Helmet offences among the most common for police nabbing cyclists
More than 100 cyclists are being nabbed for a range of infringements each week, with two common offences among the most frequent.
VIC News
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Cyclists across Victoria are being nabbed for traffic fines more than 100 times per week as police clamp down on riders who use their phones or fail to wear a helmet.
New figures obtained by the Herald Sun show police handed out 5937 infringement to cyclists in the last financial year compared to 4906 in 2016/7 and 5851 in 2017/18.
Among the biggest sources of frustration were helmet offences, making up more than half of all fines, and riders who did not obey traffic lights to wear proper equipment.
Freestyle Cyclists president Alan Todd said cyclists were a “soft target” for police and that helmet laws should be wound back to be optional for adults.
“Victoria was the first place in the world to introduce these laws in the early 90s and they’re only still enforced in Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
“If it was such a good idea after 30 years you would think the rest of the world would have followed suit.”
Mr Todd said helmets were a severe deterrent for many potential riders.
“The tragedy is cycling is such a healthy and beneficial thing to do,” he said.
“Our helmet laws look pretty silly to the rest of the world … It is pretty easy to be nabbed and it doesn’t appear to make cycling much safer.”
Abbotsford local Troy Parsons said he had been advocating for more than half a decade for authorities to rethink the current rules.
‘State governments should be focusing on getting more people riding,” he said.
“Any sort of road safety problems lay elsewhere from the issue of helmets.”
In the last financial year, another 368 cyclists were caught out using mobile phones under laws introduced in 2017.
”It is an expectation that the community knows they are not to use a mobile phone while cycling,” Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said.
“As a vulnerable road user, there is little room for error.
“A few seconds of distraction has the potential to have serious consequences.”
Police patrols look at cyclist behaviour regularly, with riders charged a $496 fine if they are caught using their phone.
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A Bicycle Network spokeswoman said most cyclists did the right thing on the road.
“In fact, we know that when bike riding is properly planned for, only five per cent of riders break rules, much less than the 66 per cent of car drivers,” she said.