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red traffic light.jpgMan fined £220 for cycling through red light
A man was ordered to pay £220 this week for cycling through a red light, prompting the Institute of Advanced Motorists to call for bicycles to be allowed to ride through some red lights.
32-year-old Jurjys Renins was fined £220 for failing to stop at a red signal in Norwich city centre, as well as a £22 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.
Police district commander Superintendent Dave Marshall has urged cyclists to stop at red lights for their own safety, particularly if going straight at crossroads.
Denmark cyclists allowed to turn right at red lights
He told the Eastern Daily Press: “This is a significant issue. It’s extremely dangerous because vehicles travelling through green lights don’t expect to see cyclists going through ahead of them.”
Supt Marshall said the offence also causes “a lot of upset between motorists and cyclists.”
However, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) told road.cc though all road users should respect the law, the UK should consider allowing cycles to proceed through certain red lights, as Denmark has done.
Bicycles turning right on red was found not to increase collision rates after a two year trial on 33 Danish junctions, and the movement will become legal from 1 September on those junctions.
Martin Woodhouse, Norfolk and Norwich branch secretary of the IAM, said of cyclists jumping lights: “They are breaking the law but perhaps we should be looking at amending the interpretation of the law to make it safe for them to do so in certain circumstances.
“Cyclists going through red lights are probably more of a danger to themselves than anyone else. If they have a collision with a car, it’s them who is going to come out of it worse off.”
Norwich Cycling Campaign secretary, Margaret Todd, said there needs to be more enforcement for all traffic offences, not just for cyclists.
“We think there has been a drop in traffic enforcement. We don’t think cyclists should be treated any differently,” she said.
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
Latest Comments
- BBB 2 hours 21 min ago
Inhumane system that now will be getting even worse.
- Bungle_52 5 hours 45 min ago
In case anyone missed it in yesterdays blog here are the two pevious articles. The second one contains the testimony from the driver....
- David9694 5 hours 54 min ago
The old role was appointed at the Mayor's pleasure; is in addition to the permanent staff of the Combined Authority. I'm not sure if Adam was an...
- WillPage 7 hours 20 min ago
Nothing says "welcoming environment" like uniformed thugs, umm I mean "security patrols " roaming the area.
- galibiervelo 8 hours 38 min ago
That is class news. Super bikes and vision. Bet there will be no stand at the Taiwan bike show next year! Big luck to all the team
- Destroyer666 9 hours 20 min ago
Pretty clearly stated several times in the text that the issue was not related just to his son. And besides, everybody watching the races could see...
- Rendel Harris 9 hours 36 min ago
All Fizik and Selle Italia saddles (though not all their other products) are made in Italy I believe, and their 3D printed models definitely are.
- chrisonabike 10 hours 1 min ago
If you're not on the road with a car, I bet its driver is much less likely to swerve into your space *. Because you're not "in the way"! (Any...
- mdavidford 10 hours 18 min ago
The problem with this argument, though, is that it's just not true....
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38 comments
It would have been worse had he been cycling through red light district Haha!!
what would his Mrs have done to him lol
It appears from the EDP cyclist-jumping-reds follow up count that this was a pedestrian crossing so IAM statment doesn't really apply here at all, I have no issue with cyclists going through those if the peds have already crossed since pressing the button and no one is waiting. At the other end of the road mentioned though Norwich city centre is roadworks with temporary 5 way lights, those need harsh penalties for jumping even though the wait times are horrendous but it does stop you meeting a bus head-on in a single lane
I've not much sympathy tbh, I wish more people on bikes were caught and prosecuted for running red lights. The fine seems a bit on the heavy side, should be more like a bus lane or parking fine.
But RLJs are twits, a pox on them.
Good to see that fearless investigative journalism by the newspaper has revealed that,
"Mr Renins is not the only cyclist who has failed to stop at a red signal"
I'd never have know this otherwise. The Eastern Daily Press has done the nation a great service.
Right, a FPN is £50. So either this is a contested FPN or something else.
The question is what the charge was?
Being a lippy arse?
The minimum fpn for not stopping at red light is £100 + 3 points on your driving license,presumably the magistrates converted points to extra fine & added aggravating circumstances ? Max is £1000
It's a non endorsable as it's on a bike.
When I am king it will be a capital offence to push the pelican crossing button and then cross without waiting for it.
Maybe they could make the lights change quicker then. Some politicians say they want us to walk and cycle more, but then when it takes forever and a day for the pedestrian lights to change, as car after car goes past, you get the message about who is really important/prioritised.
This.
I often lament city 'design' while I, and 5-10 other pedestrians, wait, in the pissing rain, for one car, with one dry occupant in comfort, to crawl up a side street in Manchester city centre. What are we waiting for? The rapture? An appearance by one of the Kardashians? No: to walk 6 yards to another bit of the city centre. The hierarchy in town centres and neighbourhoods is arse-about-tit.
This country's going to to hell in single occupancy Nissan Qashqais.
Err, what are you waiting for? If it's safe to cross, do!
"Jaywalking" isn't an offence in mainland UK, although strangely I think Northern Ireland is different.
Err, in my example, the car.
Point: pedestrians have to wait for cars.
Not the point: pedestrians can cross roads. But thanks anyway.
[/quote]This country's going to to hell in single occupancy Nissan Qashqais.[/quote]
totally, totally, brilliant, there are millions of those wanbe off roads about aren't there
This is my thinking too. When I'm squashed in on a busy urban residential road that has parallel parking, I'm aware that we could have 100m of full-lane segregated cycle roadway if we were willing to prioritise the 1000 people on bikes over the 20 occasional-use car owners using the space as a car park.
Can I add to your legislation that pedestrians (usually looking down at their phones) who push the pelican crossing button when there are no cars within sight get a bloody good shoeing.........pisses me off as I do stop at every red light regardless of the situation
What really annoys are the lights which sense -and wait for- motor traffic.
So apparently its "safer" for me to stop at a deserted junction wait, sometimes several minutes for a car to turn up and then continue, now with the car or cars right behind me than it would have been for me to carry on my merry way with no motor traffic anywhere near me.
In these situations I deploy 'Sunday morning protocols' act as you would at an unlit junction.
If you find one that doesn't trigger for a bike (notwithstanding non-conductive carbon contraptions, obviously!), then you should give the local highways authority a ring. They can and do tune them, but they need to know about them first.
And if my bike is carbon?
Tempted to just sit there blocking cars from reaching the sensor and cause a jam.
But carbon is conductive.
most of the junctions around me have not extended the sensors or added extra sensors in the cycle lane leading to them... sometimes, the only cycle specific sensors are only in the main box itself, which most of the time, you can't get into cos some moton has gone halfway over their stop line leaving no room for you...
Proceed with caution as the light is defective. Report the defective light using an app. I use Fix My Street.
Reading between the lines here this guy was probably not just tentatively passing through the lights after checking them. Nor was he likely to have been receptive to some unofficial advice given, because for him to go to court over it and receive such a hefty penalty, is not from an early guilty plea that's for sure.
Well we all moan that these guys give a bad name to the rest of us, and vilify motorists when they do it and it's dangerous, so it is only right we should support that action was taken against this guy.
The punishment seems somewhat excessive in comparison to more serious offences though, perhaps IAM should be petitioning the government to change the weight of sentencing and not the law, the law isn't the problem, it's the punishments that are unfair and weighted against cyclists.
I disagree. You could argue that its ridiculous for any traffic to have to sit at a red light at a pedestrian crossing if there is no one crossing.
I think it would just muddy a poor situation that already exists.
Whats muddy about the difference between a bicyle and a car.
If people can't distinguish between themselves driving a car and being on a bicycle they shouldn't be on the roads.
Visual guide:
Car
Bicycle
Anyone has been able to turn right [with care] on a red light in the US for 30+ years, unless a sign says otherwise.
Who get the £22 victim surcharge.....the red light?.
The strange world of crime & punishment.
£400 fine for an incident where no-one was hurt (see above)
£35 fine & 3 points for killing a cyclist (http://road.cc/content/news/73826-taxi-driver-fined-%C2%A335-3-points-his-licence-after-cyclist-killed-collission)
When I am king it will be a capital offence to push the pelican crossing button and then cross without waiting for it.
The ridiculousness of a cyclist sitting at a red light, especially a ped crossing, when there is no one around for miles. Though watching automatons get irrate about it is good craic.
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