mileburner  posted
>
>I had figured that a lot of pavement cycling was due to cyclists not having
>the knowledge and confidence to tackle the roads and fear of mingling with
>traffic. I do not think that it has much to do with selfishness and
>aggression, they fear the roads because a lot of the time they do not
>understand traffic.

There are different types of pavement cyclists. The ones who do it 
because they are afraid of traffic are usually mums or children, and 
they are (usually) careful about pedestrians. I don't mind them so much, 
they just need to be taught differently. (I'm not saying that training 
is bad, just that *compulsory* training would cause more harm than 
good.)

The other kind are the thugs and Lycra louts who bomb down pedestrian 
precincts scattering people in all directions and challenging people to 
stop them. For these, hanging is too good.

>While everyone seems to want to see an end to pavement cycling, the idea of
>issuing tickets to them seems to be unpopular. The police guidence for
>issuing a FPNs to pavement cyclists implies that they must be causing a
>nuisance (or words to that effect)

That's not bad guidance.  It just needs to be enforced. It's the 
thug-cyclists that need to be fined and have their bikes (and preferably 
their testicles) crushed, not the mums.

>which means in most cases the police will
>just ignore it.

That needs to change. Pavement cyclists who aren't causing any nuisance 
should be stopped and informed that they are committing an offence and 
please don't do it again.

>In a recent discussion with a local PCSO I was told that
>they will only approch pavement cyclists if they are in the centre of town
>and that they will not do anything on residential streets.

I was told by a Met plod years ago that their policy was to ignore it 
completely. But then, general Met policy is to ignore everything 
completely, unless they can get their guns and fast cars and helicopters 
out and make like Dirty Harry.

-- 
Les
If creating a police state saves just one child, then it will all have been
worthwhile.