Paul Taylor was biking to work when he received a $150 fine for not stopping at a stop sign near Rolleston School in Canterbury.

A cyclist without a driver's licence has been fined and given 20 demerit points for running a stop sign.

Paul Taylor said he had just dropped off some chocolate for a fundraiser at school in Rolleston, near Christchurch, when he was pulled up on his bicycle for failing to stop at a stop sign.

He was fined $150 and given demerit points.

A truck was going through the intersection beside him, he said, so he knew there was nothing coming from the right.

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"So I just crossed," Taylor said.

"[The police officer] was sitting down the side street, because he [filmed] me. He showed me going through the intersection."

The officer pulled him up and asked for his driver's licence.

"I said I don't have one. That's why I ride a bike.

"He took 20 demerit points off. But I haven't got a licence."

Taylor said he had been cycling for 46 years and had never been stopped by police.

"I've never ever heard of anyone getting a ticket on a bike before," he said.

"My bike's probably worth $20."

Clare Simpson, a spokeswoman for cycling advocacy group Spokes, said stop signs were there to protect road users, including cyclists.

"As far as I know, the road rules say that if you use the road then you have to obey the road rules."

Not all of the rules were sensible and the organisation supported changing speed limits in some areas, she said.

"If we [cyclists] want to change them we need to make an appeal to whatever district council is responsible."

In September last year, Stuff reported police had handed out $3.75m in fines to cyclists over five years.

Three-quarters of the 68,000 cycle-related infringements were for not wearing a helmet or not fastening it properly.

Police issued 11,000 for not having bike lights, 5000 for riding on footpaths and garden beds, and two for riding through Christchurch's Lyttleton Tunnel.

Police were not available for comment on Tuesday.