Radio Two's Jeremy Vine busted for speeding in Hyde Park - on his bike

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Comments on road.cc are always so predictable. No one here seems to care about the interests or safety of those not on a bike. Rules are for those other bastards etc.

Are you aware how ridiculously slow 5mph is?

At that speed the cyclists will need protection from the pedestrians whizzing past....

Personally I think the parks authority need to justify why the 5mph limit is necessary, and why it is not signposted.

I ride through there everyday (and used to have the Strava KOM...) and saw the cops this morning though most were actually PCOs.

I can confirm there are no signs pointing out the speed limit along this section. Moreover Vine is quite right, if they do expect people to ride at 5 mph I (and many others) will just go and ride along South Carriage. Fortunately that's a pretty safe alternative.

Two things about this though:

1) Think the Parks are now owned by the Mayor (rather than central Government as used to the case) so Boris Johnson should tell them to go hang. He's also the PCC for the Met should give them a dressing down for wasting resources.

2) There's a ruddy great big horse track next parallel to the shared use path. It wouldn't be hard to give up some of that for cycling and it'd have no impact on pedestrians.

The Royal parks dislike cycling. There's plenty of space for several wide, high quality separate cycleways through the parks without overly impinging upon green space. Instead they paint a line down a path and impose a punitive speed limit.

Of course... if enough people fall off their bikes and have any pain or injury then report it to the parks police. If being forced to ride so slowly may have caused the injury then this limit would have to be reviewed.
If it was difficult to ride so slow then many may fall off....

I have just sent a Freedom of Information request to Royal Parks for information on all the speed limits at different points on Parks cycle lanes.....suggest several hundred others do the same to ensure we all have the information required to be able to comply with their very unclear rules.

cycle [at] royalparks.gsi.gov.uk

What about the Broad Walk in Regents Park? The KOM is well over 20mph (which can only be achieved at dawn). There are no speed limit signs anywhere.

...and the average speed of someone running (for arguments sake training for a marathon) is ?

As a previous poster commented, a bicycle is not required (by law) to be fitted with a speedometer, and there are no bicycle speedometers that meet DOT specifications for calibration and accuracy.

So, can any legal expert advise road.cc readers (and the Police if reading this thread) how a cyclist can accurately gauge their speed to comply with a 5mph speed limit?

Surely, the Police could be challenged using this information; its not commonly known that the Police will often rely on the ignorance of the general public to readily accept any accusations made "You fit the description of someone seen in the area.."

Was there a recent case against a Richmond Park cyclist that was overturned on appeal because the cyclist contested his ability to gauge his speed with any accuracy after the Police fined him for speeding in the park?

5mph on a bike is very slow. I'm not sure I've ever done that on the road.

I run at over 5mph though - I'd be interested in the bloke who says that he walks at 5mph. Thats almost twice the speed I do and I've never been passed by someone at that speed !

5mph on a bike is very slow. I'm not sure I've ever done that on the road.

I run at over 5mph though - I'd be interested in the bloke who says that he walks at 5mph. Thats almost twice the speed I do and I've never been passed by someone at that speed !

It's a Royal Park, so let's sponsor Prince Charles to ride his bike through it at 10mph and see if they book him.

I'm not entirely sure, but if you listen carefully and have audio enhancement software, I'm sort of sure you can hear 'f**k off you pleb, do you know who I am? I pay your wages and I earn a load more than you' I think I'm right and it'll be in a National Newspaper tomorrow morning.........

This has currently got to be one of the greatest wastes of Police time,resources and effort anywhere in this increasingly
over sensitive and under funded nanny state.
I wonder how prat -like the offices must feel doing such a demeaning job as busting and treating the cyclist like they are being told off by mummy or daddy.
Which over-paid and under utilised individual thought this one up?

From what I can see from the pictures provided by Mr Vine's webcam, the shared path is not wide enough to safely accommodate both cyclists and pedestrians without risk of conflict.
Such a cycling path needs to be properly engineered as a clearly defined separate roadway, and be at least two metres wide with an angled raised kerb separating it from the adjacent walkway.

According to the Royal Parks there is no law to keep at 5mph, so it's not enforceable and besides, I doubt the radar gun was calibrated for use on a bicycle as the frontal signature is too small to record accurate readings.
But I agree any shared path with pedestrians you should moderate your speed. Hitting someone on a bike at 16 mph or more with a combined weight of 100kgs or more will hurt someone, possibly both parties.

I agree with: How can one be done for speeding, if there is no VOSA recognised speedo on a bike!

Also... I just tried walking fast (to the point where it became uncomfortable for me), and achieved 3.2 MPH. This was using Wahoo Fitness app on my iPhone 5s. (I've tested this against the old magnet system - with the exact circumference etc.)

And... Personally, I think 16 MPH is maybe too fast through the parks (if on a shared path). When I cycle on mostly flat roads with only marginal hills (Bath to Bristol), I average 18 MPH - and that's with me, as the police put it, making progress! Even 12-13 MPH on a road bike is a comfortably fast pace.

Pity the arseole wasnt stopped for his moronic radio 2 show,cretin

So predictable that it's all the police's fault. When ever there's a story that involves the police, automatically by default they are the trouble makes and instigators of all life's woes.

I'd imagine that someone has complained about cycling in the park and the police have responded by carrying out speed checks, which is what you would expect given the above.

In all fairness 16mph on a designated cycle route isn't that fast and 5mph is ridiculously slow and probably more dangerous. I far as I am aware, speed limits do not apply to cycles on roads or parks. It seems that Vine was given words of advice, hence no fine and I doubt he was 'cycling furiously'!

[[[[[ The parks-police (?) says to Jeremy Vine, "OY!". Funny, that. On TV police documentary footage, police always say, "Excuse me, sir...", or "Hello there--how you doin'--all right?", even to drivers stopped for serious motoring offences. Hmm...
P.R.

If the maximum safe speed is 5mph then the infrastructure is not fit for purpose. Either ban cycling altogether or sort it out.

The police really are cretins.

So, before visiting London, I check the Royal Parks' website, 'Cycling In the Royal Parks' page:
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde-park/visitor-information/park-r...
I also download the link on that page for the Cycling Policy document:
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/41813/the_roya...

As far as I can see, neither mention a limit

Let me get this straight. So the park police have opted to enforce a law that no-one knew about and isn't indicated and which can't be applied to bicycles because they are not required by law to have a calibrated speedometer? It doesn't take the sharpest legal mind to see that there's something of a legal gap there.

I've ridden through Hyde Park many times along the designated cycle area on my old commute. I was there not so long ago too and don't remember seeing a sign.

Hands up anyone who rides there regularly who knew there was a speed limit and have seen signs.

And yes, Park Lane is like a racetrack. Perhaps the police would find a better use of their time turning the speed camera on some of the high powered vehicles roaring up and down there.

I've cycled many many times through Hyde Park over the last twenty years, and have never seen anything about a speed limit. I've also done my fair share of rollerblading down on the Serpentine at more than 5mph, and never had a problem. Madness.

Comments on road.cc are always so predictable. No one here seems to care about the interests or safety of those not on a bike. Rules are for those other bastards etc.