Ahoy, the "cyclists breaking the speed-limit" debate ship is still sailing!

It all kicked off earlier this week when Devon and Cornwall Roads Policing Team took to Twitter to call out a group of cyclists in Dartmoor who were apparently breaking the speed limit, despite it not applying to them.

road.cc had reached out to the policing team, who told us that "on this occasion, road safety advice was given to a group of cyclists and no offences were recorded" and "the engagement - which carried a road safety, not speed enforcement, message - was received positively by the group".

So we all thought it was just a case of either a poorly worded misadventure into the cyclists' speed-limit policing territory, or a genuine mistake by the team unaware of the Highway Code. The police held to account, we hope the mistake wouldn't be repeated again, and water under the bridge.

Right? Wrong.

Since then, it has grabbed the attention of the UK public, and been covered by almost all mainstream national media, with just the original video by the police team's account (with 12k followers) having been viewed over 2 million times.

Mike van Erp, the London cyclist and cycling safety advocate, better known by his alter-ego Cycling Mikey, had earlier replied to the police's tweet saying that the cyclists weren't breaking the law and that "that’s probably quite reasonable when a bicycle weighs maybe 10kg and an average car 1.5-2 tonnes".

And this morning, Mikey was on the Jeremy Vine show on Channel 5, talking about the issue. And boy, did he not mince his words.

"For me, the UK is perhaps the most hostile country in Europe to cycle in," said CyclingMikey. "There are a lot of people who didn't know that speed limits don't apply cyclists, and a lot of people who got very angry about those cyclists."

"My huge worry really is that some drivers will weaponise this hatred and take it out on cyclists in the UK".

Vine, not unfamiliar with Mikey, having edited a few of his videos himself, asked him if he mean that people are going to see the film posted by Devon and Cornwall Roads Policing Team and think that cyclists don't obey the law, so "we don't have to respect them".

Mikey replied: "Exactly. It's already a case that people think cyclists don't obey the law, but the reality is different. Studies from two different countries found that cyclists are very similarly law abiding as drivers, and maybe even more so."

He elaborated a little more on his reply to the force, saying that the BMW car in which the police were travelling in, would have 30 times the energy of a cyclist upon impact. "They [cyclists] have far less momentum and transfer far less momentum to something else in the event of a collision, simply because they are so much lighter," he said.

Blimey, will this debate ever die?

Mikey also spoke about pavement riding and the priority pedestrians have in the road safety hierarchy.

"We cyclists shouldn't be on the pavements unless it's a shared use pavement, and be super careful around pedestrians," he said. "Part of the reason why cyclists ride on pavements is the fear of drivers and the relatively poor and primitive infrastructure we have in the UK."

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-7-september-2023-303707#live-blog-item-49501

swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

> Ahoy, the "cyclists breaking the speed-limit" debate ship is still sailing!

Time to wheel out Saint Michael van twErp again.

Wait for it…

> Mike van Erp, the London cyclist and cycling safety advocate, better
> known by his alter-ego [should that be ‘over-inflated ego’?] Cycling Mikey

Bang on cue.

[…]

> https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-7-september-2023-303707#live-blog-item-49501

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Spike

brooksby | 12103 posts | 6 hours ago
9 likes

Riding in this morning I stopped at the end of a queue of cars approaching some temporary traffic lights. There are roadworks in my lane, so there are three-way lights controlling traffic onto a pair of mini roundabouts. The lights changed and the traffic moved forward.

As I reached the actual lights they turned to amber - I knew I didn't have time to clear the whole 'controlled' area before they go red, so I stop. As I put my foot down on the ground, a van and two cars speed past me from behind.
===================NEVER - DON'T BELIEVE YOU, EVEN THOUGH IT HAS HAPPENED TO ME HUNDREDS OF TIMES.