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.