Spate of tickets issued after Manchester cyclist complains about cars parked in cycle lane – but is this enough of a deterrent?

A number of cars have been ticketed on Withington’s Palatine Road after a local cyclist drew attention to how many people were parking in the cycle lane during rush hour.

Much of Palatine Road features a cycle lane with a single yellow line, meaning motorists are not allowed to park there between 8am and 9.30am and between 5pm and 6.30pm.

Local cyclist Sam Easterby-Smith grew so frustrated with people ignoring this that he filmed the situation and got in touch with the Manchester Evening News. He’s also written a blog post.

Easterby-Smith’s video is of him cycling to take his daughter to nursery. His short trip sees him pass dozens of vehicles parked in the cycle lane.

Manchester council said that 166 drivers had been given tickets on Palatine Road in the past six months, but it does appear to have been spurred into renewed action.

Yesterday morning, Easterby-Smith tweeted:

BOOM! Today a whole bunch of cars on Palatine Rd have been ticketed! Well done @ManCityCouncil & thanks @ChrispLOL @rosa_battle pic.twitter.com/TETzveCKLb

— Sam Easterby-Smith (@samscam) December 9, 2016

“It has been an issue for quite some time. It’s like this every day,” he said. “I have been carting my baby up and down to nursery and it’s always the same.

“I do appreciate the council are paying attention but I think there are factors compounding it. The shortness of the restriction period doesn’t help.

“People park there and think it’s not long until the end of the restrictions, and more often than not they get away with it because the council doesn’t have the resources to police it twice a day, every day.”

Easterby-Smith would like to see more being done.

“They are forcing myself and my baby into the road. I’m a confident cyclist but I don’t want to do that, and I shouldn’t have to. I should be able to breeze through the cycle lane.”

Councillor Rosa Battle, executive member for the environment, said:

“We are aware of the situation on Palatine Road and have taken action to address the illegal and dangerous parking taking place.

“We will continue to enforce rush hour parking restrictions in this area, to ensure that drivers who ignore the rules are caught and fined.”