Cycle box penalty is unfair
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The advance stop line bicycle boxes are now subject to a possible fine of E100 and three penalty points if you encroach them. Cameras photograph the front of the vehicle.
These boxes are for pedal cycles only, yet motorcycles always go into them. Motorbikes don't have a front number plate so the cameras can't identify them, even though they, too, have committed an offence. Surely, we should all be treated the same? Just as with parking fines, apathy
rules and people won't appeal due to the time and costs involved. The fines are bad enough, but the three points will really bring pain, especially with insurance premiums.
You can stop in these boxes legally, if it means that by proceeding you commit another offence, ie going through a red light. These fines need to be challenged. It's hard enough keeping within the law driving a car, so God only knows how anyone can navigate central London in an artic and stay out of trouble. There are certain crossroad junctions, Shaftesbury Avenue in Soho for example,
where the hard-pressed LGV driver has first to negotiate the 5m advanced stop box, then another 4m of pedestrian crossing area, then another 5m of no man's land and a yellow box before he clears the junction! At busy times with vehicles filtering into the only available space ahead it is all but impossible to negotiate these junctions legally. It is nothing short of entrapment.
They have snuck this in under the radar and a lot of people will get caught out, at considerable cost. Name and address withheld by request