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Business owners complain cyclists still riding in pedestrianised zone despite council handing out thousands of pounds worth of fines

A total of 550 fines were issued from July 2019 to October last year, according to council figures...

Cyclists are regularly being handed £100 on the spot fines for riding through a pedestrianised shopping street. 

Two years ago, businesses on Grimsby's Victoria Street raised concerns for customer safety following a number of incidents involving cyclists.

Signs which alert cyclists to a ban on cycling along Victoria Street were subsequently installed at the entrances to the precinct.

The area is also patrolled by enforcement officers for North East Lincolnshire Council, who dished out 550 fines in the first 15 months of the ban, which was brought in as part of a Public Space Protection Order in July 2019.

But one business manager has now said she is still worried someone will get hurt by a passing cyclist, The Grimsby Telegraph reports. 

She said:  "We have families come in with children and sometimes the children wander out the door and it scares me to think there could be a cyclist going past a speed."

Another shopworker said: "You see it all the time everyday. The cyclists don't pay any attention to the signs.

"It is very rare to see anyone walking with their cycle. I look out our window and there is always some one riding past. Some don't care that there are people walking close by and they are going fast on their bikes."

A total of 550 fines were issued from July 2019 to October last year, according to council figures.

Courts imposed fines and costs of more than £9,000 on 14 defendants whose cases were taken to court.

All the cyclists had been issued with a £100 fixed penalty notice for cycling in the pedestrianised area on Victoria Street.

Councillor Ron Shepherd, cabinet member for Safer and Stronger Communities at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: "We will fine you if you put other people at risk by cycling in Grimsby’s pedestrian zone

“Those who choose not to pay the £100 fixed penalty notice, find themselves facing a larger bill in court.

“Enforcement officers patrol the area regularly. Shoppers, businesses and people working in the town centre often complain about nuisance cycling.

“There’s no need to cycle in the pedestrian area – Bethlehem Street and Osborne Street are literally a few metres away and run parallel to it."

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87 comments

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Robert Hardy | 3 years ago
2 likes

I largely agree but it is a question of degree. In general people cycling from a-b don't want to find pedestrians in their route and neither do you want to be meandering on a through cycle route - see my moan about off-street paths below. The UK problem is that in an attempt to tick boxes for "active travel" create an actual "off-road route" without spending any money we pretty much stick a blue and white "shared use" pedestrian and cycle sign in a space and dust off our hands. We just wouldn't do this for motor vehicles - but there is still very little comprehension that cyclists are neither motorists nor pedestrians.

If people have separate walking and cycle routes for actually going places as well as "mainly pedestrian" space too, the evidence suggests that these tend to self-regulate.  This even "works" in town centres right now with cars!  Lots of pedestrians, cycling is by necessity slow or people walk.  Empty streets, speeds will go up. (Any wronguns causing trouble - just as they always do - can be an enforcement issue).

(Aside - another nuisance is we rarely clearly delineate "space for pedestrians" and "space for cycles" even when building new infra.  If we could only settle on something like e.g. a single colour of asphalt nationwide people might have a hope of understanding where "their own" space was.)

If cycling becomes more popular then - just like with cars now - providing some "really pedestrian only" zones with cycle parking outside them - just like with cars - is how to do it.

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Rendel Harris replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 3 years ago
19 likes

Nigel Garrage wrote:

Increase the fines, confiscate offending bikes and sell them on eBay. increased revenue for local services. Win-win.

OK as long as the same applies to speeding cars in 20 zones, which kill a lot more people. 85% of drivers ignore 20 limits so that should raise a few bob.

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chrisonabike replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 3 years ago
11 likes

So if we're agreed this should be a universal punishment and proportionate to the risk - which seems fair - presumably the cyclists will have to endure lettuce, grapes and baby tomatoes.  Motorcyclists and car drivers should face baking potatoes, melons and pineapples. That's including pavement parkers - because the cars didn't really get there by crane did they? I'm not sure we normally have suitable projectiles available for bus and lorry drivers but presumably this would be a jackfruit, yam, sweet potato or pumpkin level offense and thus generally fatal?

Although pedestrians and cyclists can mix quite safely I think that this is generally not a good idea as it slows down the cyclists. This is a common source of friction / complaints because a) both modes are fighting over scraps of space after the motor vehicles are provided for and b) motor vehicles are seen as "normal" and bicycles are not - so they attract disproportionate negative attention.  Maybe also putting someone in a box has a two-way psychological distancing effect ("pedestrian was hit by a car" as opposed to "hit by a cyclist")?

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to chrisonabike | 3 years ago
9 likes

Why do people reply to Boo? 80% of what he posts is just to get a reaction. That is why they takes the very extreme positions on most things ( or their "jokes" when called out on some of it). They almost got bored previously as evidenced with the flouncing and name changes but people started reposnding again. 

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chrisonabike replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 3 years ago
5 likes

Why does anyone post here? The pleasures of shouting into an internet-sized cave to hear the echos? This poster doesn't have an entirely one-sided history ("80%...") else I wouldn't bother. Plenty of people here have bees in their cycle-basket. If it's always repetitive and boring then just kill it by silence, yes. If you respond with something sensible and unruffled but always get ad-homs, sealioning or the Gish Gallop you know.

I'm prepared to given occasional benefit of the doubt on the "trolling" vs. "banter" - plus I quite like the surreal too...

With no dissenting voices though - even if you think they're largely in bad faith - that would leave us all creating Cyclopedia, nodding over our beer or shouting into the void.  With the exception of squirrel memes, pedantry and pun-fights of course.

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hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 3 years ago
3 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Why does anyone post here? The pleasures of shouting into an internet-sized cave to hear the echos? This poster doesn't have an entirely one-sided history ("80%...") else I wouldn't bother. Plenty of people here have bees in their cycle-basket. If it's always repetitive and boring then just kill it by silence, yes. If you respond with something sensible and unruffled but always get ad-homs, sealioning or the Gish Gallop you know.

I'm prepared to given occasional benefit of the doubt on the "trolling" vs. "banter" - plus I quite like the surreal too...

With no dissenting voices though - even if you think they're largely in bad faith - that would leave us all creating Cyclopedia, nodding over our beer or shouting into the void.  With the exception of squirrel memes, pedantry and pun-fights of course.

I love a bit of Wondermark (where sealioning comes from):

//wondermark.com/c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png)

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Owd Big 'Ead | 3 years ago
16 likes

As ever the devil is in the detail.

I wonder if any of the business owners, councillors or enforcement officers have ever asked themselves why cyclists continue to flout the pedestrian zone rules?

The suggested route, Victoria Street/Bethlehem Street is full of bus stops, on-street parking bays, some which motorists have to reverse out of and heavy goods vehicles. No wonder cyclists prefer to risk a fine by cycling through the pedestrian zone rather than using the adjoining road infrastructure.

Unfortunately, Grimsby is your typical local authority where the councillors are still in the thrall of the automobile and everything has to defer to it's might. Sadly there aren't any viable alternatives, but to use Victoria Street, unless you are extremely brave/stupid.

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Secret_squirrel replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 3 years ago
8 likes

I'm glad someone local came along to clarify why this is happening. 
why dont the local council muppets use some of that funding to improve the alternate routes for cyclists?

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0-0 | 3 years ago
1 like

It would be rude to ignore a possible Strava KOM opportunity.
It's just not cricket old boy 😉

I'm joking. Get off and push when it's crowded with zombie consumers.

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hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
6 likes

Who would have thought that criminalising normal behaviour would be appreciated by the new criminal class? If I were anywhere near there, I'd be cycling through it as a protest against ridiculous group punishment (i.e. punishing all cyclists for the behaviour of a few).

Cycling is not a crime!

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kettlenorth replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
2 likes

I suppose you ride your bike on the highway too ?

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hawkinspeter replied to kettlenorth | 3 years ago
3 likes

kettlenorth wrote:

I suppose you ride your bike on the highway too ?

Hell yeah!

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chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
1 like

🎵 Get your e-bike runnin'
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way 𝅘𝅥𝅮

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nH5g_YWiRM

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 3 years ago
3 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

🎵 Get your e-bike runnin'
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way 𝅘𝅥𝅮

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nH5g_YWiRM

Pffft! The kid would have been fine if they'd been wearing a helmet.

I'm surprised that none of the traffic stopped and ushered the kid to safety as the police officer did.

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Eton Rifle replied to kettlenorth | 3 years ago
3 likes

"Highway"? We call them roads here and cyclists ride them by right (motorways excepted).

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hawkinspeter replied to Eton Rifle | 3 years ago
3 likes

Eton Rifle wrote:

"Highway"? We call them roads here and cyclists ride them by right (motorways excepted).

I was puzzled by that question as it didn't seem to fit in with the rest of kettlenorth's line of questioning - now it makes more sense if he meant U.S. highways.

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brooksby | 3 years ago
10 likes

If people are walking out of shop doorways without looking, might they also run the risk of being walked into by a passing pedestrian or hit by a person driving a mobility scooter?  Ban doorways, that's what I think!  3

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ktache | 3 years ago
5 likes

You were promised a simple solution to your perceived horrors, you were lied to, it turns out that things are far more complex than you could possibly have imagined.

Ah well...

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Slartibartfast | 3 years ago
9 likes

It's tragic that none of the many people killed and seriously injured by these incredibly dangerous cyclists are being respected.

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hawkinspeter replied to Slartibartfast | 3 years ago
4 likes

Dogless wrote:

It's tragic that none of the many people killed and seriously injured by these incredibly dangerous cyclists are being respected.

I forget, how many victims were there?

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ktache replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
3 likes

Uncountable multitudes...

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Slartibartfast replied to ktache | 3 years ago
4 likes

No actual figures given, but I guess they must have just lost count after the first thousand. Whatever the figure, this is a serious, very real risk, and definitely worth spending time and money to police.

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hawkinspeter replied to Slartibartfast | 3 years ago
9 likes

Dogless wrote:

No actual figures given, but I guess they must have just lost count after the first thousand. Whatever the figure, this is a serious, very real risk, and definitely worth spending time and money to police.

It sounds serious enough that there should be a mandatory pedestrian helmet law brought in and maybe the shops should be handing out hi-viz tabards for their customers.

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chrisonabike replied to Slartibartfast | 3 years ago
5 likes

Presumably it's hard to properly identify the mangled pedestrian remains. Or it's possible that the poor pedestrian was carried away entirely.

Fortunately I found a video by an American on how to survive in the worst terror-cycle-afflicted place on earth which may help although I appreciate this may just re-traumatise people. Actually, don't watch it. It's all frightful really, people given as little thought as squirrels...

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 3 years ago
3 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Presumably it's hard to properly identify the mangled pedestrian remains. Or it's possible that the poor pedestrian was carried away entirely.

Fortunately I found a video by an American on how to survive in the worst terror-cycle-afflicted place on earth which may help although I appreciate this may just re-traumatise people. Actually, don't watch it. It's all frightful really, people given as little thought as squirrels...

 

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
3 likes

Is that Hitchcock's lost horror masterpiece?

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hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 3 years ago
2 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Is that Hitchcock's lost horror masterpiece?

How would I know if it's been lost?

From: http://www.amaninthewoods.com/2015/12/alfred-hitchcocks-lost-screenplay.html

Quote:

HOW TO SURVIVE A SQUIRREL ATTACK

1.  Do not panic.  Squirrels, especially fox squirrels can literally smell fear.  They have an extra nostril designed just for this purpose.

2.  Whatever you do, DO NOT LET THE SQUIRREL GET YOU TO THE GROUND!  This is where they can really do their damage with their 4 little feet, 2 OF WHICH THEY CAN TURN IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!

3.  Protect your neck.  Squirrel will not actually attack your windpipe or vascular system there but will use the neck hole of your clothing to gain easier access to vital organs.

4.  Every attacking animal requires a different response.
Sharks = punch them in the nose.
Grizzly bear = play dead.
Black bear = fight since they want to eat you.
With squirrels, apparently the best response is to scream like a little girl and curl up in the fetal position.

5.  Carry 1-2 lbs of hickory nuts or pecans with you at all times.  When attacked, scatter them like a sea cucumber disgorging itself, to distract the marauding squirrel and buy you precious seconds of time to escape.

In all seriousness, it is a proven fact that most squirrel-related deaths are not related to the attack itself but the victims dying from embarrassment after admitting to others they were attacked and injured by a squirrel.

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