'Zero tolerance' for pavement cyclists in Cardiff

I like a lot of the posters here detest the pavement cyclist but I find this approach by the police to be totally inappropriate, tell people to cycle on the roads by all means but target the REAL reason why they are on the pavement BAD drivers!

I assisted a parent cyclist and baby who were hit by a van driver who failed to look on entering a roundabout. I was overjoyed to see the pair back on the bike the other day, at the same junction. Guess where they were cycling? Yes, on the pavement. Any police officer ticketing them would get the same piece of my mind as the paramedic who told him he should be wearing hi-viz, and was probably in a blind spot.

will there be zero tolerance towards the real causes of death and serious injury on our roads?

bad driving
speeding
mobile phone use
drink driving
cars jumping red lights

no, I didn't think so

Correct - driving a car on a footway is the same offence as cycling and somehow all the drivers of parked cars on a footway don't get a ticket.

That said I would welcome a purge on footway cycling but in the form of a deal with the riders - for your first stop you'll get no FPN if you

1) tell us where you are going and why you are riding on the footway.

2) arrange to attend a half day cycle training course.

Footway cycling is rife in Glasgow even the Police cyclists do it when they have no real reason to do so, and it is often done at dangerous speeds.

Perhaps the Welsh Assembly will whip Cardiff into line, with its proposed obligation on local authorities to make suitable cycling provision.

Meanwhile I think the police could far more usefully apply their time prosecuting pavement parkng by cars, as this is a terrible curse of almost every city these days.

Going by that photo, it doesn't look as if there are so many pedestrians to feel threatened by pavement cyclists. It also doesn't look as if the traffic is particularly heavy though, in such a way that would intimidate cyclists using the road.

It's been a while since I was last in the city.

Zero-Tolerence is roughly what I have for anti-cycling laws..

..Although the no *riding* on pavements laws were actually written before there were any bicycles the laws where aimed at horse-riders and carriages which makes far more sense.

"Police will patrol one day a week" Lol, they try so hard don't they.

What do we want to enforce here ? The greener movement of people, or the right to park anywhere you please? Cars do get a bad deal in the scheme of things, but that is only because other, cheaper, smaller vehicles are coming into their own. A push for profits, combined with a push for health has massively increased the numbers of people NEEDING to have an alternative to cars. So, just like in a relationship, we need to compromise. NO PAVEMENT RIDING = NO BLOCKAGE OF CYCLE LANES. Or one will wipe out the other in the ticket writing wars ! Good luck Cardiff, from Lance Bumstrong (FB-bike-blog)

I am not a fan of pavement cycling but I can understand why some people would.

There is a narrow cycle track painted onto parts of Cowbridge Road East but unless you are confident and quick to get away from junctions that road wouldn’t be a good ride. The road a high number of traffic lights, traffic is heavy and it’s also a main bus route.

Another example of Cardiff is the junction near the new Evans Cycles (https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&authuser=0&q=Chwarae+teg&ie=UTF-8&e...) , again complicated lanes, heavily used – although this one does have a full size bus lane.

Or here near the university ... https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&authuser=0&q=Chwarae+teg&ie=UTF-8&e...

But Cardiff is a beautiful city, a city which is hemmed in by the sea to the south and mountains to the north, the roads a narrow and heavily used – it just needs some common sense, from cyclists and from the police,

Chwarae teg.

I live in Canton and cycle along Cowbridge Road every day; I can safely say that I've never felt the need to ride on the footway.

I can however see that some people may feel safer doing this, as there is very little parking enforcement, so cars are permanently blocking the (intermittent) cycle lanes. Removing these obstacles may make things a little better, but the people I mostly see riding on the footway (which is generally busy, and in places narrow)look as though they would probably ride like this regardless of the road conditions.

That picture must be a fake... no cars encroaching on the pedestrian crossing.