Jaywalkers aren’t the only ones catching the eye of law enforcement recently.

A friend of mine acquired an impressive $220 fine for turning left on red the other day. She was turning from a bike lane into another bike lane. An undercover cop pulled her over – complete with sirens – and gave her a stern talking to.

He said he noticed that she had looked for cars and pedestrians before making the left, but slapped her with the fine anyway.

He asked to see her license (she’s from Alberta, Canada). To add insult to injury, he wrote “American” at the top of her ticket. She was not impressed.

Seems as though her fine was a bit punitive. She said his demeanour completely changed once she started talking, and reckons if she was Australian she would have gotten off with a warning.

But keep your wits about you lawbreaking bikers, the Man is watching.

Hey, so what do you guys think? Should bikers have to follow the exact same rules as drivers? Or are they given some leeway by virtue of the fact that they (generally) cause less accidents and less damage should they be involved in a collision?

And if we want to count bikes as vehicles just like cars, what about vehicles and pedestrians in bike lanes – should they get tickets for impeding other vehicles?

I ask this having spent most of my ride home last night clearing groups of drunk people from my bike lane. (Confidential to the guy who shouted inexpicably, ‘Only a fa**ot would drive that bike’ – your hair was unbelievably atrocious.)