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Cambridge lights crackdown is not about giving cyclists a hard time, says police commissionerCree XML light

Cambridge lights crackdown is not about giving cyclists a hard time, says police commissioner

30 cyclists stopped in first hour of Cambridge city centre operation
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Nov 01, 2014 17:16
13

On Thursday night, over 30 cyclists were stopped in Cambridge in the first hour of an operation designed to crack down on people who ride without lights in the dark. Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Sir Graham Bright, says the annual Operation LIT is ‘not about giving cyclists a hard time’.

Running until November 22, Operation LIT – which stands for ‘Lights Instead of Tickets’ – is so-named because those stopped will be able to get out of paying the £50 fine by purchasing bike lights and then presenting the receipt  and LIT form at Parkside police station within seven working days.

Speaking to Cambridge News Online, Sir Graham Bright commented:

"This campaign is not about giving cyclists a hard time. It is about keeping them, and other road users, safe.

"Many of the people stopped had lights in their bags but had not attached them. Once attached they were sent on their way with no charge. With the longer nights, now is the ideal time to remind people of the need to keep safe and make sure that other road users can see them."

PC Simon Railer, from Cambridgeshire police, said that as a minimum requirement, cyclists should have a good set of working lights fitted to their bike – a white light to the front and a red to the rear. He also recommended the use of a high visibility top and reflective-aids.

However, while few would argue with the importance of having lights on a bike, some locals have questioned police priorities. A Cambridge resident told road.cc:

“Police here really need to concentrate on the thing that actually harms cyclists, which is careless, reckless or impatient driving."

Earlier this week, a similar blitz in Oxford saw 267 cyclists given fixed penalty notices in three hours. Again, it is possible to avoid the fine by purchasing a set of lights.

Cambridge
Operation LIT
Sir Graham Bright
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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13 comments

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a.jumper | 10 years ago
0 likes

Are police commissioners exempt from being prosecuted for wasting police time?

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HKCambridge | 10 years ago
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Let us not forget this gem from Sir Graham:

"And cyclists also take their own lives in their hands when they cycle without lights. You just have to look at the number of bikes that haven’t got lights in Cambridge and it’s the poor old motorist that gets the blame if they hit one of them."

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Police-chief-calls-crackdown-ondanger-cy...

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martib | 10 years ago
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So how many motorists have been given tickets for defective lights or using fog lights when visibility is less than 100m's? I bet none, why do the Police seem incapable of enforcing the laws that are already in place to keep the roads safe, are they scared to confront motorists or something!
The Police in our town recently had a clamp down on pavement cycling and handed out 11 tickets (much to the the delight of some idiots) Yet the amount of near misses I have had in my car & on my bike, due to very poor driving standards around the town is beyond a joke.

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adriank999 | 10 years ago
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Make a formal complaint about the PCO, if you have the time and date you should be able to find out who they were.

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MikeOnABike | 10 years ago
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They had some PCSO's on my route home the other night. Whilst one of them was checking the front of all the bikes stopped at the lights. I pointed out to him that the car behind was in the bike box, about an inch away from my back wheel, and that he entered on a red light. I was told to "Shut up."

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jacknorell replied to MikeOnABike | 10 years ago
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MikeOnABike wrote:

They had some PCSO's on my route home the other night. Whilst one of them was checking the front of all the bikes stopped at the lights. I pointed out to him that the car behind was in the bike box, about an inch away from my back wheel, and that he entered on a red light. I was told to "Shut up."

Yep, sums up PCSOs. I want real coppers, not the plastic ones.

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Some Fella | 10 years ago
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I ride on the pavement and jump red lights all the time because i am a cool dude and want to impress the bigger boys but anyone who rides without lights is just a div and deserves to be pulled by the rozzers.
Im surprised more people arent killed to be honest - i see loads of people in Manchester (students mainly) riding without lights.
Idiots

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Northernbike replied to Some Fella | 10 years ago
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Some Fella wrote:

i see loads of people in Manchester (students mainly) riding without lights.
Idiots

so having no lights doesn't seem to make them harder for you to see then

in city centres bike lights are lost amongst all the other lighting from streetlights, premises, traffic signals, vehicles - seeing a bike in a brightly lit city centre is no more dependent on the bike having lights than seeing a pedestrian crossing the road relies on them carrying a portable belisha beacon around with them

bikes are just an easy target for lazy cops to get their stats up. if the police had the slightest interest in road safety then drink drivers would be stopped on more than the last working day before christmas, the mobile phone law wouldn't just be a meaningless bit of paper with a royal crest at the top and they would be trying to catch the criminal rather than criminalise the catchable

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Airzound | 10 years ago
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Only 30, they couldn't have been trying very hard.

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DAG on a bike | 10 years ago
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Why not do it the other way round?

Fine them, but present them with a set of lights. £50 can get some reasonable lights that are probably more effective than a £5 set from Aldi/Lidl, which would otherwise avoid the fine. Crappy lights are almost as bad as no lights.

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rix replied to DAG on a bike | 10 years ago
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DAG on a bike wrote:

Why not do it the other way round?

Fine them, but present them with a set of lights. £50 can get some reasonable lights that are probably more effective than a £5 set from Aldi/Lidl, which would otherwise avoid the fine. Crappy lights are almost as bad as no lights.

Make it £100, but present them with a set of lights worth £50.

There can be no excuse to ride without lights and endanger others.

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HalfWheeler | 10 years ago
0 likes

Good.

RLJs too.

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hampstead_bandit | 10 years ago
0 likes

Would be useful if the met could do this in London.

Every night on my commute from E14 to NW1 I see dozens of cyclists without any lights, some on the shared cycle paths, some on back roads, some on multi lane main roads 2

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