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Transport for London to begin fining motorists caught driving in mandatory cycle lanes

TfL and all London boroughs have been given the expanded enforcement powers by the government in a bid to improve cyclists’ safety

From Monday 27 June, Transport for London will begin issuing fines to motorists caught driving in mandatory cycle lanes or cycle tracks in the city.

While most drivers are already prohibited from driving within or across cycle tracks or bike lanes marked by a solid white line, previously this was only enforced by the police.

This latest move by the government, however, has expanded these enforcement powers to Transport for London (TfL) and all London boroughs, giving them the authority to fine motorists infringing on cycle lanes in the same way that they currently do for bus lanes and yellow box junctions.

TfL hopes that by reducing the number of drivers failing to comply with the law regarding cycle lanes, the new powers will help improve the safety and confidence of cyclists as part of the body’s Cycling Action Plan and Vision Zero goal of eliminating death and serious injury on the road network.

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“Making London’s streets safer is our top priority,” said Will Norman, London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, in a statement.

“These new enforcement powers will deter motorists from infringing on crucial space specifically designated to keep cyclists safe and will help improve cyclist’s confidence when getting around the capital.

“Enabling more Londoners to walk and cycle continues to be at the heart of the Mayor’s vision to create a healthier, cleaner and more sustainable London for everyone – these new powers will play an important role in that.”

TfL will initially use existing CCTV cameras to issues fines to motorists driving in cycle lanes and cycle tracks at key locations across its road network.

The new powers in London have been introduced at the same time as wider national changes which give local authorities the power, previously only held by the police, to enforce moving traffic conventions.

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Siwan Hayward, TfL's Director of Compliance, Policing, Operations and Security, welcomed the new powers.

“Protecting designated space for cyclists is essential in keeping them safe and improving confidence to cycle,” Hayward said.

“We will start enforcing in key locations in London to deter drivers contravening the road rules. We want to ensure a green and sustainable future for London, and to do this we must continue to make walking and cycling round our city safe and accessible to all Londoners.”

While the Metro published an article this morning claiming that the changes “will divide drivers and cyclists even more”, London Councils’ Climate Change, Transport and Environment Lead, Mayor Philip Glanville, argued that the expanded civil powers will make London safer “for all road users”. 

“While most motorists do follow the rules, enforcement is a good deterrent for those who put other road users at unnecessary risk,” he said.

“By making roads safer across the capital, and having the powers to enforce on critical cycling and walking routes, we can increase opportunities for active travel which means a healthier, more active, greener and cleaner London.”

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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26 comments

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ktache | 1 year ago
4 likes

It's the way the Metro think it's a new rule.

Just a bit more likelyhood of enforcement.

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Sriracha | 1 year ago
4 likes
Quote:

The new powers in London have been introduced at the same time as wider national changes which give local authorities the power, previously only held by the police, to enforce moving traffic conventions.

And indeed most motorists do regard driving in cycle lanes as conventional. I suspect the word is supposed to be contravention.

Nevertheless, my eye is drawn to the word moving. By analogy with the situation regarding pavements, can we read into this that parking in mandatory cycle lanes will not come under these powers?

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Hirsute replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
2 likes

Awavey already answered that.

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Sriracha replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
0 likes

Ah, I see that now. Ta. So why is the word "moving" in there? Just another typo? Or is a parked car considered as "moving traffic" (I know it is on the M25, but that's another matter).

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quiff replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
0 likes

EDIT: previous response was wrong. 

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Awavey replied to quiff | 1 year ago
2 likes

I dont agree the "moving" part only relates to the latter, not the former.

Because TfLs enforcement power comes from them already having taken on "moving traffic offences" as a thing they enforce & not the local police,and that enforcement power is now available to local authorities in England, and bits of Wales, that apply for it. That's really the big law change here, TfL/London boroughs are no longer the exception that they alone can do this for themselves.

The cycle lane part is just it's been added to the list of moving traffic offences list of things all these authorities can now enforce.

And its labelled "moving" because most of the offences involve you moving past a traffic sign that prohibits you doing something, like no u turns, no access, buses only that type of stuff.

With bus lanes/cycle lanes you can designate a route as being only for bus/cycle access, and add a sign to that effect.

so with a car that ends up parked in one I dont believe gets just a parking ticket, theyll get a you ignored a sign prohibiting you "moving" into this lane and being here in the first place ticket, the fact you arent "moving" now, is just as irrelevant as if you immediately stopped after doing a prohibited u-turn. You moved past a sign telling you, you couldnt do that or be here.

At least that's how I think it works

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quiff replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yes, agree. I posted hastily then went down a legislative rabbit hole trying to work out what the changes actually do, and came to the same conclusion you've just posted, and retracted my original post! 

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quiff replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
0 likes

Awavey wrote:

The cycle lane part is just it's been added to the list of moving traffic offences list of things all these authorities can now enforce.

Broadly yes, but technically I think cycle lanes have only been added to the list of things that TfL / London boroughs can enforce (under the London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003). They appear always to have been in the list of moving traffic offences in the Traffic Management Act 2004, it's just that the enforcement powers hadn't commenced until now. 

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chrisonabike replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
0 likes

Awavey wrote:

You moved past a sign telling you, you couldnt do that or be here. At least that's how I think it works

Not disputing - but for stopping / parking won't this just fall victim to the usual parking defense of "unless you can prove otherwise a cyclone dropped my car there / a rugby team ran by, picked me up and moved me / it was a crane"?

Presumably they've covered the "moving bad, stationary excusable" get-out?

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quiff replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
2 likes

This is contracting things a bit but, broadly speaking, the offence is failing to comply with the indication given by a traffic sign (s.36 RTA 1988). There are various signs relating to cycle lanes, but they give an indication to the effect of "Route for use by pedal cycles only" (or some variation thereon - bikes and buses, bikes and pedestrians etc). I would assume therefore that both driving and parking in a cycle lane are therefore caught by "use" and are therefore offences. Whereas (outside London) it is only an offence to drive on the pavement (s.34 RTA).  

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brooksby | 1 year ago
4 likes

How long until the tabloids claim it's a war on motorists, just a money making scheme, etc etc?  The fact that it's a perfectly sensible change in the law will pass them by...

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Grahamd | 1 year ago
10 likes

I think there is an error in the article "previously this was only enforced by the police". Was it ever enforced?

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hawkinspeter replied to Grahamd | 1 year ago
6 likes

Grahamd wrote:

I think there is an error in the article "previously this was only enforced by the police". Was it ever enforced?

In Bristol, the police were enquiring after the driver/parker of this vehicle:

//i2-prod.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/article7034807.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/1_WorstParkedCar.jpg)
(https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/photograph-one-bristols-worst-parked-7034882)

More recently, there was this classic piece of entitled parking:

//i2-prod.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/article7218812.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_Vanparking1.jpg)
(https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristols-worst-pavement-parking-far-7218314)

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ooldbaker replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
6 likes

If I were the driver of that Bristol car I would argue that I was not parked in the cycle lane. I parked on either side of it.

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
3 likes

Why only London?

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hawkinspeter replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
4 likes

eburtthebike wrote:

Why only London?

That's the only area that politicians are concerned about?

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Awavey replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
7 likes

They employ a better pr agency...technically the law change allows all local authorities in England as well as London to apply for these powers.

But London had a head start because TfL/boroughs already uses these type of civil enforcement powers for driving in bus lanes, so it's not much of a change to extend to cycle lanes for them.

Elsewhere theyll be taking over what the police should have been,but probably werent, doing. So may take longer to set up a system of enforcement, but I believe Kents local authority had expressed a strong interest in adopting it also.

Edit: just spotted Bath & North Somerset have also applied and are awaiting confirmation from the DfT to implement https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/movingtrafficrestrictions

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TonyE-H replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
2 likes

Was just about to say the same, the full statement from TFL makes it clear other authorities can do the same if they want to:

The Government has introduced new powers allowing TfL and London boroughs to fine motorists who infringe on cycle lanes and cycle tracks in the same way that they currently do for bus lanes and yellow box junctions. These powers were introduced at the same time as wider national changes giving local authorities in England outside of London the powers to enforce moving traffic contraventions. Initially, TfL will use existing CCTV cameras to enforce contraventions in cycle lanes and cycle tracks at key locations across its road network.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
0 likes

I suspect another reason might also be because they have pavement parking bans in most of Central London already so the same people who process those could then catch the Cycle path ones. Plus as shown with HP's Van, they might do the old half/half trick to try to get away with it elsewhere.

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Rendel Harris replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
0 likes

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

I suspect another reason might also be because they have pavement parking bans in most of Central London

All of Greater London in fact except a very few specifically assigned areas; not correcting you to be smart, just mentioning it in case any out-of-town visitors might think it's okay to park on the pavement in the outer boroughs, you will be ticketed!

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
1 like

No probs, when I lived in Bexley for a couple of years, I got done for parking across my driveway with two wheels on the ramp whilst I went in to see why my wife was taking so long (she had forgotten her inhaler at the start of a trip). There were still the remains of the old white markings as well but council wouldn't do anything. 

I only mentioned Central London as I'm guessing that is where the majority of solid line Bike lanes would be. 

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rct replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
2 likes

London borough's like Brent, actively set aside space on narrow pavements for cars to park, forcing pedestrians into the road.

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RoubaixCube | 1 year ago
1 like

How about people parking in cycle lanes?

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hawkinspeter replied to RoubaixCube | 1 year ago
13 likes

RoubaixCube wrote:

How about people parking in cycle lanes?

I've tried parking people in a cycle lane, but they got bored and wandered off.

What we need is a bunch of predatory, capitalistic vehicle-tow-ers that get paid per vehicle captured and then authorise them to keep the cycle lanes clear.

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Awavey replied to RoubaixCube | 1 year ago
1 like

Parking will be covered under the same lane enforcement PCNs https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/red-routes/rules-of-red-routes/cycle-lanes

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Jenova20 replied to RoubaixCube | 1 year ago
1 like

RoubaixCube wrote:

How about people parking in cycle lanes?

Pulling my handbrake in public got me in trouble last time. I can no longer park on hills as a result.

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