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So, when cycling there is one narrow, but busy road I always 'evade' parked cars by cycling a bit on the sidewalk. I am aware this is entirely illegal, however compared to the alternative (stopping every 30 seconds for the 5 minutes it takes me to get to the end or jumping in front of cars which by law should break and drive behind me... but they are going a bit too fast for that) it is a risk I am always taking. I do wonder however, how badly would I be fined for this if caught?

PS. The road in question is in Belgium, so for all practical purposes I only care about the Belgium fine, but as I am Dutch I tend to do this to a lesser extend (the Dutch traffic situation is far better) in the Netherlands as well so would love to know both fines.

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  • This is usually a local matter, and thus you should check with the municipality which you are living in, in order to determine this. That being said, if you consistently have to do this, you may be better off your route. – Batman Jun 8 '14 at 15:09
  • @Batman: Both alternatives are worse, one is a road where around the same time all cars stand still (forcing you on the pavement) and the other requires you taking a couple of those elephant paths or whatever they are called in English. Either way, I always believed fines were national, and not per municipality. Quite surprised to learn that. – David Mulder Jun 8 '14 at 15:14
  • It is a shame, I've cycled a lot of western Europe and the Nederlands is easily the most cycle-friendly place, with Belgium coming in second. – PeteH Jun 8 '14 at 19:39
  • I was recently fined 165 euros!!! while riding bicycle on a road somewhere labelled one-way road. Its incredible! They had multiple signs on the roads, one of them was applicable, so if you are not familiar to the road they catch you a give a ticket, especially to non-dutch speaking foreigners. – Ashish Nov 21 '14 at 22:39
  • @Ashish: This was in the Netherlands or in Belgium? And you were fined for cycling in the wrong direction or for cycling on the pavement? Or both? Just trying to figure it out :D – David Mulder Nov 21 '14 at 23:12
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Fines in the Netherlands for the two most instances of wrong "place on the road" most likely to apply, are at the moment € 55,- although there's always article 5, which says you shouldn't endanger others on the road.

I couldn't find any definitive data on Belgium.

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we have similar problems here in Scotland although some paths are shared on busy roads, and marked as such. There are also areas where there are cycle lanes on some of the busy roads but they never put no parking signs up, so cars keep parking and blocking the lanes. Sadly the footpath there is too narrow to cycle but tried complaining but nothing done so far. One remedy may be to see if the is a cycling liason officer to discus the problem, or some cycle clubs like the CTC here works with local councils to find ways to make cycling easier, a final way is possibly petitioning other cyclists. So far I have been ok here as the police turn a blind eye as they know the road can be dangerous, especially at peak times. Only other remedy is find a quieter route, you pays your money and takes your choice my friend.

Bill

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  • Yeah, they are turning a blind eye here as well, it's just that it only needs a single officer in a bad mood to give you a fine, so I was wondering how bad the damage could be if you're out of luck. – David Mulder Jun 11 '14 at 2:53

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