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news
Cycle in Orkney (Twitter/Graham Wilson)Councillor urges police to charge "tourist cyclists" coming on cruise liners and "running around unsafe”
A councillor in Orkney has raised concerns about tourist cyclists coming to the island on cruise ships and urged the police to start charging them as part of an operation originally meant to tackle "anti-social driving", with the chair of the meeting confirming that measures will be put in place from next year to deal with the rider and ease the tension with the locals.
The agenda was raised by councillor Mellissa Thomson at the council's Police and Fire Sub-committee, while discussing Police Scotland's Fair Warn campaign.
The Fair Warn campaign was introduced in Orkney earlier this year to deal with anti-social and inconsiderate driving and parking behaviour. The officers have sent 47 letters to offending motorists in the last four months since the operation began.
However, Councillor Thomson asked local Chief Inspector Scott Robertson: "I am particularly interested in your Fair Warn campaign. I hadn’t understood much about it before but I’m getting it now. Is this just about vehicles or are we heading into motorbikes and push bikes?"
She added: "You probably know where I’m heading with this."
A chuckling Robertson told the councillor that it applied to motor vehicles and motorbikes, but not cycles.
Councillor Thomson then questioned: "So there’s no way you’ll be writing to people who are on push bikes who are running around unsafe at the moment and coming off cruises?"
Inspector Robertson replied: "You will be aware that myself and the chair and others have had some really good discussions with regard to the cruise ships and the cyclists coming off them.
"I don’t want to preempt it but we hope to have something in place for the next season."
MV Hrossey (image by Ronnie Robertson on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
The committee's chair Councillor David Dawson added that it was too late to get something in place for this year. He said it wouldn’t be effective as there are only a few more visits planned from ships carrying push-bikes, but assured Thomson that they will have "something for next season".
> Just how good is Mallorca for cycling?
At which point, Councillor Sandy Cowie also chimed in, saying: "The laws around cycling seem to be fairly weak.
"I discovered the other day that you can’t actually break the speed limit on a bicycle regardless of how fast you go. Speed limits, apparently, don’t apply. But you can be charged with furious cycling. I think that’s the term."
Inspector Robertson told him that he wasn't sure if he had ever heard the term "furious cycling" but they could charge people with careless and dangerous cycling in Scotland.
> Do cyclists have to stick to the speed limit?
The Press and Journal reports that there has been friction between Orcadians and liner passengers who take to the roads in large cycle groups during this summer, with the "behaviour of some cyclists and the hazards these large groups can pose to motorists" being a point of contention.
Every year, hundreds of people visit the island archipelago located off the north eastern coast of Scotland. In 2023, over 200 ships are expected as part of the cruise liner season. Even more are expected next year, with 253 advanced bookings already made.
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
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That's for the benefit of the people who live here, and businesses tend to be shut on those days.
Ah. My Ba' joke was obviously too subtle. Or just bad. 😁
As another commenter neatly summarised:
If and when it gets to nuisance levels (and I believe it is) then the issue needs to be addressed.
I appreciate the local viewpoint, I cycled round Orkney with a charity group about 10 years ago and never noticed these inexperienced cyclists (although it was blowing a gale and raining heavily the whole time) is it a more recent thing? We were only there for two days, there were about 70 of us travelling on groups of between two and ten, but we had no problems with the local motorists at all.
I first noticed the tours last year, and a definite increase this year (statistical survey sample of 1)
Motorists on the whole are very accommodating here. There's still the rare eejit, but there's barely ever any traffic congestion to get people worked up and impatient enough to try something stupid. There's also no traffic lights for MGIF'ers to race for.
All this should highlight how bad these cruise tours can be, that enough people have raised it that it gets a councillor's attention and "do something".
I'm imagining that it could be a 'new' thing that the cruise operators have adopted. Hence the issues. I've found that cycling in the really rural areas of Scotland there's been a much greater tolerance from locals as opposed to the semi rural areas where folk have moved to, to be a bit more countryfied.
Just replace "hazards" with "inconvienience"
Exactly how many cyclists are there on the average cruise ship? I would have thought that the number would be close to zero.
Large groups scaring Orcadians in 4x4s.
So at least two.
I guess the cruise operators rent bikes to passengers - but it's not clear. Given the numbers of passengers on some of these behemoths, a few % take-up could be quite a large number for a small place.
I don't think these are BYOB MAMIL cruises though.
Living on another island that's popular with cruise ships, most of the tourists appear to take walking tours or coach excursions, although one German cruise ship ("Mein Schiff" it was called) had its own fleet of bicycles.
I wonder how long she would keep her position if the cyclists announced they weren't going to come as a direct result of any meaningful action...
I suspect that scaring off a good chunk of the tourist trade a few years after covid really wouldn't go down well with people working in it (which given it is a sizeable chunk of the islands economy is an awful lot of voters...).
The reporting doesn't make clear what the problem is but I can imagine that hundreds, even thousands (not all cycling, of course) of people descending from huge cruise ships almost daily can put strain on a small island's infrastructure and services ("hazards" seem less likely). Mass tourism isn't wholly a blessing.
It sounds like something which should be addressed with the cruise companies (who must be lending the bikes). Some guidance and perhaps managing numbers, timing and routes might help. I can't imagine initiating prosecutions or even warning letters to people who'll never be there again is going to be much use.
As said above, I'm on an island that receives a fair number of cruise ship visits (about 90 this year, occasionally with two at the same time). I don't particularly think the tourists get in the way much, personally- I hardly notice they're there until I see a cruiser anchored outside the port, with the biggest inconvenience being a closed car park. I think they bring a bit of life to the place to be honest.
The moment somebody says, "push bikes", I have enough information on their antiquated attitude towards cycling to evaluate the basis for their views.
"...the hazards these large groups can pose to motorists"
Yes, these objects are a real hazard as they bounce off my bull bars(!). How is an honest driver to own the road when they insist on using it at the same time as me?
I have to say for balance, having cycled around other outlying Scottish islands, that much of mainland Britain has a lot to learn in terms of attitudes towards cyclists.
I have always used the generalised term 'pushbikes', only being more specific when differentiating between my road bike/cross bike/mountain bike etc. so don't always assume that the term means they don't know/care about the subject.
In this case however, the next sentence "...the hazards these large groups can pose to motorists" absolutely tells us all we need to know about this particular person's views on the subject!
Where is the 'push'?
I pedal mine. I only push it when, like my car, I can't propel it in the manner designed for it. I don't have a push car.
It's a cycle, bicycle or bike, which might include motorbikes so I refer to a cycle or a pedal cycle if I need to differentiate.
I've never seen "push bike" without it being overtly disparaging or where it is clearly an afterthought in somebody's considerations.
I push the pedals (my souplesse needs work).
But yes, personally, I would use 'bike' or 'motorbike'.
or "twist bike", perhaps
Ehmm, you push the pedals to generate movement. Personally I've never heard the term pedal bike.
I tend to use the term push bike. Maybe it's an age thing rather than anything else. I'm sure the councillor would have archaic views on transport regardless of her choice of word. I'm sure that she would be bumping her gums on proposals for segregated infrastructure and implementing 20mph zones across the islands.
Cyclist scum terrorising Orkney islands, trapping people in their homes...
FYI the picture you have is of a ferry, not a cruise liner. Not that cyclists can't or don't travel by ferry, but they are different things.
Of course the whole thing seems a bit ridiculous. I very much expect this is another case where the "hazard" cyclists present is merely daring to exist on the roads, forcing the poor motorists to engage their brain slightly.
"hazards these large groups can pose to motorists"
You mean drivers have to actually drive properly and concentrate?
I agree the term "hazard" isn't the best, but in the sense of something like "standing water hazard", it's perhaps more appropriate - something to look out for, and act accordingly.
A long line of single file, very spaced out, slow moving cyclists (which is the subject here) is very difficult to navigate around properly and safely. You need long clear sightlines for any oncoming traffic, and there are substantial sections of the main road where this just isn't the case - bends in the road and hills - and then you've got to be lucky enough there isn't any oncoming traffic.
For someone in public office and so het up about cycling she's not terribly well informed, is she?
I feel so sorry for those poor little motorists, trapped in their protective metal boxes and surrounded with airbags, ready to cocoon them at the slightest bump. If only we could better protect them.
Oh dear. These tourist cyclists better make sure they arrive on the island on an almost empty e-bike then.
Or with a car - that ought to ease the traffic issues.
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