Bedford’s Green Councillors welcome the consultation and urge people to respond to it. Thousands of people choosing to cycle into town have been penalised through the current restrictions on cycling – even safely and considerately – in the town centre.
Lucy Bywater said: “People often tell us they’ve been put off cycling to the town centre by the threat of fines. This includes elderly and disabled people for whom cycling into the pedestrianised zone is the only way they can physically access town-centre shops.
“The Council needs to recognise that bikes are often used as a mobility aid and that disabled people are being disadvantaged.”
Ben Foley added: “In the years since 1999, Crashmap only records two incidents in the pedestrianised zone being caused by a cyclist out of a total of 11 incidents with pedestrian victims, while in the same period, seven of the 49 incidents with cyclist victims on the through roads that cyclists are forced onto to avoid the pedestrianised zone, were serious incidents.
“So evidence shows that the restriction is helping cause far more injuries than it is avoiding. It is part of the wider failure to make cycling safer just when we need to enable more active travel. That failure is why hundreds of people have already signed our petition calling on the council to improve cyclist safety.”
Lucy pointed out that: “Regardless of the current restrictions on cycling in the town centre, it is illegal to ride recklessly, dangerously, carelessly or in an inconsiderate manner. What the PSPO is doing is penalising careful, considerate cyclists (which tend to be the ones who do stop for enforcement officers and give their details).
“By contrast, enforcement staff are powerless when faced with a reckless or inconsiderate cyclist failing to stop, who gets away without a fine.”
Ben recognises that “There clearly are problems with e-scooter use” but he said that “these are no greater in the pedestrianised zone than on pavements in any other part of Bedford.
“Action against e-scooters needs to come from central Government restricting sales of e-scooters (that are illegal to use on public land), and regulating e-scooters to make them safe and legal to use on the road”.
The petition is at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/bedford-cycling and currently has 261 signatures recorded.
