- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
Bicycle number plates from Edmonton (CC BY-SA 2.0 licensed by woodysworld1778 via Flickr)Sussex PCC calls for bicycle registration
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex Katy Bourne has said cyclists should "wear some form of identification" so "you can prosecute them for breaking the law.”
According to Rachel Millard of Brighton and Hove paper The Argus, Bourne was repeatedly asked questions about cycling at a public meeting she hosted on Monday.
She told the meeting: “I would like to see cyclists wear some form of identification like cars have.
“So when they go through traffic lights, you can actually identify them and then you can prosecute them for breaking the law.”
As it's not the Police and Crime Commissioner's role to set policy, though, she said the idea was “one for the legislators.”
This was a “debate that should be had,” she said.
After the meeting, Bourne told The Argus: “It is something that has been at the back of my mind for a long time.
“Because when you use the road, if you are driving a car you have your number plate. Other people register, they pay to use the roads.
“Cyclists don’t, admittedly.
“But there have been occasions when I have been sat at red lights and seen cyclists go through.
“And it is never the responsible cyclists that do this – the ones that belong to the clubs, they are great, they are the ones that adhere to all the laws, so it is the few that ruin it for the many.”
Tony Green of the Brighton and Hove Cycling Campaign said that drivers don't pay to use the road. Road.cc readers will probably not need reminding that Vehicle Excise Duty is a charge related to emissions that goes into the Treasury's Big Money Pot and is not ring-fenced for roads.
Green said: “Cyclists are seen as the easy target. I don’t really know what it is, but maybe people think they are getting something for free.
“I agree there are cyclists who break the law but then ten or one hundred times as many motorists break the law.”
Carlton Reid, cycle campaigner and author of Roads were not built for cars, has a thorough debunking of the idea over on ipayroadtax.com.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- hawkinspeter 8 min 35 sec ago
Quite a few years ago, a friend of mine got into serious trouble running a half-marathon due to dehydration. I don't know how fast he was, but he...
- chrisonabike 18 min 6 sec ago
She did say (in comment) they'd suggested to the council to make this access and emergency vehicles only and the council said no....
- slc 3 hours 13 min ago
Some locals (apart from road.cc regulars) like the scheme. Admittedly in the Beaufort Rd section where the carrot (end of what was pretty...
- S.E. 17 hours 18 min ago
My guess is that they sell mainly on the German market - feel free to correct me. That might explain why they are not "pushing" their products,...
- ktache 17 hours 43 min ago
Now Emily Chappell really liked the Lezyne , I have the HV version, good, but I find the handle uncomfortable in use. I've often wondered about the...
- biking59boomer 16 hours 50 min ago
What about this one!? Taken in Cardiff Civic Centre 1939
- Muddy Ford 17 hours 53 min ago
Charlie Alliston got 18mths and is the reference case (because there are so few cases) for all campaigns by anti-cyclists that 'cyclists are not...
- belugabob 18 hours 55 min ago
My local football practice pitches (all weather, in a fenced off area, are regularly the scene of inconsiderate parking, with vehicles blocking the...
- Spangly Shiny 19 hours 20 min ago
Assos ASOS anyone?
Add new comment
46 comments
Excellent news. Now I can look forward to pushchairs and umbrella carriers having registration plates and third party insurance.
And I'll be more than happy for jay walking to be introduced into the legislation too.
Happy days.
Some cars don't attract Vehicle Excise Duty, what about them?
The last time something like this happened was when the Nazis occupied France!
Not really sure that an opinion made by someone who was elected as second preference on the back of only a 15.8% turnout (including spoiled papers) is even worth commenting on or reporting in the first instance.
Don't attach her comments to the Police. She is not a police officer and never will be. It is hard to see who these PCCs are answerable to but we certainly know who pays their wages; income tax paying cyclists for one.
Problem is, this is what she'll hear in community meetings. My wife runs our local police liason group and pavement cycling regularly crops up as the number 1 or 2 complaint (I should consider myself lucky to live in an area where that's what people think about when they think about crime). So it's an unsurprising political reflex to come out with what you think your audience wants to hear.
Even so, the failure to engage the brain even minimally before speaking is particularly striking in this case.
Everyone seems to be ignoring the big issue here, which is of course the use of the word 'sat' instead of 'sitting'. How on earth is this person allowed to hold any post within the community?
Interesting coverage of the matter by the Guardian, including a revealing interview with Bourne:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2014/oct/09/police-comm...
I don't understand why cyclists seem to irritate and anger people so much, especially when it comes to 'crime' such as RLJing etc, is it that people have given up complaining about more serious crime, or is that cyclists are more visible even when not doing anything wrong, and could be seen as a potential crime waiting to happen in the same way that groups of teenagers hanging around in a park cause an elevated amount of worry in comparison to the minor amount of crime they actually commit?
I think when it can be proven that vehicle registration etc has had the effect of reducing motoring offences and road fatalities down to a comparable proportion to that of cyclists (numbers of offences/accidents per road user) then I will gladly carry a number plate or attach one to my jacket or jersey. Until that point then I think there are a lot bigger things for them to concern themselves with.
Its because we as cyclists are responsible for and guilty of everything from Original Sin to 9/11. Didn't you get the memo?
Perhaps pedestrians could be made to wear some form of registration number so that should they commit an offence of some sort (assault, burglary, shoplifting, rape, murder...) they can be easily identified and punished accordingly.
We have PCCs so that people elect someone who has some ability to represent local concerns to the police.
We can all help to avoid idiots becoming PCCs by engaging with their elections. I know I didn't last time around, which wasn't the smartest.
I do pay road tax. Several thousand pounds of it every year.
Errm, hire bikes?
Idiot elected by minority who could be bothered to turn out for an election to a post no one needs makes idiotic statement - well there's a surprise. I assume she doesn't ever bother to look at police road casualty statistics.
Pink triangle for me please.
On her twitter account she's claiming it's not her idea:
do registration plates on cars stop drivers breaking the law?
no, thought not.
not sure that's really the point though, is it?
Ok, do registratin plates on cars always result in drivers being prosecuted for driving misdemeanours?
Conservative politician makes idiotic anti-cycling statement.
“I would like to see cyclists wear some form of identification..."
Is that wear just on the bike, or at all times you are out of the house on the off chance you might throw a leg over a crossbar?
I would love to find this idiot funny but I can't. Every time I read the sentence above my mind keeps replacing 'cyclists' with 'Jews'.
Strange how words have a power of their own, isn't it?
Police and Crime Commissioners are a bad joke. I think only about 15% of the electorate voted in the election for this one.
(Also, surely there's a conflict of interest in having the same person responsible for both the police _and_ for crime?)
edit - yup, just checked, she was elected with the votes of 5% of the total electorate. Clearly a mandate for her inspired policies.
The PCC's are just another govt hurdle placed in the way of Police forces to run smoothly.
They were not wanted nor needed and cost a bloody fortune which could be better spent on other things.
At least Labour have said they will get rid of them if elected.
PCC
What are the current levels of -
Murder
Rape
Burglary
Drugs crime
Robbery
Motor offences
Fraud
Racial motivated crime
Sexual assault
Physical abuse
Domestic abuse
Prostitution
Illegal immigrants
Tax evasion..........
I'm sure you should make sure all these are in check before you move onto something as petty as the OCCASIONAL cyclist jumping a light
Something that's been at the back of her mind ? Must be shuffling around for space between the things at the front of her mind 'cos clearly there's no significant spacial separation...
Pay to use the roads ... like everyone then ?
I'd regitster if there was really a road tax ... ass holes ...
Bloody PCCs - driving recklessly, no insurance http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-29553185
Sadly, this doesn't really surprise me; Sussex police are very anti-cyclist and turn a blind eye to motorists driving on the pavement (even outside their own police stations), using mobile phones whilst driving (seen their own officers doing this), red light jumping, forcing cyclists off the road, speeding and more.
If this is the most concerning thing for the Sussex PCC to take issue over, all those residents in Sussex must be living in the nicest safest place in the UK?
what a twit.
here's her twitter account in case anyone feels the need to educate her about 'road tax' - https://twitter.com/KatyBourne
Pages