Police operation to catch 'close passers'.

[Phil Dryden]

Police post close pass sting on Strava, prosecute four drivers

Police in Sheffield post pictures and data of their close pass sting, showing suspect manoeuvres by drivers

www.cyclingweekly.com

At long last!

 

[Benjahmin]

Agreed that it's a good move but this is a hearts and minds thing. What we need is a good old fashioned public information film campaign, the sort of thing we used to get when seat belts first came in, or the many films about the results of drink driving. A few prosecutions will not stop the self important in the instant, because they're too important. It needs to appeal to the better side of the majority so that social pressure comes onto the minority who continue to believe it's their right not to be impeded even for a few seconds.
I think we also need an information campaign on the priority levels in the highway code - I believe they have been restated, but being a driver of well over 60 years old, I, along with millions of others, haven't seen a highway code for decades.

 

[Nealh]

A long batten with a big spikey nail on the end attached to the bike or a steel rod.

 

[Phil Dryden]

Agreed that it's a good move but this is a hearts and minds thing. What we need is a good old fashioned public information film campaign, the sort of thing we used to get when seat belts first came in, or the many films about the results of drink driving. A few prosecutions will not stop the self important in the instant, because they're too important. It needs to appeal to the better side of the majority so that social pressure comes onto the minority who continue to believe it's their right not to be impeded even for a few seconds.
I think we also need an information campaign on the priority levels in the highway code - I believe they have been restated, but being a driver of well over 60 years old, I, along with millions of others, haven't seen a highway code for decades.

Good point, Benjahmin. I note that you 'haven't seen a Highway Code for decades'. Tut, tut! You are far too law abiding . I have had 2 free copies over the last 5 years. Mind you the courses cost £90 each!

 

[kirsty]

Buying a £2.50 copy is a good investment but it's also available free online: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code

 

[WheezyRider]

Agreed that it's a good move but this is a hearts and minds thing. What we need is a good old fashioned public information film campaign, the sort of thing we used to get when seat belts first came in, or the many films about the results of drink driving. A few prosecutions will not stop the self important in the instant, because they're too important. It needs to appeal to the better side of the majority so that social pressure comes onto the minority who continue to believe it's their right not to be impeded even for a few seconds.
I think we also need an information campaign on the priority levels in the highway code - I believe they have been restated, but being a driver of well over 60 years old, I, along with millions of others, haven't seen a highway code for decades.

What's needed is for driving in a shared space to be a more significant part of the driving test and driver training. For example, most motorists don't have a clue about what "riding primary" means. They just see a cyclist in the middle of the road being a nuisance, instead of understanding the danger the person on the bike is trying to reduce. They are also often clueless about how vulnerable people are on bikes.

As you suggest, I agree that the old public information films ought to be revived if we are not going to force drivers to have refresher training from time to time.

There will be a new Highway Code coming out soon, with more emphasis towards vulnerable road users, following a consultation and new proposals earlier this year.

 

[Nealh]

Taking primary is essential at narrow junctions or at lights to reduce the chance of close passing or being pushed in to the crap on the n/s, as is keeping up to a metre out from the n/s on all roads.

 

[sjpt]

What's needed is for driving in a shared space to be a more significant part of the driving test and driver training. For example, most motorists don't have a clue about what "riding primary" means. They just see a cyclist in the middle of the road being a nuisance, instead of understanding the danger the person on the bike is trying to reduce. They are also often clueless about how vulnerable people are on bikes.

As you suggest, I agree that the old public information films ought to be revived if we are not going to force drivers to have refresher training from time to time.

There will be a new Highway Code coming out soon, with more emphasis towards vulnerable road users, following a consultation and new proposals earlier this year.

Yes. In fact, cycling should be a required part of the driving test.

 

[flecc]

Yes. In fact, cycling should be a required part of the driving test.

On a road with heavy traffic!

It will never happen though. Cycling here is still a majority male pursuit but probably over half of all new drivers are female, the majority having never learnt to cycle. As with everything else these days, a decision on such a proposal will go their way.
.

 

[flecc]

as is keeping up to a metre out from the n/s on all roads.

The authorities making that more difficult with painted cycle lanes barely a metre wide. They speak with one tongue but act with another.
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[slowcoach]

It is all down to driver attitude, which in this country seems to be anti-bicycle. On the odd occasion when we have been caravanning in France/Germany we have experienced a totally different attitude. Vehicle drivers there are far more concious of cyclists. However, there are exceptions.
Happy Christmas everyone.

 

[WheezyRider]

It is all down to driver attitude, which in this country seems to be anti-bicycle. On the odd occasion when we have been caravanning in France/Germany we have experienced a totally different attitude. Vehicle drivers there are far more concious of cyclists. However, there are exceptions.
Happy Christmas everyone.

In this country there seems to be an irrational hatred of people on bikes. I think it was something stoked up by the car industry to try and sell more cars. Now it seems deeply embedded in the national psyche that people on bikes are subhuman and fair game for attack.

 

[Benjahmin]

In this country there seems to be an irrational hatred of people on bikes. I think it was something stoked up by the car industry to try and sell more cars. Now it seems deeply embedded in the national psyche that people on bikes are subhuman and fair game for attack.

Which is exactly why we need a drip fed public information campaign. It won't change overnight but gradually a different mentality will take hold. Pictures/films of families out cycling in everyday clothes, people commuting - not racing - to work. People doing their shopping, smiling and waving, depictions of it being perfectly normal to want to ride a bike. All laced with greenwash righteousness. Isn't it called nudge theory?

 

[flecc]

In this country there seems to be an irrational hatred of people on bikes. I think it was something stoked up by the car industry to try and sell more cars. Now it seems deeply embedded in the national psyche that people on bikes are subhuman and fair game for attack.

No, the car industry is completely innocent of anything deliberate in this.

The origin was the sheer speed post WW2 with which the British public got away from cycling, switching to powered two wheels from the 1950s and into cars in the 1960s. By the 1970s utility cycling had virtually vanished, sport cycling was at a low ebb and British cycling mainly consisted of kids on Raleigh Choppers and the like. Huge numbers of bike shops had closed or fully converted to motorbikes and the like, including the one I worked in on leaving school, ever since being a Yamaha and Suzuki dealer.

At the same time in the 1960s and '70s we had major road improvement programs for motor vehicles like the new motorways, dual carriageways etc., leaving drivers in the dominant position of enjoying owning the roads.

It was only the introduction of the mountain bike in 1980 following its invention in the USA in 1979 that began a revival of adult British cycling. But of course even that was often off road so it was a long time before they started to make much impression on the roads. However, that return of cycling that was sporting in nature also led to the return of more club style cycling, also increasing the numbers of cyclists getting in the way of drivers on roads that had been solely theirs for a long time, creating resentment.

And then later to make matters even worse, the authorities started to paint cycle lanes on the roads, often stealing whole lanes from drivers or rendering them unusable with the ever increasing congestion.

The finishing touch for drivers to express fury was the fact that their remaining space was often packed to a standstill, while cycle lanes alongside commonly had few or no cyclists in them. Stand in drivers shoes for a little while and you'll soon understand how they feel.

The difference in mainland Europe is that they recovered from the war much more slowly in those early decades, so never reached the point of cycling dying out and drivers getting full control of their roads. For example, in the early 1970s when we'd reached that sad stage, almost half the Netherlands population were still cycling daily, enabling their government to learn from our mistake and start clamping down on drivers while making more space provision for cycling,

Lucky them, unlucky us because we can't turn the clock back now the damage is done.
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