Terminal cycle against the flow

10:39am Friday 3rd October 2008

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LAST week you published a letter from the parent of an 11-year-old boy who had been knocked over by a cyclist riding on the pavement.

You also reported separately that “police are urging cyclists to stay on the road” and that cycling on the pavement could attract a £30 fixed penalty fine. This would be a cheap outcome, as the maximum fine is actually £500.

Cyclists are often reported as saying they ride on pavements because it is safer than on the roads (presumably they mean safer for themselves, rather than for the pedestrians they endanger).

Setting that aside, and also the vexed question of cycling the wrong way along one-way streets, the people I really can’t understand are those who cycle against the traffic flow on the right-hand side of two-way streets.

Whether the police would treat this as careless cycling (maximum penalty £1,000) or dangerous cycling (up to £2,500) is a moot point. “Potentially terminal cycling” seems the most apt description.

SIMON ALLEN, Castle Street, Hereford.