Richmond park off limits to bikes

The speed limit for bikes used to rely on the Royal Parks Act. And even then it's not completely clear whether it does or doesn't apply to bicycles.

Yes. No. Maybe. As ever, it's clear as mud.

The various Parks Acts, last time I cba to look, do not define a bicycle as a vehicle for the purposes of those Acts. It's in the RTA that the definition of vehicle does include bicycles, within limited contexts.

But not, afaik, actually tested in court.

Aren't Royal Parks, the Park Police and the Met on record as saying that the limits don't apply to bicycles in any case? Which makes the current limit a weird flex.

Clearly all intended to try to dissuade fast groups from doing laps

Wish they would give as much of shit towards the dangerous drivers and commercial vehicles

The changes they've made w.r.t. cars has been positive though (closing Robin Hood Gate years ago, stopping them going between Robin Hood gate and Kingston gate, etc).

I'm guessing it's a "slowly slowly" approach until any through traffic by cars is banned, which will change the park a lot (for the better). Although I'm guessing they will be more contention between cyclists and pedestrians then.

(I've no real problem with cars have access to the car parks within the park. I'd just like to see all through traffic banned.)

Once the through traffic is banned they might make the anti-cyclist stuff less obtrusive.

Fast lappers can still lap fast, it's just two choke points they've introduced, albeit in a very shit way. Those two points constitute ~0.5% of my usual time cycling around the park so I've still got emptier nice roads for 99.5% of the time.

I heard it was all funded by yanto barker to protect his lap KOM.

The priority filter over the bridge is just plain rubbish - all it's done is create a traffic jam in a park. Slow hand clap for whoever came up with that one.

There is a pavement on the far side already which I hardly see anyone use. If they want a new way over for peds, it would be much better building a new wooden footbridge further south to allow people to cross over directly from the Roehampton Gate car park.

But the rest of the changes only really affect fast lappers who are trying to hit PBs. The question is whether that kind of riding is that important to the utility of the park. I'd say no - although any 10mph speed limit for bikes would be mad.

The irony is, having now paved the Tamsin trail descent on Broomfield hill, I absolutely ripped down it yesterday. First time i've ridden it with a freewheel and it's like riding a giant slalom ski track. The old gravel version had enough jeopardy to ensure caution but I imagine quite a few people binned it during peak sand in the summer.

I thought this had been tested in court and the fines were found to be illegal. If that's the case it is quite clear, speed limits don't apply to bikes.

Reading recent updates from the park it sounds as though they are going to try and claim riders above the speed limit are therefore ridding dangerously and are breaking the law. I may have got 5 after 1+ 1 but if this is the case it would be pretty drastic as drivers (in most cases) aren't charged with dangerous driving when caught speeding.

I've just moved close to Richmond Park a week ago.

As I typically ride solo from 5am-7am and I've not found the obstructions a real issue.

Nor the cars, and that's the real beauty of this park (and Regents) that it can be used for training whiles cars aren't allowed.

Although, I'm well off my PB so as I inch closer I'm sure it will be more obvious problem.

The priority filter is rubbish. It only really affects you if you're fast toward Roehampton. If you're coming the other way, you can still squeeze through single file. The cars just pile through against their priority towards Roehampton. This morning I decided to be overtly generous and give way to 2 cars and about 20 cyclists. Maybe it will dissuade cars from cutting through.

Out of busy times it's the deer to watch out for! Nearly got mufasa'd last night.