The right to cycle in the public transport field is considered by the Supreme Court

On Monday 24 September 2018, Ivar Grøneng was waved in by the police when he cycled on Mosseveien towards his home on Kolbotn outside Oslo. He was fined 7,000 kroner. Grøneng used the public transport field for a few hundred meters, according to NRK. There was rush hour traffic out of the capital. The police believed that the bicycle obstructed the traffic and caused a queue to form behind him.

Grøneng refused to accept the fine and still invokes the right to use the public transport field instead of a narrow and winding walking and cycling path down to the sea.

– Pedestrians in danger of death

He was first acquitted in Oslo District Court, but in Borgarting Court of Appeal he was sentenced to pay a fine of 8,500 kroner. On Tuesday, the case came up before the country’s supreme court, where the Road Traffic Act’s requirement for observant and cautious behavior is the central topic of discussion.

Lawyer John Christian Elden believes it would have been worse to cycle on the pedestrian and bicycle path: – There, pedestrians are exposed to danger to life. It is asked whether it is preferable, neither for politicians nor judges, says Elden.

– Cyclists must pay attention

State Attorney Monica Krag Pettersen believes the question is what it will be like if the buses have to give way to the bicycles in the public transport field at a time when there is pressure on the roads out of the city.

– That cycling is generally allowed in one place, does not mean that one can not place restrictions on and penalize how cycling specifically takes place in the place in question. Cyclists, like other road users, have a duty to assess their own position in traffic against the interests of others., she says.

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