CYCLING TEST A 'SENSIBLE' IDEA
Letters: Ealing Gazette Friday 24 January 2014ROAD TESTS FOR CYCLISTSWhat commentators [Colin Lomas 17 January and others] either forget, or are not aware of, is that cycling on the pavement was made a fixed penalty offence by Home Office Minister of State Paul Boateng in 1999 to help the police enforce Section 72 of the 1835 Highways Act. DfT minister Robert Goodwill has just reissued those 1999 guidelines.The issues were discussed on Radio 4’s PM programme last Friday 17 January [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pmkb3 31.56 mins - 37.20 mins] between Tony Armstrong Chief Executive of Living Streets and Roger Geffen of the Cyclist Touring Charity (CTC). Roger Geffen speaking for cyclists said “…….. one of the options available to the police should be to send the cyclist on a cycle training course"."We send drivers who’ve offended on driver training and speed awareness courses. Surely it is even more justified to do that for cyclists, given that is effectively a punishment that not only fits the crime but but fixes it too by giving cyclists the confidence and skills to ride safely and correctly and according to the law on the roads.”Seen in this light, Jean Orman’s idea [letters 10 January] that cyclists should be required to take a test before they ride on the roads sounds eminently sensible. Because of confusion in the public mind, a police and local authority publicity/poster campaign reminding the population at large that the ‘default’ law is that pavement cycling is illegal, unless signposted otherwise [This] would go a long way to help the police enforce the law against it by making sure that those who do it do so knowingly (or ‘willingly’) as the law says. Tony Purton Ealing ==================================NOTE: The full transcript of the BBC Radio 4PM interview referred to above can be read under post PAVEMENTS ARE FOR PEDESTRIANS - 8The full text of Home Office Minister's July 1999 'guidance' letter can be read under post PAVEMENTS ARE FOR PEDESTRIANS - 6
Tony Purton ● 4449d17 Comments