We were discussing this at work the oher day, and UK law is interesting. The law applies to "motor vehicles". Under UK law a motor vehicle is: "Any vehicle intended or adapted for use on the road". Under that definition, you could get some tricky arguments at court. A road bike clearly fits the definition, but a mountain bike may not. Buy thin, slick, puncture proof road tyres for your MTB however, and now you've adapted it for road use and it DOES fit. We searched to see if there have been any test cases to set a precident, but couldn't find any. I'm fairly confident on he above interpretation of UK law though, so it IS possible to get a speeding ticket on certain bikes: however, its extremely unlikely unless you really annoy the cop!
Speeding on a bike?
- Thread starter Morisato
- Start date
Not having red the law to which you refer, my guess is that the law is written after roads were built.
All roads having been built soon after bicycles were invented, "Any vehicle intended or adapted for use on the road", would refer to bikes and coaches
which had been fitted with motors (motorcylces, motor-coaches).
All roads having been built soon after bicycles were invented, "Any vehicle intended or adapted for use on the road", would refer to bikes and coaches
which had been fitted with motors (motorcylces, motor-coaches).
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[COLOR= black][SIZE= small]Bicycles have been around since the 1860s (1817 by some accounts). [/COLOR][/SIZE]
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[COLOR= black][SIZE= small]The first paved roads in America were paved in the 1870s. [/COLOR][/SIZE]
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[COLOR= black][SIZE= small]The first commercial automobile, the Duryea motor wagon was introduced to America in March 1896. [/COLOR][/SIZE]
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[COLOR= black][SIZE= small]Two months later, the nation's first traffic collision was recorded, when one a motorist hit a bicyclist, [/COLOR]breaking the bicyclist's leg. [/SIZE]The law is the Road Traffic Act 1988, so yes, bicycles were certainly around when it was written! I think the argument in court would go down to whether the bike was "intended" for use on the road. That way, although the majority of people ride them on the road anyway, you may be ale to squeeze an excuse out of riding a mountain bike or a cyclocross bike, saying it doesn't fit the definition. A road bike though, you'd be screwed! Incidentally, if you do get a ticket in the UK (I know of a cyclist ticketed for going through a red light) then you get points on your driving licence and a fine. If you don't have a driving licence, one is created for you, sitting ready with the points if you ever apply.
As a rule, very few tickets are challenged. However, in the UK you do not have to accept any fixed penalty from a police officer. However if you refuse to accept one, then the officer can simply summons you to a court hearing instead However, a fixed penalty takes an officer five minutes to complete at the roadside, whereas a summons file takes a couple of hours work in a station. A lot of officers try to persuade you to take the ticket, as its less work for them. Even if you're summonsed to court, if you plead guilty at first heaing you can expect the same penalty as a ticket would have given you. If I'm ever ticketted for anything at all, I'm refusing the ticket (politely) and hoping the officer is too busy to remember to do the file later!
