Road.cc: Police to target red light jumpers and pavement cyclists… in Denmark, of all places
Proof that cycling utopia also has its share of anti-social cyclists – but it’s a tiny minority
by Simon_MacMichael on February 23, 2012Â
Proof, perhaps, that no matter how good you make cycling facilities there will always be a small minority of bike riders who chosse to break the law by riding through red lights or on pavements, police in Denmark of all places will be launching a clampdown on anti-social cycling next week.
The operation, set to run from 27 February to 2 March, will also target cyclists talking on their mobile phones without a hands-free kit, reports Politiken, and follows an increase in fines for offences such as riding through a red light to DKR1,000 (£113.52 at today’s exchange rate) from last month.
The newspaper reports that a similar operation last year resulted in 329 cyclists being stopped for not displaying correct lighting, 465 for running traffic signals and 164 for cycling on the pavement or footpaths.
THose figures do need to be put into cotext, however. In Copenhagen alone, which has an urban population of 1.2 million, it is estimated that more than a third of people commute by bike each day to their place of work or study, with authorities targeting an increase to 50 per cent by 2015.
