Bicycle Lane rules

sleek7 · 02-03-2011, 11:54 AM

So this morning on the way to work in a built up area, I noticed there was a car parked half across the parking lane and half across the bicycle lane.
As I got closer I realised this car was an unmarked cop car with the copper sitting inside.

More than likely sitting there to get drivers driving up the inside lane (traffic wanting to turn right sometimes backs up the traffic a couple hundred meters, so some left turning drivers drive up the bike lane to turn left)

Sketch of road:

This got me thinking and I checked the Vicroads website and as a general rule there is stated:
You must not leave a vehicle stationary:
-across a lane or private driveway (except for 2 minutes to pick up or drop off passengers without leaving the vehicle unattended)

I was on the road for a good 10 mins and the car never moved.

However upon looking through the Road Safety Road Rules 2009 I cant find any solid clause stating that being parked across a lane like this is illegal.

Has anyone got any experience with this or know which clause states parking over a bike lane is illegal?

DBourne · 02-03-2011, 11:59 AM

1 rule for you, 1 rule for them.

And lets not forget that he was probably "trained" on how to park

Fled74 · 02-03-2011, 12:14 PM

Is there a rule about overtaking someone using a bike lane? It happens all the time near where I live.

sleek7 · 02-03-2011, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fled74

Is there a rule about overtaking someone using a bike lane? It happens all the time near where I live.

Overtaking using a bike lane is OK as long as you indicate and thats all your are going into the bike lane for. And by overtaking I mean getting around a vehicle that is stationary that wants to turn right or do a U turn.

Riksta · 02-03-2011, 12:26 PM

Doesn't matter if the bike lane's blocked, cyclists never seem to use them anyway. They always ride a good foot or two out of it, on the actual road itself.

aussie muscle · 02-03-2011, 02:10 PM

It would've been funny if you tapped on the window and said in a deep voice "Can you please move your vehicle, sir, or i'll have to ticket you"

i'm sure there is an 'emergency vehicle' exception that they'd invoke, rightly or wrongly.

Jim Goose · 02-03-2011, 02:21 PM

You do realise that Police cars (much like other emergency vehicles) when carrying out their duties can break the road rules?

This will yet again turn into another cop bashing thread....

pauljh74 · 02-03-2011, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riksta

Doesn't matter if the bike lane's blocked, cyclists never seem to use them anyway. They always ride a good foot or two out of it, on the actual road itself.

............When the bike lane is half full of parked cars

ratter · 02-03-2011, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pauljh74

............When the bike lane is half full of parked cars

or some wise person has broken glass in the lane

sleek7 · 02-03-2011, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

You do realise that Police cars (much like other emergency vehicles) when carrying out their duties can break the road rules?

This will yet again turn into another cop bashing thread....

Sure they are allowed in certain circumstances, like an ambo is allowed to run a red under the right conditions, cop could drive many km in the bicycle lane during an emergency etc.

Its more the question are they allowed to do it all the time?
E.g. if a cop was to pull out his radar and start checking speeds, is he allowed to park in the bicycle lane to do it?

Ben73 · 02-03-2011, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

You do realise that Police cars (much like other emergency vehicles) when carrying out their duties can break the road rules?

This will yet again turn into another cop bashing thread....

Yes they can break road rules. But is it really necessary for this cop to block half the lane for no apparent reason?
Would his duties unable to be performed if he moved his car 1 metre to the left? Unlikly. He probably just couldn't be bothered to park properly.

Dave3911 · 02-03-2011, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben73

Yes they can break road rules. But is it really necessary for this cop to block half the lane for no apparent reason?
Would his duties unable to be performed if he moved his car 1 metre to the left? Unlikly. He probably just couldn't be bothered to park properly.

The reason doesnt have to be apparent. He or she just have to have a reason.

FYI:

Road Safety Road Rules 2009

307 Stopping and parking exemption for police and emergency vehicles and authorised persons
(1) A provision of Part 12 does not apply to the driver of a police vehicle or emergency vehicle if, in the circumstances—
(a) the driver is taking reasonable care; and
(b) it is reasonable that the provision should not apply.
Notes
1 Emergency vehicle and police vehicle are defined in the dictionary.
2 Part 12 deals with restrictions on stopping and parking.

I used this very section of the law to get out of a parking ticket years ago when parking a fire truck in a loading zone so we could get lunch. It was deemed "reasonable" because A) We needed lunch. B) The truck was too big to park anywhere else and C) We were available for call out within 90 seconds and needed to be close to the vehicle.

So if that got me out of a ticket - I'm sure this copper has a myriad of reasonable excuses to be where s/he was.

Ben73 · 02-03-2011, 04:29 PM

Your situation is fair enough. But I would love to hear his excuse for parking 'illegally' by about 1 metre.
I'm sure there was nothing stopping him from moving his vehicle over 1 mertre and parking completely in the parking lane, apart from his ego.

pottery beige · 02-03-2011, 04:37 PM

leave him alone was eating his maccas.....

sleek7 · 02-03-2011, 04:47 PM

Thanks for posting that up Dave3911, in that case I suspect he could pull many petty excuses out that would cover his *** in the event that he was questioned about his choice of parking.

chrisfpv · 02-03-2011, 05:04 PM

Does this really bother you that much?

sleek7 · 02-03-2011, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR

Does this really bother you that much?

Actually it does, as this very copper also happened to hand me a $180 fine this morning..

**Giant Cranium** · 02-03-2011, 06:14 PM

fine for what?

Riksta · 02-03-2011, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pauljh74

............When the bike lane is half full of parked cars

No, I've seen them do it when the lane is empty. Peak hour traffic where cars aren't allowed to be parked there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ratter

or some wise person has broken glass in the lane

Oh sweet, I might drive on the footpath and use the excuse "sorry there was crap in my lane on the road".

Let's just say the way cyclists carry on like they own the road sometimes really, really grinds my gears. Especially when they're three abreast blocking an entire lane during peak hour in their happy little lycra.

vztrt · 02-03-2011, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

i'm sure there is an 'emergency vehicle' exception that they'd invoke, rightly or wrongly.

It was an emergency the state is running out of money, they need more fines.

Dave3911 · 02-03-2011, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben73

Your situation is fair enough. But I would love to hear his excuse for parking 'illegally' by about 1 metre.
I'm sure there was nothing stopping him from moving his vehicle over 1 mertre and parking completely in the parking lane, apart from his ego.

Seriously? Do we need to go there.

Looking at the little diagram the OP has posted, to me this looks exactly like typical, standard police stopping during an intercept. Police are trained to park offset by at least 30 - 40% to the vehicle that they have intercepted in order to give them a safety corridor when getting out of the vehicle and speaking with the driver through the drivers window. Otherwise they run the risk of having passing traffic wipe them out.

Depending where the numpty who has been pulled over has stopped - quite often this offset can be exaggerated.

Is it not possible that this particular police officer had just finished with a lucky customer and was finalising paperwork on the side of the road?

Or if doing static operations, maybe there was a car, truck, bus or space ship originally blocking his/her view when they pulled up that required them to park offset.

Maybe the officer was sitting off for a violent offender seen running in his/her direction & wanted to give as larger buffer from the kerb as possible incase they were spotted....

I'm not even a police officer (although I do work quite closely with them) and I can come up easily with numerous good reasons for why they were doing what they were doing..... it's very easy to critisize when you don't have the bigger picture.

I fear the The only ego at play here is yours......

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleek7

Actually it does, as this very copper also happened to hand me a $180 fine this morning..

Ahh that little gem conviently omited from the original post.

Can anyone else say axe to grind?

Ben73 · 02-03-2011, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave3911

Looking at the little diagram the OP has posted, to me this looks exactly like typical, standard police stopping during an intercept. Police are trained to park offset by at least 30 - 40% to the vehicle that they have intercepted in order to give them a safety corridor when getting out of the vehicle and speaking with the driver through the drivers window. Otherwise they run the risk of having passing traffic wipe them out.

Is it not possible that this particular police officer had just finished with a lucky customer and was finalising paperwork on the side of the road?

Yeah could of been a possible. But he was there for 10 minutes?

But I don't care anymore. Let cops do whatever they please.

sleek7 · 02-03-2011, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave3911

Ahh that little gem conviently omited from the original post.

Can anyone else say axe to grind?

Yes it was hidden away in my original post as it is beside the point of this thread. I am wanting to know if the officer himself is flouting the law while booking others.
The cop didn't have anyone else there when I spotted him and he was still there when I eventually got out of sight from him. Traffic was congested.

Jim Goose · 02-03-2011, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleek7

Yes it was hidden away in my original post as it is beside the point of this thread. I am wanting to know if the officer himself is flouting the law while booking others.
The cop didn't have anyone else there when I spotted him and he was still there when I eventually got out of sight from him. Traffic was congested.

Ok in case you missed it... and seriously get over it...
An emergency vehicle/ police car can break the road rules in the course of their duties....
Just because no one else was there doesnt mean a thing..

This continual cop bashing and whinging that they can flout the road rules is getting seriously old and very boring.

The LAW allows them to break the damn rules... are you going to whinge you saw a cop car doing 130kmh in a 100kmh zone while his lights are flashing?

Or an illegal u-turn to catch someone going the other way?

Or they double park during a raid ?

geckoGT · 02-03-2011, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riksta

No, I've seen them do it when the lane is empty. Peak hour traffic where cars aren't allowed to be parked there.

Oh sweet, I might drive on the footpath and use the excuse "sorry there was crap in my lane on the road".

Let's just say the way cyclists carry on like they own the road sometimes really, really grinds my gears. Especially when they're three abreast blocking an entire lane during peak hour in their happy little lycra.

The really good thing about gross generalisations is everyone is an expert at them.

I could easily come with some good ones about motorists but I do not see the point in degrading this thread, why must you?

MO · 02-03-2011, 10:25 PM

I remember reading somewhere something about posting trivial,useless threads.

Is that a Lockwood I can smell coming.

Riksta · 02-03-2011, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geckoGT

The really good thing about gross generalisations is everyone is an expert at them.

I could easily come with some good ones about motorists but I do not see the point in degrading this thread, why must you?

Sorry, I've been ranting about anything that annoys me lately, guess this one just wound me up. Must try to not post too much when I'm in that kind of mood

Here's my apology, glad its just:

mik · 03-03-2011, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleek7

Overtaking using a bike lane is OK as long as you indicate and thats all your are going into the bike lane for. And by overtaking I mean getting around a vehicle that is stationary that wants to turn right or do a U turn.

yep , i was told by a driving instructor basiclly the same, his words" as long as there is no bike on it you can use it to round up a right turner, when theres no bike on it its not a bike lane".

Pedro · 03-03-2011, 12:12 AM

Beside the fact that sleek7 copped a fine, I think you posters proclaiming the parking position of the police car was justified need to take more than a casual look at the situation.

Firstly, if you’d bothered to take notice of sleek7’s diagram, the car was straddling the bike lane and in doing so would contribute to a possible life threatening situation in that any passing cyclist would be forced to veer to the right and possibly collide with a car travelling in the same direction.

And Dave 3911’s quote from “Road Safety Road Rules 2009” regarding police car parking … “(a) the driver is taking reasonable care” is self defeated. How can that parking position be construed as such?

And further … “Is it not possible that this particular police officer had just finished with a lucky customer and was finalising paperwork on the side of the road?”

Hello Dave, if that was the case, wouldn’t an intelligent police officer move his car to the left of the carriageway to complete his paperwork and not leave it parked in a dangerous position?
And your other hypothetical excuses are laughable.

While the generalisations of Jim Goose aren’t applicable to this precise situation.

DBourne · 03-03-2011, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riksta

Oh sweet, I might drive on the footpath and use the excuse "sorry there was crap in my lane on the road".

Let's just say the way cyclists carry on like they own the road sometimes really, really grinds my gears. Especially when they're three abreast blocking an entire lane during peak hour in their happy little lycra.

You've obviously never ridden a bike over glass before? and let's not get in to the second part of your post, it always ends up in the same argument