Man of Honour
I thought I'd share my experiences of yesterday which brought me great joy and a sense of justice.
I was waiting in a shop chatting to the owner whilst he did some paperwork. His shop front faces clapham road - for those of you who don't know, it is a rather busy road. Opposite his shop is a side street called stirling road. It's a residential side street off the main road. Now, parked out of the way, was a police BMW 5 series with 2 traffic cops stood outside of it.
Curious as to what they are doing there, I observe them from the shop, and simply the most incredible sight occured before me. They pulled in a cyclist! Then, 30s later - another! I didn't get it at first, but I then noticed that they had gone through the red light and that must have been why they were pulled over. The shop keeper and I now both engrossed, start talking about cyclists and sharing our disdain for them etc... he had lived in France, so we remeniced on the fact that in France you have to have a stamped badge (like a registration) on the bike - during our nostalgic reminicing, 2 more cyclists were pulled in. And by the looks on their faces, and receiving the piece of paper which looked very much like a fine - it was a moment where, were it not a glorious day of sunshine, the sun would have been shining in my day nonetheless.
I left the place drove to the junction where I was overtaken by a cyclist going through the light - I chuckled as I knew the outcome of this indescretion. Yep, he was pulled over!
I actually needed to turn onto stirling road as that's the way I get home, and slowly drove past the cops and the now increasing gaggle of cyclists, grinning... tempted to give a thumbs up or a wave, but thought it best I didn't tempt providence.
So yes, whilst not a really exciting story it was absolutely wonderful to see. Even more so was the look of disgust and anger on the cyclists faces.
Whilst I know we'll get a lot of cyclists saying "I never jump the lights" - I'd hazard a guess that in London, it's the minority that don't.
Waste of police resources? Not in my opinion. Cyclists always end up winning the "battle" (unless they die) between any skirmishes with cars - whilst I think controlling insurance and registration of cyclists would help lots, there's little that can effectively be done as let's face it, you have people of all ages using bikes - is it fair to fine kids? Then again should kids ride on the road at all?
I'm happy for this to open up as a debate - though we have had it recently. This was just me sharing my happy tale. It made my day it must be said - yes it is quite sad.
I was waiting in a shop chatting to the owner whilst he did some paperwork. His shop front faces clapham road - for those of you who don't know, it is a rather busy road. Opposite his shop is a side street called stirling road. It's a residential side street off the main road. Now, parked out of the way, was a police BMW 5 series with 2 traffic cops stood outside of it.
Curious as to what they are doing there, I observe them from the shop, and simply the most incredible sight occured before me. They pulled in a cyclist! Then, 30s later - another! I didn't get it at first, but I then noticed that they had gone through the red light and that must have been why they were pulled over. The shop keeper and I now both engrossed, start talking about cyclists and sharing our disdain for them etc... he had lived in France, so we remeniced on the fact that in France you have to have a stamped badge (like a registration) on the bike - during our nostalgic reminicing, 2 more cyclists were pulled in. And by the looks on their faces, and receiving the piece of paper which looked very much like a fine - it was a moment where, were it not a glorious day of sunshine, the sun would have been shining in my day nonetheless.
I left the place drove to the junction where I was overtaken by a cyclist going through the light - I chuckled as I knew the outcome of this indescretion. Yep, he was pulled over!
I actually needed to turn onto stirling road as that's the way I get home, and slowly drove past the cops and the now increasing gaggle of cyclists, grinning... tempted to give a thumbs up or a wave, but thought it best I didn't tempt providence.
So yes, whilst not a really exciting story it was absolutely wonderful to see. Even more so was the look of disgust and anger on the cyclists faces.
Whilst I know we'll get a lot of cyclists saying "I never jump the lights" - I'd hazard a guess that in London, it's the minority that don't.
Waste of police resources? Not in my opinion. Cyclists always end up winning the "battle" (unless they die) between any skirmishes with cars - whilst I think controlling insurance and registration of cyclists would help lots, there's little that can effectively be done as let's face it, you have people of all ages using bikes - is it fair to fine kids? Then again should kids ride on the road at all?
I'm happy for this to open up as a debate - though we have had it recently. This was just me sharing my happy tale. It made my day it must be said - yes it is quite sad.
, thankfully, none with the car yet
