What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

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bjlabuk
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by bjlabuk »

thirdcrank wrote: 4 Jul 2021, 12:06pm Here's your legislation

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Wi ... section/72

PS In answer to the query in your title, a fine of level 2 = £500
" On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz applied for a patent for his “vehicle powered by a gas engine.” The patent – number 37435 – may be regarded as the birth certificate of the automobile."

The Highway Act 1835 pre-dates the first automobile by about 50 years ! I therefore deduce dear Watson that driving a motor car on the footpath was not the issue at hand. I think the legislation refers to riding/driving a horse drawn carriage!
thirdcrank
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by thirdcrank »

Feel free to deduce what you like. The 1835 Act preceded the invention of the pedal cycle by a while but that's the legislation used to prosecute pavement cyclists.
bjlabuk
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by bjlabuk »

Section 78 of the same legislation:

" Drivers of waggons or carts not to ride thereon unless some other person guide them. Drivers causing hurt or damage to others, or quitting the road, or driving carriage without owner’s name, or not keeping the left or near side, or interrupting free passage, if not the owner to forefeit 20s; if he be the owner, 40s."

Not disputing what you say, just giving the historical context in which the 1835 Act was introduced and the remnants of the legislation still be used today, such as the terms 'carrigeway', 'nearside', 'offside' etc.
thirdcrank
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by thirdcrank »

Here's something I prepared earlier - just over 11 years ago to the day

viewtopic.php?p=319380#p319380
bjlabuk
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by bjlabuk »

Yep, in 30 years as a police officer I think I have charged only 1 person with riding on the footpath - and that was after warning him on the first occasion and a short time later see him do it again! Usual I just told them to get off the bike and push it. Same with cyclists not displaying lights front and rear at night. Warning first, enforcement second.

When I passed my cycling proficiency test as an 11 year old, I thought that not only entitled me to ride on the road but also to avoid riding on the pavements from thereon. It cracks me up to see grown adults riding on the footpaths.
thirdcrank
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by thirdcrank »

Yep, in 30 years as a police officer I think I have charged only 1 person with riding on the footpath
And there you have me. I only took any interest in this offence when the Right Hon Baron Blunkett of Brightside (his current title sounds so much more appropriate than just David) arranged things so that his PCSOs could issue fixed penalties for this, by which time I'd been retired quite a while (currently 24 years.) In my thirty years service, I don't remember doing anything more about this than wagging an occasional finger.
bjlabuk
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by bjlabuk »

Yep, sorry I should have researched this more thoroughly, but if you look at the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, Section 51, and Schedule 3 thereto,

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/53/contents

you will find that Cycling on the pavement is a Fixed Penalty offence. To be more accurate it is a non-endorseable Fixed Penalty offence (obviously because a cyclist doesn't have a driving licence to be endorsed) and the amount of the Fixed Penalty is determined by Section 53.

Section 53 does not state the actual amount, only that it is determined by the Secretary of State. It used to be a £30 non-endorseable Fixed Penalty, but I think that has now been increased to £60. If I can find the current amount I will post it.
bjlabuk
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by bjlabuk »

Going back to the OP the following might be interesting

http://www.pedestriansafety.org.uk/foot ... ality.html

It seems that the matter is being looked at in different jurisdiction across the UK (mine is from a particularly Scottish viewpoint, which is different to E & W). There has always been a problem with the difference between 'driving on' the pavement, 'parking on' the pavement and 'a vehicle being found to be parked' on the pavement. If I saw a person returning to a car I found to be 'abandoned' on the pavement outside shops, etc. I always had to interview that person so as to ascertain who was 'driving' the vehicle at the time that it was 'parked' on the pavement. He/she was then dealt with for 'driving' on the pavement, not for parking on it. It is all semantics really - you will always come across some awkward individual who wants to claim that his vehicle appeared on the pavement of its own volition without him driving it there, and some lawyer who is willing to defend him! I think in order to close this 'loophole' the powers that be in different Council areas, regions and nations within the UK are right to examine the matter.
Last edited by bjlabuk on 26 Jul 2021, 3:58pm, edited 2 times in total.
Jim
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by Jim »

Stevek76 wrote: 4 Jul 2021, 5:56pm 'ride' covers cars as well as cycles I believe, or basically using anything other than one's own body or an exempted device (wheelchair, mobility scooter etc).
That's right. Interestingly, someone pushing a pedal cycle is a pedestrian, and continues to have "priority" on a zebra crossing. Someone scooting a cycle in such a way as to move forward without a foot on the ground (that is, even though not astride it) is not a pedestrian, should not be on the pavement, should obey highway rules, and traffic is not required to give way for it on a crossing. In other words, it has become a bike.
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mjr
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by mjr »

Jim wrote: 26 Jul 2021, 11:53am [...] traffic is not required to give way for it on a crossing. In other words, it has become a bike.
I think you meant "zebra crossing". They are very much required to give way to it at a parallel crossing, toucan crossing, cycle crossing and so on.

Actually, other road users even have to give way to a bike that's already on other types of crossing as well as no crossing (because one should not simply run over other road users in one's path), but the cyclist also probably had to give way to them before reaching that point.
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Jim
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by Jim »

mjr wrote: 26 Jul 2021, 12:43pm
Jim wrote: 26 Jul 2021, 11:53am [...] traffic is not required to give way for it on a crossing. In other words, it has become a bike.
I think you meant "zebra crossing". They are very much required to give way to it at a parallel crossing, toucan crossing, cycle crossing and so on.

Actually, other road users even have to give way to a bike that's already on other types of crossing as well as no crossing (because one should not simply run over other road users in one's path), but the cyclist also probably had to give way to them before reaching that point.
As you rightly say, I did of course mean Zebra crossing, but hey ho, de minimis non curat lex!
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Jim wrote: 26 Jul 2021, 11:53am
Stevek76 wrote: 4 Jul 2021, 5:56pm 'ride' covers cars as well as cycles I believe, or basically using anything other than one's own body or an exempted device (wheelchair, mobility scooter etc).
That's right. Interestingly, someone pushing a pedal cycle is a pedestrian, and continues to have "priority" on a zebra crossing. Someone scooting a cycle in such a way as to move forward without a foot on the ground (that is, even though not astride it) is not a pedestrian, should not be on the pavement, should obey highway rules, and traffic is not required to give way for it on a crossing. In other words, it has become a bike.
Can't recall if running (where one moves forward without a foot on the ground) could be considered scooting - pretty sure that the crank v brooks case didn't decide that, but that if you were standing on a pedal then you weren't a pedestrian.
I suspect that running would be treated as a pedestrian, but if you were running across a zebra crossing there might be other factors in play as well.
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Spen
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Re: What is the Penalty for Driving on the Pavement

Post by Spen »

Section 72 of the 1835 act is covered by the fixed penalty regulations of 1999, iirc
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