Interesting row of three cars parked across the south bound cycle lane in Park Road. I wonder if they are attending a Tory event in that newly poster boarded house?
View up the road from the cycle lane looking north. Ah! This car is a jag. Nice clean well tended car.
Second and third car. Hum. Another fancy, perfectly groomed car.
Not sure if this car is part of what looks a bit like a set
Car number two. Oh a a Peterborough City Council ELECTED MEMBER badge on this one!
Picture of the ELECTED MEMBER badge. Difficult to forge: (shares some attributes with a bank note.)
twinkle twinkle polished car
Cllr Peach did not opt to move his car while I was there: to this day I don’t know how well he can get in and out of driveways. But this is not the first time I’ve seen him use the cycle route for stopping on.
Owner of car number one (the jag) comes out and not sure how but that car moves from behind me into that driveway as fast as lightning. He tells me “We’re pale green, you know.” Good Afternoon, Cllr Fitzgerald. Behind his right shoulder Tory candidate for Park Ward Steve Allen with a stunning smile and friendly folded arms
Cllr Fitzgerald enjoying the lovely warm sun, with his car newly tucked into the drive.
You see, our Park Ward councillor team (two Labour, one Conservative) went for what they describe as “aggressive pavement cyclists” recently and tasked the police with talking to shocked children and middle aged women cycling along gently as well as people who couldn’t speak English. (My sample was tiny: but I did one.) They fined about a third of the people they stopped: most of them probably incapable of being polite and apologising nicely to a policeman. (Some offenders just got warned, although whether or not cycling on a pavement is an offence in all circumstances is a moot point.) So I think it only fair to point out that cycling on the pavement can be a perfectly logical and reasonable response to dangerous junctions, roads and cycle lanes and is a better place to cycle if your lights have just packed up.
Cars which park in the Park Road cycle lane, or across it or on the pavement are a regular feature of life at this end of Park Road and I for one don’t think it is safe. I think badly behaved drivers are one of a number of contributory factors encouraging “pavement cycling”.
I didn’t paint in the double yellow lines (which most people don’t even believe are there any more: they are virtually worn out). The Conservative council did. So I think elected Conservative members of all people should be able to show us how we can all live happily with their decisions.
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A third was the proportion fined according to the police at a police panel I attended, if memory serves. If there are people who are being injured by hit and run cyclists, then there needs to be an education campaign. This is not a problem limited to cyclists. It would also be good to see offenders taken to court through a legitimate and fair process. If the council really wants to get cyclists onto the road, the safety and condition of cycle lanes should be a top priority.
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And, as I have pointed out before, the action on pavement cyclists was called for by concerned pedestrians, some of them having been victims (several needing hospital treatment). One third were fined? Have you obtained information from the Police? Pavement cyclists wre spoken to by the Police and Council Road Safety officers which, I wluld suggest, was not unreasonable. Meanwhile, I have also pressed for action on speeding traffic, attending sppedwatch sessions; and have held a number of meetings with Road Safety Team officers to discuss the need for better, more joined-up cycle lanes, as well as the introduction of 20mph speed limits in residential areas across the city. In fact, I attended this year’s annual 20s Plenty conference in Cambridge, along with the Principal Road Safety officer. I think my record stands up! Richard Ferris (Lab, Park Ward).
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They are all breaking road traffic act and highway code rule 140 by parking in a cycle lane! If they want to enforce road laws let’s put own house in order first!
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Utterly unsurprising I’m afraid. These people wouldn’t know sustainable travel if they tripped over it.
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Rule 240 of your Highway Code fellas.
And car numbers one and three are breaking Rule 239 of the Highway Code by parking facing oncoming traffic.
Cannot quite see if they are breaking Rule 243, with regards to parking next to a dropped kerb or in front of an entrance to a property. So I’ll let that one pass.
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