Yes, but realistically a missing front brake is the only notable offence here;
He still had a functioning rear brake
A distracted pedestrian stepped out in front him without looking
All parties agreed that he was travelling within the notified speed limit
Whilst he should be punished for an illegal vehicle, prison is excessive.
I’ve cycled the stretch where that incident happened many times, and the amount of phone-staring zombies is unreal. They really should take greater responsibility for their own safety.
From the what they were saying on the radio it’s also to go after Ebikes & E-scooters as they aren’t classed as a vehicle as such but there have been a number of incidents.
They need gripping big style, although since they already aren’t allowed on the roads (most of the E-bikes are too fast for the E-bike legislation) a ban on sale would be more useful.
See that’s understandable, particularly the scooters that simply can’t meet the rules no matter how they’re designed.
As someone who always has cycled with bikes that meet the rules (including my e-bike) I hate seeing the minority that choose to ignore them as it just fuels the flames of the unjustified hatred that those of us on bikes receive.
Having been deliberately crashed into on two occasions, it’s not the most pleasant experience.
Without wanting to deride the legislation, there should also be an offence related to packs of cyclists roaming the highways without due care and attention for other road users and - far more importantly - the wearing of lycra needs to be moderated in some way. Perhaps confined to the velodrome - rather than liberally dusted across the UKs A and B roads.
Law should simply be any road users who cause death/injury by careless/wreckless/dangerous use should be accountable which includes roads, byways and paths etc. Therefore it is not discriminatory against drivers, cyclist, horseriders and the many other types of users.
As with any group, there are those who are sensible & abide by any legislation or common sense equivalent - & a few that don’t.
I’ve nearly killed several very stupid cyclists - the closest was hearing something, but not seeing anything - got out of car to check, man wearing all dark clothing on the ground, bike, across the road. Ah, no lights, no brakes (one of the fixed speed drive cogs), & he had been riding the wrong way up a one way street & swerved to avoid me. He had a few bruises, wanted to take action against me - fine, call the Old Bill & we’ll go from there. Ah, change of plan, he hobbled off.
I have been overtaken by cyclists more than a few times whilst adhering to a 20 mph limit……
Second closest has related to e-scooters, the “illegal” models, although there have been some close shaves with tourists on the licensed ones. Two-up, swerving across the road, no lights - & hazard awareness reduced drastically when wearing ear pods (same for some cyclists).
E-scooters are deemed to be great, very green - but the road safety aspects for the illegal models far outweigh any green credentials.
That is my point 1 law applied equally to users, obviously a non car users can be younger there will need to be some concessions, but an adult killing or seriously injury someone by irresponsible use should be sentenced accordingly. On that note all road users should be registered so that we are all accountable.
And if you want to flag inequalities between different users the hierarchy of road users in the HC is a joke, drivers are not accountable for other idiots no matter mode of transport.
Unless we are all become chipped / trackable, that ain’t going to happen. Just for vehicles alone, the estimates of drivers with no licence (or provisional only), insurance, or MOT are huge! The Police do not have the resources to catch these, let alone pushing registration of all road users (cycles / e-scooters) into their remit.
Even for some driving offences such as displaying mis-represented number plates, they do not have the resources to follow up.
For the 2 drivers who deliberately drove into me the outcomes were:
The police force (City of London) didn’t bother to investigate at all, in spite of me having all the vehicle details, witnesses and the incident happening under several public CCTV cameras.
The driver allegedly couldn’t be traced. Whilst the reg for the car showed all the necessary details at the time (valid MOT, insurance, tax), the reg now can’t be found online at all.
There have been other, deliberate punishment passes by drivers where the most serious outcome was a slap on the wrist (driver education course) for an incident that was less than 1" away from causing me a potentially serious injury.
So you’re completely correct; drivers simply aren’t accountable.
So using your arguement lets remove the rquiremt fir anyone to be registered as itvis too difficultvto enforce? And when a non register user rams into your car what you supposed to fo give chase and interogate them or just roll over pay for other peoples incompetence!
It has worked on the continent for decades, agree it wont be perfect but the majority of honest users (for which most are) will go with it. £20/year to use the road should be affordable to most, on proviso that the money is reinvested to make road safer for more vulnerability user.
I have used my bike on road and one of the biggest benifits would be to improve kerbside road quality then when we are on slower users can stay to left giving other faster users better opportunity to give wider clearance.
My whole point is all users need to be accountable, drivers cannot and should not be responsible for everyone using a public road.
This discussion does highlight the disparity between all those entitled to share the same road space, users need to work together blaming each other doesn’t fix anything.
I don’t think different groups are blaming each other, it’s the simple premise that some road users, in whatever category, will be idiots. I walk, cycle & drive - I regularly see others who shouldn’t be allowed to do those activities! This week, mid-afternoon, I saw a pedestrian angle across the footpath (alongside a 60 mph road) - luckily the vehicle ahead of me was already slowing to take into account an approaching bend. The man stepped into the road, oblivious of traffic, emergency stop from the car ahead - I had already started to brake in anticipation. That could so easily have been one whacked (dead) pedestrian & an overwrought driver with a damaged vehicle. The man just carried on walking, & nearly got hit by a car from the other direction!! Judgement impaired by substances??
You also have to take into account the different infrastructures - cycling paths in the EU are the norm, so the entire population is used to an integrated system; kids grow up cycling around, & when they start to drive, they have a much better awareness of cyclists & how the cycle paths interact with the roads.
Registration of all road users ain’t going to happen - even in Holland, with a huge number of bikes, there is no registration. For some countries (e.g. Denmark) where “registration” is required, it’s more akin to a “VIN” registration to reduce the number of bike thefts.
Dont totally disagree, i am afraid in our area there is a definite inter user delivide. We are building cycle lanes/paths (albiet not enoughh) yet people decide not to use them which shows a total level of selfishness, the cycle paths should be able to afford all users some level protection, but guess the cyclist trying to complete a distance in a certain time may feel impeded.
We all need to change our culture as there are exponentially more road users but expanse of roads cannot keep up with demand. There are different environments, i am in a rurally area which presents different cahallenges to urban, for one there is ess cctv to record any misfortunes so once a non registered person vanishes its hard to find them.
This would be a good solution here, alongside ensuring that cycling on open roads became part of the driving test.
There simply is too much us v them mentality on the roads today and that’s where my gripe is with this proposed legislation; it’s designed to drive that division to garner votes.
This legislation wouldn’t put me off cycling to work. What puts me off cycling to work is the cycling gangs/clubs round here who treat the roads as their personal velodrome . Middle aged men in too tight lycra riding with no consideration for other people’s safety and adding fuel to the ongoing battle between idiot car drivers and cyclists.
The number of times I’ve been pushing the pram over a zebra crossing/light controlled crossing and had a gang fly over nearly hitting me or the kids.
I think the Highway code should be re-written to say “Cyclist must use a cycle lane where it is available” It’s safer for them! Councils are spending millions on cycle paths/ routes only for them to be empty and the cyclist continue to ride on the road.
Also, they should have some sort of insurance. a few years ago I had a cyclist in front of me at traffic lights, as he pulled away his foot slipped of his pedals, he fell backwards and left a £800 dent in my car bonnet. It wasn’t until the Police reviewed my dash-cam footage (that showed I was stationary) that he was denied claiming from my insurance after insisting I was the one who hit him.
