transstats_031373, 214 pedestrians were hit by cyclists, 38
were seriously injured and 4 killed. I don't suppose that those injured and
the relatives of those killed by cyclists think that dangerous cycling is as
trivial as the police obviously now do.

Although certainly the numbers "caught" have gone down, as someone else
said, it's now a fixed penalty notice job. In Kensington & Chelsea they
are certainly having a crackdown on cyclists riding on the pavement.

As a cyclist (some days of the week), it annoys me to see people do this
(and to see cyclists going through red lights) as it makes everyone more
hostile towards cyclists (although that's been discussed at great length
here before!).


--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London