The Law and The Lore#

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:07:14 +0000

I get told all kinds of stuff about the legal position of skating on the roads, and almost all of it seems to be blind assertion with no authority other than "my instructor told me", "my mate told me", or "my brother-in-law's a policeman". Well, my brother-in-law's a policeman too, but that doesn't qualify me as a lawyer. Please note that previous sentence again: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.

With that in mind, let's review some basic facts which my extensive research (thank you, Google) has revealed -

• There is no such offence as "jaywalking" in England. There is a common law right of passage and repassage on the Queen's Highway. You don't need to be in a car to exercise this right.
• Indeed, there are many laws regarding the use of vehicles - whether motorized or otherwise - on said highway - typically, the more dangerous a vehicle might be to other users of the road, the more onerous the restrictions.
• Conversely, there's not a lot of law at all restricting the use of the road where not in a vehicle or carriage. The RTA 1988 (s37) says you must stop when a policeman "engaged in the regulation of vehicular traffic in a road" tells you to, and the Highways Act 1980 (s137) makes it "an offence for any person, without lawful authority or excuse, to wilfully obstruct the free passage along a highway". And there are other laws applying in Royal Parks, which I won't consider here, and yet others may apply for large group skates (Public Order Act 1980 comes to mind), which likewise I'm not thinking about.
• So, is a pair of roller skates a vehicle? (Is each skate a vehicle independently of the other, for that matter?). Nobody knows. The Department for Transport, for example, wrote

  Roller blades/skates

  10.3.8 It has not been established in case law whether these are classed as vehicles or not. If they are, they cannot legally be used on footways, footpaths or cycle tracks. In any event, and as with unpowered scooters and skateboards, enforcement is not generally a practicable proposition although local bye-laws can be created banning them.

  LTN 2/04 - Adjacent and Shared Use Facilities for Pedestrians and Cyclists

And now some supposition

• If (pairs of) skates are vehicles, they're not allowed on (most) pavements (this is an oversimplification), or in bike or bus lanes (self-evidently, they're not bikes or buses). Likewise, their operators must obey all traffic laws that apply to vehicles (but not to motor vehicles, so most speed limits don't apply) including Construction and Use law (which, irritatingly, is not available online - but from all the excerpts I can find seems to relate mostly to motor vehicles, and the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 which I haven't read, merely skimmed, but rather suspect would lead to some quite absurd conclusions if interpreted literally.
• If skates are not vehicles, it's all a bit more flexible. We can be directed to get off the road by police, provided they're directing traffic. We can in principle be done for obstruction if we're causing one (though that'd be hard to argue given that we move at speeds comparable with cyclists). We don't need lights (as far as I'm aware: I've never been told I need lights as a pedestrian, anyway)

And finally, some of the usual well-meaning and slightly hypocritical advice. The policeman who stops you for jumping a red light on Marble Arch while drunk and clad in black from head to foot (I'm not saying whether this ever happened to me) is unlikely to (a) know all the above, or (b) care overmuch. Skate safe, skate predictably (e.g. doing what a reasonable cyclist would do) and be visible, and if you do get stopped (or even just get slowed down), be suitably contrite and they'll go away sooner.

But when skating alone or in small groups I still continue to treat red lights as indications that I should to give way to any cross-traffic, rather than as instructions to stop right now and not cross the white line.

[ skating log: home on Tuesday night, to work yesterday, then route check for this week's LFNS. Lift home as ankle bones sore again - I must be pro/supi/somethingnating lately: I'm sure those boots used to fit properly. Today's a day off, so more money down the gullet of Transport for London to get me to work and back ]

[Edit: on the subject of pavements, Tony Raven on uk.rec.cycling had this to say -

For England Section 72 of the Highways Act 1835 defines the offence as "shall wilfully ride" (i.e a horse) "upon any footpath or causeway by the side of any road made or set apart for the use or accommodation of foot-passengers or shall wilfully lead or drive any carriage of any description upon any such footpath or causeway " and was extended under Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1888 to include "bicycles, tricycles, velocipedes and other similar machines".

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