Wrong again!

A motion has been passed which supports police enforcement and urged the council to emphasise that riding on the pavement is illegal.

Councillor Anne Filer said cyclists are consistently ‘the biggest annoyance’ amongst residents’ public meetings in her East Cliff ward.

I'm very happy to see that yet again Bournemouth Council give in to the people that shout the loudest irrespective of whether this addresses the real issue or not!

From my experiences, very few councillors (or politicians!) care about doing what's right for the community, but are only out to impress those few voters with a bit of money or power.

This means that we get ridiculous motions and policies put in place that penalise the vulnerable minorities who do no harm so that those people in power can pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

Cycling on pavements is bad PR for cycling but it’s got to be said that the greater offence of driving on footways is generally ignored by society.

‘Pavement parking’ is a menace yet is rarely highlighted as such by people who like to rant about “Lycra louts cycling on footpaths.”

Ditto for driving and parking in cycle lanes marked by ‘you must not cross’ solid white lines.

Red light jumping is another topic that is often shouted about very loudly and whilst I really hate to see cyclists breaking the law in this way, I'll give you ten pounds for every cyclist doing this if you give me one pound for every motorist committing the same offence and I know that I'll be quids in!

I do not cycle, as a general rule, on the pavement, but I am a confident cyclist.

Being on the road can be a scary and intimidating place to be so I do not see an issue with safe and responsible pavement cycling, this is something echoed by the Department for Transport.

So where does this leave the police? Enforce a law that is contradicted by Government advice? It's going to be interesting to see the outcome of the first court case.

There is one occasion where I do cycle on the pavement and will continue to do so; I collect my five year old daughter from school every Friday and whenever we can we cycle home together.

There is a short section of very quiet road where we ride together and I encourage her to learn about the rules of the road, however for most of the journey home we cycle together on the pavement.

I am not going to stop doing this until she is old enough to ride on the road.

Here's an interesting observation about this journey: Without exception, every pedestrian we pass, often with my daughter ringing her bell to let them know we're there, gives us a smile and gets a thank you for letting us pass. I'm not quite sure where the problem is here?

Based on information supplied by David Brown.