I posted this on the NZ forum a little while back, Ken Looi didn’t like it much but I was quite pleased with the outcome:
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject: POLICE v CHIVERS - Unicycling through a red light.
Today I went to court after I refused to pay the infringement ticket given to me on the 24th of October 2007 when I rode safely through a red light after looking both ways and seeing some pedestrians crossing. I did not see the police vehicle stopped at the lights and he did a U-turn and put his lights on and gave me a ticket.
The judges ruled that a Unicycle is not a Vehicle on the road. I’m not sure exactly if that makes us a pedestrian by default but it definitely clears up the confusion suffered by common misinterpretation of the Land transport act in this area. I am not suggesting anyone goes out and gets bowled at an intersection when the lights are red, but be safe in the knowledge that you can make your own judgment call at intersections while on a unicycle- if it is safe to cross you can do so regardless of the colour of the lights. Please consider everyone else’s safety and hopefully the definition of a vehicle won’t change in a hurry. It would be unfair for unicyclists to have to sit waiting at red lights when the road is clear because they are penalised by their lack of gears and it takes long enough to get places by unicycle anyway.
When lights are red and there are cars coming, I stop, or go left to keep my momentum and then cross when there is a sufficient break to do so. I fully advocate safe riding and I don’t want to ever hear of any Unicyclist fatalities!!!
Thanks very much to Sugra the Juggler, who set a similar precedent in the case of MORLEY v POLICE at the Christchurch high court in 1996, where Sugra had his case dismissed in a similar footpath encounter (he accidentally bumped a pedestrian’s handbag) and Judge Williamson said a unicycle is not a vehicle.