The Cyclists Doing 37mph Weren’t Breaking Any Law. The Police Stopped Them Anyway

• In September 2023, Devon and Cornwall officers filmed and stopped a group of cyclists descending through a Dartmoor village at 37-39mph, in a 30mph zone.
• UK speed limits apply to motor vehicles, not bicycles — the riders had committed no speeding offence whatsoever.
• And when the police posted the footage online to publicise the stop, half a million people watched it in a day… though not quite in the spirit intended.

In September 2023, a police car followed a group of road cyclists down a descent on Dartmoor, its speedometer reading between 37 and 39mph, into a village where the posted limit was 30.

The officers stopped the group and, in the force’s own words, offered them appropriate words of advice about their speed.

There was just one wrinkle in this tale of roadside justice: the cyclists had broken no speed limit at all — because in the UK, speed limits don’t apply to bicycles.

The Law Almost Nobody Knows

It sounds like a pub-quiz trick, but it’s entirely real. The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, which sets out the law on speed limits, applies them to motor vehicles. Rule 124 of the Highway Code lays out the speed limit table for cars, vans and lorries — and bicycles appear nowhere in it.

Outside of specific byelaw-restricted areas — some parks, promenades and paths, Richmond Park being the famous example — a cyclist cannot commit a speeding offence on a public road, no matter what the signs say.

Devon and Cornwall’s own roads policing team confirmed as much afterwards: legislation does not require cyclists to adhere to the speed limit. The advice was just that. Advice.

So the stop itself was lawful, and the safety point was sincerely made. But the spectacle of a police car accelerating to nearly 40mph through a 30 zone to catch people who weren’t committing an offence was not lost on the internet — the force’s own video racked up around half a million views within a day, and the response was not the round of applause the post seemed to anticipate.

What Actually Can Catch a Cyclist

None of this makes cyclists legally untouchable, and it’s worth knowing where the real lines sit. A rider can still be prosecuted for careless or dangerous cycling if the manner of their riding falls below the required standard — and in byelaw areas, local speed restrictions can and do apply.

In other words, the law regulates how a cyclist rides, not the number they ride at. For Motorists, of course, it’s precisely the other way around: the number is everything, measured to the exact mile per hour by a device at the roadside.

Which brings us to the part of this story that matters for you.

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The Law Means Exactly What It Says — Which Cuts Both Ways

The Dartmoor stop is a perfect little demonstration of a principle that decides real cases every week: enforcement is only as good as the law behind it. The officers’ instincts said those riders were speeding. The legislation said otherwise, and the legislation wins.

That same precision protects Drivers more often than most people realise. A speed limit is only enforceable against you if everything behind it is legally in order — the signage, the paperwork, the procedure. When any of it isn’t, a prosecution that looks open and shut can be anything but.

Most Motorists never find out, because they assume that what the enforcement says must be what the law says. On Dartmoor in 2023, it wasn’t.

If a NIP or a summons has landed on your doormat, that’s exactly the assumption worth testing. DriveProtect™ Members get direct access to a specialist Speeding Solicitor who reviews the case and advises them exactly what to respond, for a fraction of the normal cost of legal help.

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