|
I caught the end of an item on R4 Today this morning that seemed to be suggesting cyclists and e-scooter riders should wear a tabard with a registration on it. I'm a cyclist and certainly in favour as I wear a tabard already.
|
|
Cannot find anything to suggest a serious proposal. Whilst I can see why people might be in favour it fails the 'will it work' test at the first couple of hurdles; practicality and compliance.
|
>>Compliance...
You just get the police on patrol to stop everyone not wearing a registration.
Oh, I see your logic :-)
|
They should get the users of mobility scooters to wear them too.
Vicious pavement bandits who have more than once hurt pedestrians with no comeback.
|
Insane.
If it's serious this will be a civil disobedience job, at least as far as bikes are concerned. It would be an outrage. I am not wearing a sweaty tabard to ride a bike - I have perfectly suitable light coloured or hi-viz clothing.
On the other hand they have got themselves into a right pickle with e-scooters. They are effectively illegal in public places unless part of a trial, and in the authorised trial areas they must not be ridden on pavements or by children (anyone too young to ave at least a provisional licence). The roads aren't fit for them and many I've seen have had what looks like a child on them (or two).
The scooters are also permitted to be 500W, cf. e-bikes (EAPC's) which are limited to 250W rating and must be pedalled.
There is a potential problem with high-powered e-bikes which are really motor-bikes, which are nearly always illegal.
|
>>On the other hand they have got themselves into a right pickle with e-scooters. They are effectively illegal in public places unless part of a trial, and in the authorised trial areas they must not be ridden on pavements or by children (anyone too young to ave at least a provisional licence)
Not really their fault, nobody saw them coming.
Where's the difficulty in treating them like mopeds? Got to have an MOT, Insurance, Provisional licence, licence plate and of limited power/speed and subject to road regulations etc.
>> The roads aren't fit for them
The roads are perfectly fit for them.
>> many I've seen have had what looks like a child on them (or two).
The police should be able to control misuse as they do(?) on roads generally.
|
This appears to be a publicity stunt by Nick Freeman, who makes his living by helping offending motorists evade punishment.
road.cc/content/news/mr-loophole-posts-petition-calling-licensing-cyclists-283937
Glub knows where this will end in the current 'populist' (i.e. whipping up hatred against imagined enemies to deflect attention from real issues) climate.
There is zero evidence that cycling is a serious problem that needs "fixing" is there? The biggest problem is getting people to cycle instead of driving and registration, tabards etc will just put people off - as with helmet laws which have been experimented with elsewhere.
|
|
Tabard, I haven't heard that word since I was at school!
|
>>Tabard, I haven't heard that word since I was at school!
Same 'ere. I used to play in Tabard Gardens 'til the grand olde age of 9.
|
>>There is zero evidence that cycling is a serious problem that needs "fixing" is there?
They're a damn menace around here. They expect you to get out of their way on the pavements.
Nearly had a mamil last week. He shot off the pavement right in front of me and had the nerve to complain I nearly hit him!
|
>> They're a damn menace around here. They expect you to get out of their way
>> on the pavements.
They're a menace in the centre of Northampton too. Mostly males of an age where they could perfectly well be on the road.
On the tabards thing let's compare with car registrations:
There are precise and prescriptive rules about plate colour, fonts, character size and everything else. Yet there are hundreds of thousands of cars on the road with letters/numbers set out to spell, or supposedly spell, a name or a business title. We have a bus company round here with Lion in it's name. They bought up multiple seventies era registrations where the second letter of the registration county identifier was L and the final characters 10N and rearranged them so the last characters spelled L10N. They were quickly rectified, possibly at the instigation of the Traffic Commissioner.
We have a Truckman top pickup locally for years with a reg that apparently reads RIFLE. In closer examination it's B1 FLE with a strategically placed white/yellow bolt.
Yesterday on the elevated section of the M6 I was passed at illegal speed by a motorbike with a tiny rear plate in the silver on black style that ceased to be legal except for pre 1970 machines donkey's years ago.
If they cannot enforce a very clear vehicle register how on earth are tabards to be enforced?
It's a total non starter.
People get away with it for years. H
|
|
There's a coach company Souls. One of their coaches carries the registration P5 OUL. I haven't seen R5 OUL.
|
What cyclists would have to wear them? Just adults, maybe teenagers, younger school kids and toddlers riding with stabalisers?
Just a load of hot air and picked up by the media because they know it will get tempers rising on both sides and increase viewers, listeners and readers. I don't listen to Jeremy Vine any more, but I'll lay a bet that he gave it prominence on his lunchtime phone in on R2.
|
>> What cyclists would have to wear them? Just adults, maybe teenagers, younger school kids and
>> toddlers riding with stabalisers?
>>
You couldn't do anything about under 10 year olds as they are not criminally responsible.
>> Just a load of hot air and picked up by the media because they know
True.
|
>>You couldn't do anything about under 10 year olds as they are not criminally responsible.
What would/do they do in the event of catching a 10 yr old on the road on a moped? I assume nick the owner/keeper and confiscate the bike?
Does it need to be any different?
|
|
Someone needs to bite the bullet and admit that we need traffic police and stop pretending that we don't just to save a few quid.
|
Slight thread drift but what about quad bikes ? Living in Settle I see a few around on the roads, 99% of the time it’s a farmer with a Border Collie on board. I assume they’re not road legal and I normally see them on the country lanes carrying bags of sheep nuts between fields.
I see far more when driving in Keighley and Bradford, normally racing around in small groups ridden by helmetless wtats doing wheelies.
|
>>I assume they're not road legal
If they're agricultural vehicles I seem to remember a law which says they don't need to be if used for a journey of less than x between two fields the farmer owns.
Or something like that.
|
|
A helmet's not required on a quad bike, however it wouldn't have saved the leg of the rider who rode his into a tree outside my house.
|
We were a bit slow to get them round here, perhaps see one or two a month,always riden on the pavement. Although it's fairly quiet, so there's no massive issue at the moment.
Even rarer than that are the police, only see them a couple of times a year.
|
>> We were a bit slow to get them round here, perhaps see one or two
>> a month,always ridden on the pavement.
e-scooters presumably - an official trial? If they are privately owned then at the moment it is illegal to use them in a public place, so no need to register those. There is virtually zero enforcement as it is, so absolutely no justification for a whole new system of 'control'.
Similarly with riding bikes on pavements - it is illegal, and if people don't like it then they should be requiring the police or councils to enforce existing laws- if it is so ubiquitous it won't be difficult to nick some and fine them whereupon 90% will get the message.
Legal e-bikes are just bikes, to all intents and purposes - and effectively limited to around 15mph since no assistance is given above that, and that on a road. Unassisted 'road' bikes will commonly be doing 20mph+ so what are usually heavy hybrid-type machines ridden by pensioners aren't much of a scourge.
There are those who think they are above the law who build themselves 1000W bikes with "throttles" - they are illegal motor vehicles - prosecute them. They aren't that hard to spot.
It's appalling that this stunt is promoted by a lawyer whose trade is to help the rich dodge motoring penalties, and the popular support is IMO driven by irrational hatred of "cyclists". And irrational it is, as well as hugely hypocritical. The majority of 'hating' drivers are really complaining about the presence of people legitimately going about their business on cycles and preventing those drivers from breaking the speed limit.
In truth, cycles create almost no real danger for anybody other than their riders and where they do there already exist ways of dealing with them. Local issues, as in London with cycle couriers for example, can and should should be dealt with by exception and laws exist with which to do that.
There seems to be a tide of moronic mob behaviour, and a ruling class prepared to exploit that for its own and its donors' ends. If I stop to think about it, I despise the country the UK is becoming. This attempt to persecute people who dare to cycle is just a symptom.
Making more laws achieves nothing useful and is pointless if we won't enforce the ones we already have.
|
|
No not a trial more that people have only just started using them round here.
|
>> No not a trial more that people have only just started using them round here.
And presumably nothing is being done even though it's illegals and they could be confiscated.
Probably because it's not seen as a priority or perhaps even a problem.
Some of those scooters weigh a lot and can do quite a speed under power - well in excess of 15mph.
|
No nothing done, police are a very rare sight around here. Whether they would do anything, I don't know.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 15 Jun 21 at 12:55
|
>> No not a trial more that people have only just started using them round here.
Northampton was a pathfinder for hire scooters. See more of them left around than being ridden and where they are pavement use is pretty much the norm.
Must register and give them a try.
|
I live on an un-adopted / privately owned road that leads to a reasonably sized 80 acre wood.
Recently we've been getting some strange electric bikes going up the road and in to the wood.
They are electric and look like trials motorbikes but with pedals but they are fast. I reckon one was doing 60mph up the road without any peddling.
Of course, no crash helmet or registration and god forbid if they hit anyone at that speed, which considering that unlike an electric car it was very quiet, is very likely.
|
>> Must register and give them a try.
Does anyone collect them quickly or I take it they are left abandoned for a long time?
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 15 Jun 21 at 20:29
|
>> Does anyone collect them quickly or I take it they are left abandoned for a
>> long time?
I've not seen them being collected but other than possibly one left near a park on the edge of the town centre I've never seen one in the same place for an over long period. May be left there or maybe there's a regular user leaving it and returning to it after work or whatever.
|
Cyclists and e-scooters to be registered? - Bromptonaut
