FIVE cyclists a week on average are fined for breaking the law, according to a Geelong Advertiser analysis of all fines issued to bike riders over the past five years.

The main offences were failing to wear a helmet, failing to have proper lights and failure to obey traffic lights.

More than 220 fines were issued to cyclists during 2013/14 and the worst culprits were riders aged between 15 to 24.

media_camera Senior Sergeant Shane Coles.

Senior Sergeant Shane Coles said there had been a significant rise in the number of people cycling across the city over the past six years.

He said the biggest concern regarding cyclists’ safety was rider and driver behaviour alongside rider and driver attitudes.

He stressed it was only a small minority of cyclists who continued to flout the law.

“We’re seeing an ever-increasing number of MAMIL (middle age men in Lycra) on the road and it’s a growing trend for both fitness and transport,” he said.

“Recently we’ve put a lot of emphasis on pack riding. People down this way will know that the number of social riding groups has increased and there are some elements that believe they can ride in a peloton and that’s not the case.

“You’ve got to comply with the rules.”

Police said in the past year there had been no fatal accidents involving cyclists in the Geelong police service area, but there were 13 serious injury collisions and 31 minor injuries.

Accidents involving motorists included six fatalities, 159 serious injury collisions and 311 minor injury collision.

Sen-Sgt Coles urged bike riders across the region to ensure they shared equal responsibility for their own safety alongside other road users.

“A lot of our major bike riders have highlighted that people are becoming more aware of the issues that they do face,” he said.

media_camera Cyclists ride past the coast in the Great Victoria Bike Ride.

“With the Great Victoria Bike Ride last year I was amazed at the number of cyclists who were prepared for the conditions and, when we hit the Otways, it was foggy yet many didn’t have lights and it was a huge problem.

“You’ve got to be aware of the conditions you ride in.”

In the last financial year seven people were fined for failing to obey traffic lights, 17 for failing to have lights or equipment and close to 190 people were fined for failing to wear a helmet.

In 2012/13 there were more than 260 fines issued and in 2011/12 more than 210.

media_camera A boy was injured after a car hit his bike trailer.

Over the past five years riders aged between 15 and 24 were repeatedly the most likely to be pulled over and fined for failing to wear helmets.

They were followed by those aged 31 to 50.

A fortnight ago, a three-year-old boy suffered facial injuries after the bike trailer he was travelling in was hit by a car in Geelong West.

Police said it appeared the boy’s father was riding with the trailer in the wrong direction on the wrong side of the road near Pakington St intersection.

In 2013, a Geelong Advertiser investigation found cyclists were almost five times more likely to die on Geelong region roads than the rest of Victoria.

Between 2009 and 2013, six cyclists were killed — an average of one cycling fatality for every 40,000 people.

In the rest of the state that figure was one in every 195,000 people.

Department of Health’s 2012-13 statistics showed emergency department presentations for cycling injuries in Geelong have soared 52 per cent, while statewide figures were down 9 per cent on 2008-09 figures.

At the time Bike Safe identified 16 roads in the Geelong, Surf Coast and Queenscliff region as high risk.

This week Bike Safe president Ash Patten said the biggest concern for cyclists remained road conditions.