90 quids in fines in two days

The context was a response to an FOIA request for the number of vehicles fined / charged for contravening ASL regs.

Ah, thanks, fudge. For some reason I didn't work out that it was talking abut stats. And it was also confusing that the second sentence didn't follow from the first, and the third sentence could have done with a 'therefore':

The advanced stop line merely creates a different stop line for different classes of vehicle. Accordingly there is no specific offence of contravening an advanced stop line. Our systems do not differentiate between automatic traffic signal offences at conventional stop lines and those at advanced stop lines.

My guess is that the police only record the offence at the level of the failure to comply with a traffic sign, and not what that traffic sign (or road marking, in this context) actually is.

Yes, in fairness to the police it has to be said that they do record a lot of information (e.g. the form for reporting a bike as stolen is very large and very impressive--and then people come along and the only thing they remember about their bike is that it was red). Still, it should be possible to track offences by different classes of road user at least and make reasonably accurate guesses as to what it was.

Oh. BTW.

@Olivier Schick and fudge - thanks for the long and detailed responses about the ASL ticket and stats, etc. Most appreciated.

Manners - FTW!

You're welcome, glad you found it of use!

"Allow cyclists time and space to move off when the green signal shows"

Ahahahahahahahahahahaha.

When I was a teenager I escaped from the police... my brother, some friends and I were in a wood near a "highland games" in America getting very high, we saw a blue flashing light and all split up and legged it in different directions, no one was caught.

We all thought we had skills even while smashed, till I met a stoner the next day who told me about this great place in the woods he liked to go to smoke... but it's dark so you need to take a light... proceeded to show me his bike light that had a flashing blue effect...

today i got pulled over -- in fact, quite literally rammed off the road by two cops in a vauxhall -- for running a red light. they also pulled over a guy on a mountainbike who followed me through.

the one who spoke with me was actually pretty nice. after a nice long lecture where i was pretty polite and apologetic (i had this very thread running through my mind as he was talking to me), he said something like, "i'm a cyclist myself. i understand the arguements for running red lights. but if you're going to do it, don't do it right in front of a police car" then let me go!

i'm taking it as my christmas present from the met.

I got stopped by a copper about a week ago. Rather foolishly (I was in a rush) I didn't look behind me for police cars so five seconds after jumping I heard sirens. He was directly behind me. Fail. I was polite and apologetic and he admitted that, although I had done it safely, that next time I should make sure there aren't any coppers about. Especially right behind you as it's impossible to turn a blind eye then. There are some reasonable ones about.

Is it fuck impossible. I was in Wandsworth a few weeks back waiting at the lights, a police car to my right. The guy in front of me (also on a bike) got fed up waiting and jumped the light. He must've been through for 30 seconds before the lights turned green. Blatant in other words. The Police did fuck all. Its probably one of the busiest junctions in the area too.

Spurred on by this thread I had a go at skitching at the weekend. Scary and unpredictable. I don't think I have the balls to do this very often.

skitching scares the fuck out of me. did it once on a pick-up truck who thought it'd be funny to swerve. i don't really do it anymore.