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Tour in Yorkshire… not everyone's happy about expected influx of cyclists

Senior police officer warns Yorkshire villages to expect rise in anti-social cycling as every cyclist worth his salt tries out Tour route

Yorkshire may be preparing to embrace the Tour de France in summer 2014, but it appears that not everybody is happy about expected influx of cyclists keen to try out the route. Responding to a local councillor's complaints about large groups of cyclists speeding through the village of Embsay and acting "as a law unto themselves" Chief Superintendent Alison Higgins of North Yorkshire Police told the councillor to expect more cyclists in the area in the run up to next year's Tour Grand Depart, even though the village is not on the route.

Chief Superintendent Alison Higgins of North Yorkshire Police told Councillor Quinn that more cyclists were expected to visit the area ahead of next year’s Grand Départ, adding “we are aware there is a problem, but it will not change overnight.”
The Craven Herald also reported her as saying that cyclists had to be ‘re-educated’ and that her force would seek to liaise with cycling groups, as it had previously done with motorcyclists.

Chief Inspector Simon Lovell, police commander for the Craven area, said that up to 500,000 were expected to visit for the weekend of the Grand Départ, but said that in the months ahead “every cyclist worth his salt” was likely to wish to tackle the route.

The exchange took place at a meeting of the council’s select committee last Wednesday that focused on crime and disorder, with Conservative councillor Andy Quinn claiming that cyclists were riding at speed through villages including Embsay and failing to stop at red lights, including at pelican crossings, reports the Craven Herald.

“They are a law unto themselves,” maintained Councillor Quinn. “We have an elderly population in Embsay and we’ve had incidents where car wing mirrors have gone missing. Something needs to be done.”

Unusually for a local newspaper report, involving bicycles, the comments to the Craven Herald's article aren't full of the typical accusations of all cyclists breaking the law and how they shouldn't be on the road in the first place because they "don't pay road tax," a common misconception due to that tax being abolished in the 1930s.

Instead, the comments, including some from cyclists who appear to be neighbours of Councillor Quinn, highlight logging trucks, cars and caravans as posing the greatest danger on Embsay's roads as well as being responsible for those broken wing mirrors, and also highlight the imppossibility of cyclists riding through the village at between 40 and 50mph as he had claimed.

The village is on Sustrans regional route 10, the Yorkshire Dales Cycle Way, which forms a 130-mile loop, and lies a couple of miles north east of Skipton, which is on the route of Stage 1 of the 2014 Tour de France from Leeds to Harrogate. As a result, the area is predicted to see growing numbers of cyclists take to the road over the next sixteen months.

While cyclists are not bound by speed limits, as Bike Hub’s Cycling and the Law article points out they can be prosecuted for “riding furiously”, an offence under the 1847 Town Police Clauses Act, or for “wanton and furious driving.” Riders are of course bound by laws to obey traffic signals.

While studies featured here on road.cc show that is only a small minority of cyclists who do regularly break the law, they are a very visible one, and the situation is not helped by the fact that some see them, rightly or wrongly, as being allowed to get away with behaviour that they believe would not be tolerated if they were behind the wheel of a car.
 

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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53 comments

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mattsccm | 11 years ago
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bit of a pointless article here. Of course some people won't be happy. After all it will be all loss for many as they will get an influx of cyclists which isn't always nice, even if they are angelic, and get nothing for it. Any gains will be for the wider community and very often that means just a few. Just like the Olympics. I won't see any benefit but I do see negatives.
To be honest all these comments, even mine would be better off not being published, including the news item. How about an extra pic of a nice bike instead?

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Bill McLaren | 11 years ago
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This does highlight one major concern of mine; the selfish few causing problems for the majority.

I would guess that that a tiny number of people have ridden like plonkers through the villages but, of course, they are the ones that stand out and are remembered by the locals who then see everyone as being a problem.

What does it cost to think about the effect on others round you, slow down a fraction when coming though a place people live etc.? After all that is exactly what we want car and truck drivers to do for us.

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bfslxo | 11 years ago
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it was me - i knocked out the 40/50mph through the village - don't really like to boast about it - will fire the strava info up in a mo  3

oh sorry about that mirror but u know it was in my way  16

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Fixedwheelnut | 11 years ago
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There seem to be a small minority of people in power with loud voices that spout this anti-cycling tripe and surely it is tantamount to 'incitement' by all means prosecute any one for cycling illegally but don't stir up trouble and incite road rage.

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Angelfishsolo | 11 years ago
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Just did a tiny bit of research. 40mph on the flat would require on output of around 1400watts. TdF riders manager less than half of that!

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phax71 | 11 years ago
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"Riding Furiously ..."

Love it ...  1

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Angelfishsolo | 11 years ago
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During Sportives I have seen groups of cyclists run red lights and it is annoying. I have never seen a cyclist take off a wing mirror but have seen a few cyclists taken down by one on a moving car.

My biggest bugbear after a mass ride is the number of dropped gel wrappers (not a concern of the article I note).

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mintimperial | 11 years ago
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The comments on the Craven Herald non-story are refreshing. Only one gibbering simpleton blethering about pavement cyclists, and everyone else calmly and logically taking this piece of dimwitted hackery apart.

I'll make a mental note never to spend any money in Embsay in future though, nasty little NIMBYs.

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Simon E replied to mintimperial | 11 years ago
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mintimperial wrote:

I'll make a mental note never to spend any money in Embsay in future though, nasty little NIMBYs.

Bear in mind that it appears to be just the one ignoramus. Perhaps that's how you get to be a councillor, we have our share of moronic shit-for-brains councillors in Shrewsbury too.

You could stop and say "My mates and I had intended to stop to buy lunch here as we're starving but after reading what your councillor thinks of cyclists I'm off to (insert nearby village)".

I will certainly avoid the place if I go to Yorkshire for Le Tour.

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notfastenough replied to Simon E | 11 years ago
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Simon E wrote:
mintimperial wrote:

I'll make a mental note never to spend any money in Embsay in future though, nasty little NIMBYs.

Bear in mind that it appears to be just the one ignoramus. Perhaps that's how you get to be a councillor, we have our share of moronic shit-for-brains councillors in Shrewsbury too.

You could stop and say "My mates and I had intended to stop to buy lunch here as we're starving but after reading what your councillor thinks of cyclists I'm off to (insert nearby village)".

I will certainly avoid the place if I go to Yorkshire for Le Tour.

You may have seen my other thread regarding to riding the route in the near future - I have posted that fact as well as the same sentiment as you on the Craven Herald comments section. That's a tangible impact, and it's not even in the same year as the race yet.

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cookdn | 11 years ago
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//lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MEkFLU5M17o/UTm9hBQUgRI/AAAAAAAABCU/AEWNfon4hz4/s800/CouncillorAndyQuinn.jpg)

Shock - rotund rural councillor is a cycling bigot.  29

If papers (local and national) weren't so desperate to try and keep themselves relevant in the digital economy then the views of these idiots wouldn't get any publicity.

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crazy-legs | 11 years ago
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From the picture of Councillor Quinn, it looks like he could do with getting on a bike, the weight loss might lower his blood pressure back down.

Not sure it'd help with his lack of common sense though.

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Cheesyclimber | 11 years ago
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I think there's something up with the link to the Craven Herald. It's a local newspaper's website and there doesn't seem to be a single mention of "Road tax" or "Red light jumping" in the comments. Someone fleetingly mentioned pavement cyclists, but that's it. Might be worth looking into.

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doc | 11 years ago
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"Welcome to Yorkshire"....but NIMBY.

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Rick Robson | 11 years ago
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To be honest I was ashamed of the Craven Herald newspaper for printing the councillors remarks as a news story with no evidence to back up his comments. Clearly nobody at the newspaper had read through his comments and weighed up firstly is it possible to ride through Embsay at 40 - 50 mph three abreast or is it really likely that cyclists are somehow removing car mirrors? As i said in my comments on the original article, it would be very hard to knock off a wing mirror without sustaining injuries to your hand or having a major stack into the tarmac.

This morning by 8.30 school run time in Embsay main street, two logging trucks had passed through the village - surely a far more likely culprit than a cyclist, if any wing mirrors are actually going missing? Have missing wing mirrors been reported to the police?

Love the switch at the Craven Herald from feigning interest in Cycling when they don't usaully care less when the Tour route was announced, a very quick revert to type.

Shame efforts locally don't go into fixing roads or educating truck drivers on the Grassington road that 6 inches isn't an exceptable distance to give a cyclist.

But hey-ho that probably wouldn't get Mr Quinn re elected.

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solkanofastera | 11 years ago
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Elderly villagers with cars? An accident waiting to happen,

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Just under a month until we take on the first two stages over a weekend. Bring on the haters!

The 'Hot Fuzz' reference is spot on.

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Simon E | 11 years ago
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Bit of a non-story really, it sounds like the kind of exchange at any parish council / community meeting.

I'm sure someone will have said "Huh, Embsay will get nothing out of this Tour de France business." Or perhaps "The youth of today, honestly!!"

As if cars and lorries don't terrorise whole communities already... (and no, I'm not exaggerating)

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djcritchley | 11 years ago
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Yeah, you better watch out for cyclists; we're a bunch of b@startds.
 3

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alotronic | 11 years ago
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4) Lack of evidence of cyclist/mirror interaction e.g. bloodied cyclists lying on the road in pain after hitting said wing mirrors at speed.

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bazzargh | 11 years ago
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"we’ve had incidents where car wing mirrors have gone missing"

That bit sounds highly unlikely to be cyclists?
1) less likely than a car to aim that close to a car
2) don't have the momentum to knock a mirror out of sight
3) mirrors don't fit well in jersey pockets...not that I've tried

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Stumps replied to bazzargh | 11 years ago
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bazzargh wrote:

"we’ve had incidents where car wing mirrors have gone missing"

That bit sounds highly unlikely to be cyclists?
1) less likely than a car to aim that close to a car
2) don't have the momentum to knock a mirror out of sight
3) mirrors don't fit well in jersey pockets...not that I've tried

Excellent comment, as usual it takes someone with a bit of common sense to spell it out to people. It makes you wonder how these people get elected as councillors.

If a cyclist hit a wing mirror i know who would come off worst !

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Dave Ody | 11 years ago
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there is something that reminds me of the film Hot Fuzz... "for the greater good".

As Rick Robson (csphotos) points out under the Herald article - it's a nothing story which heightens tension between residents, motorists and cyclists. shame about all those new visitors to the area potentially parting with cash at local businesses.

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