Legal Eagle "Cold Case" Research.

[trapperjohn]

Santa bought a couple of new(ish) pushbikes to the Trapper garage. Which lead to a conversation about "pedaling furiously" Not as there is any danger of that happening here. Local myth and legend has it that the first such court case was brought after a cyclist was "knicked" for that self same heinous crime at a local hill known as Pear Tree Brow in Penwortham, near Preston.

Can anyone substantiate this please.

I thank you.


Taylor v. Goodwin (1879) 4 QBD 228, a case where the Queen’s Bench Division held, on appeal, that a cyclist was appropriately convicted by a magistrate for furious riding of a bicycle. The dicta of Justice Melor in the case has been cited and followed in a number of cases since: see, for example, Smith v. Kynnersley [1903] 1 KB 788 (cyclist not liable to pay bridge toll) and Corkery v. Carpenter [1951] I KB 102 (cyclist liable for offence where cycling drunk).

 

[developer]

Dunno, but you need to cycle your way round to the caption competition......

 

[D-18]

Can anyone substantiate this please

TJ,

I don't believe there is any specific offence such as cycling / pedalling furiously, but I think as road 'vehicles', bicycles are covered by other legislation so there will almost certainly be some way where a smart lawyer could 'get' you!

 

[trapperjohn]

Dunno, but you need to cycle your way round to the caption competition......

Done. Picture posted.

 

[Colin_b]

See the cycling furiously section here... Cycling and the Law - Bikehub - http://www.bikehub.co.uk

An odd mixture of case law, old laws, unicycles, bicycles and cattle

Nice little project for boxing day?

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I do know that you can be done for 'speeding' on a bicycle.

I remember watching a police, stop, shoot programme and a lad got charged with doing something like 30mph in a 20mph zone.

 

[grober]

I knew a guy at college who was charged with being drunk in charge of a bicycle. He had the singular misfortune of falling off his bike in an inebriated state right in front of the local police panda wagon. Bad choice of vehicle !

 

[del320]

I remember watching a police, stop, shoot programme and a lad got charged with doing something like 30mph in a 20mph zone.

Sounds unlikely: Speed limits are only for motorised/mechanically propelled vehicles which require a speedometer. The obvious thing about bikes is that they are not required to have an accurate speedo (or any speed device at all), so how on earth could a cyclist be expected to know they have broken the limit?

Having said that, my Father - now in his 102nd year - recalls being ticked off by a copper somewhere in Derbyshire for alleged dangerous (or perhaps "furious") cycling for supposedly exceeding 50mph whilst overtaking the unmarked police car! (Down a hill, of course)

He reckoned he could get to 60mph on a tandem.

Stopping power provided by four two-inch blocks of rubber.

 

[MOCAŠ]

I seem to recall that Jeremy Clarkson once made a point of the fact that you can still be charged with "driving furiously" on the Isle of Man, but as recently as 2009, a cyclist in Weymouth was convicted of "wanton a and furious driving", after causing the death of a pedestrian while cycling on the pavement.

BBC NEWS | England | Dorset | Cyclist jailed for pavement death

CPS: Policy for prosecuting cases of bad driving

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Sounds unlikely: Speed limits are only for motorised/mechanically propelled vehicles which require a speedometer.

I thought it was a bit strange as well but if two policemen are on TV pulling someone on a bicycle for speeding, I wouldn't have thought it was just for show?

 

[Dieselman]

I thought it was a bit strange as well but if two policemen are on TV pulling someone on a bicycle for speeding, I wouldn't have thought it was just for show?

Cough...

Cameras do funny things to people...

 

[Dieselman]

Having said that, my Father - now in his 102nd year - recalls being ticked off by a copper somewhere in Derbyshire for alleged dangerous (or perhaps "furious") cycling for supposedly exceeding 50mph whilst overtaking the unmarked police car! (Down a hill, of course)

He reckoned he could get to 60mph on a tandem.

Stopping power provided by four two-inch blocks of rubber.

I doubt the 60mph, but guess it's possible due to twice the power and possibly slightly less drag due to the additional length, but at those speeds gearing plays a large part, you just can't pedal fast enough.

A very fit work college proudly announced a recorded 50mph in Derbyshire recently, there are some nice steep hills there.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Cough...

Cameras do funny things to people...

The funny thing was, the cyclist was going uphill over a bridge!

 

[del320]

I doubt the 60mph... you just can't pedal fast enough.

Who mentioned pedalling?

All up - weight of tandem, two 6' guys and a bit of luggage equates to somewhere over 200kg hurtling down the Rest and be Thankful.

It's called momentum!

 

[Harrythedog]

I often see people cycling furiously mainly when they are in 1st gear on an expensive mountain bike cycling on a flat main road

 

[D-18]

Who mentioned pedalling?

Best I've seen is 47mph on the cycle computer - never quite managed to crack 50mph. Steep hill, 80Kg (OK - so I'm a fat git) rider, 23mm tyres inflated to 145psi plus a very strong tailwind.

 

[Dieselman]

^ 47mph here too. At that speed your legs are dropping off.

 

[LTD]

Been pulled over in my youth by cops drafting behind a bus going downhill on the A77 on a training run - 6 of us in the pack.

Spinning 54/11s like hell.

Copper said over 60mph but let us off with a stern word as we had no speedo and 'were being f**king stupid'.

It was mid 80s though - when we had no commonsense but the law did.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Copper said over 60mph. It was mid 80s though

 

[D-18]

Spinning 54/11s like hell.

I was on a 53/12 and like you, spinning like crazy on 172.5 cranks. My computer at the time had a cadence read-out and I wish it had stored the maximum rpm which would have been way into the red-zone.