Police spotting (junction watch)

Yeah they will, but by the time they do, the dude has burgled 7 others, got home and is eating his tea infront of the telly.

Maybe they have drafted in loads of officers from outside of london, who know even less about riding a bicycle in this city.

When I got burgled I had three coppers round in half an hour. Their explanation was that Lewisham has the highest robbery rate so they get a lot of money to fund robbery investigations.

I think someone was sprinkling poo on his doughnuts

re. shit names for things

I hate it when people say they're "going central", e.g. to see a show, go out, etc. Firstly you missed an article. Secondly what's wrong with telling us where you're actually going. West End, Mayfair, none of these have any more syllables....

Viccy Park is fine though. And Beffnal.

cops on form tonight in Brixton. Loads of them hanging around, giving leaflets to cyclists with lights and helmets, but ignoring the locals cycling through reds with no lights or anything. Too scared to pull up the local thugs?? What a waste of space and money they are.

pointed a black cab that was in the ASL to the brixplod. "the lights changed and that's where he came to a stop" was their answer.

so fucking what?

useless fucking turds.

pointed a black cab that was in the ASL to the brixplod. "the lights changed and that's where he came to a stop" was their answer.

so fucking what?

useless fucking turds.

if the lights are changing a car can enter the ASL. once the lights are red a motor vehicle should not cross the stop line into the ASL and this would count as running the red light (though there is controversy as to whether bikes are allowed to enter if there is not a filter lane or dashed line into the green box)

captain cabbie didn't like it when i told him and the assembled hi viz warriors that i didn't seem to have that problem when i drive. if you're getting stuck in the ASL it's because you're not paying attention to the traffic flow.

but it from your description he had not broken the law

yes. thanks for that. have a gold star.

The Brixton-plod, from what I saw tonight, are a waste of space. Mostly standing around chatting to each other and not even looking at what is going on around them.

lots in tooting bec-broadway. one telling off a car in the ASL, from what i heard just describing the details of the fine but letting the driver off with a warning.
nice of them to warn cars and fire FPNs at bikes, even if they don't know what the fuck the traffic rules are (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/02/case-against-london-cyclist-dropped-crossed-red-light-safety)

Norbury fire station the last few nights, unsure what they are watching for as they aren't near enough the lights to stop anyone and are on a straight strech of road. Tempted to pull over and ask them but then I don't have one of them hats on to protect my spine in a crash.

^^written by a forumenger, our favourite cycling solicitor

Camden Town this evening. On the junction of the High St, Camden Road and Kentish Town Road. Think they were just pulling bikes for not having helmets / high viz / lights etc... Certainly didn't give a fuck about the cards in the ASL at the bottom of Parkway.

In the interest of balance I got rumbled for jumping a red light in Camden this morning. I breezed through a junction and got pulled by an unmarked police motorbike. I was wearing headphones and no hi viz and immediately pulled the 'its a fair cop guv I was late and have no excuses, i feel a total tit with all the publicity this week' routine. Fair play to the guy he asked me if I cycled a lot, to which to replied yes, he made no mention of walkman and let me off saying he was there till 10am and he would rather pull over cars for encroaching in the asl. What a thoroughly decent chap.fist pump

Just got a FPN (£50) for cycling on the footpath in Kingston town centre. I (ignorantly, admittedly) assumed that Clarence street was a shared path and have been riding that way for nearly a year and no-one has said anything, I have ridden past PCSO's and police on that section before without a problem. I'm obviously a cash cow for operation Safeway, he could have warned me and been done with it but targets are targets.

Would there be any recourse on appeal due to inadequate signage? an A5 sign 3 quarters of the way up a lampost obscured by a tree doesn't quite cut it in my opinion.

Shit man, was it actually illegal? I don't remember any signage on Clarence Street.

It's a lots less riskier going through Wood Street.

Ah, found it.

It's very tiny, can't believed I didn't notice it before.

Mr Motorbike's been up and down Camden High Road all morning. Seems to be pulling anyone doing anything wrong regardless of vehicle which is fair enough. The Hi-vis brigade loitering around the junctions though seem utterly clueless. I got stopped at the bottom of Parkway to receive some 'official advice' last night and, aside from some confusion about the ASL which I'll get back to in a second, they just seemed to be following a script about lights and reflectives without understanding what they were saying.

As far as the ASL thing goes, I was starting my journey from Parkway and I walked onto the road on the pedestrian crossing (while the green man was there) from the left of the streetview pic below and mounted my bike about where the Speedy van is, between the ASL and the pedestrian crossing, to wait for the green light to cross the junction which Mr Plod told me was effectively the same as jumping the light. I'm genuinely confused and I haven't found anything useful from the google but it seems to me that technically I joined the carriageway after the lights so can't have broken them. I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better than me though

The offence written on the fpn is something like 'crossing the stop line when signal is red'. Note as a ped you're allowed anywhere on the road at any time more or less, pushing a bike = ped, so walking over the line is not rlj'ing.

^ This. If you are walking your bike, you are a pedestrian and there is no offence (per Crank v Brooks).

Plod is, as ever, ignorant of the law.

That's what I thought (thanks for the Crank v Brooks reminder, always forget that name)
The fact I got on my bike in the middle of the road and thus was no longer a ped shouldn't change the fact I didn't contravene the signal, right? It does seem to be a bit of a grey area though, I can't find anything that definitively states one way or the other what the rules are in this situation

It's not grey at all.

Until you get on your bike, you are a pedestrian*.

As a pedestrian, it is impossible for you to commit any line / signal offences that relate to vehicles (including those that apply to bicycles).

Other offences that might apply could be obstructing traffic, I guess.

• You may, however, be charge with drunk and in charge of a bicycle, even if you are not riding it. Perhaps you should lay off the booze first thing in the morning...