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37 comments
We get these 'high action rate' claims all the time, with little or no evidence of what the action was. People are, of course, entitled to consider that 'a call from a copper' is suitable action, just as I am entitled to consider it as worthless box-ticking which deters nobody from repeating the offence. I am even doubtful that these calls are even recorded on the 'driver's record', and that police officers are willing and able to check up on non-conviction incidents in a driver's career. People may assume this is just cynicism from someone in Lancashire, but my repeated efforts to establish actual action taken by other forces in specific cases with video have met with no success. The Met's wonderful 'find out what happened to your offender' facility seems to be on permanent hold, and Northamptonshire's apparently genuine equivalent scheme has not enabled anybody to provide a specific example on here
Hi wtjs
I've just started using upride. Here are the links to three reports which got educational courses. As you know drivers are offered these as an alterative to points and a fine so presumably records are kept.
I've just uploaded one which actually got points and a fine and I'll put the link here when it's accepted.
Can you let me know if the links work and if these are useful to you.
https://upride.cc/incident/left-hook-in-town/
https://upride.cc/incident/grey-vw-overtakes-then-forces-me-into-the-kerb/
https://upride.cc/incident/fails-to-cede-priority-at-bridge/
Can you let me know if the links work and if these are useful to you
Excellent. Thanks. It may be that I have mentioned on here my degree of dissatisfaction with Lancashire Constabulary? What I'm really after at the moment is your video link and a copy (you could delete any names, a screenshot would do- showing the reference number and the police logo) of the communication from GloucsRozz which informed you about the points/ fine. I definitely have mentioned not more than 10^6 times this case
https://upride.cc/incident/4148vz_travellerschoicecoach_closepass/
and LancsFilth's extraordinary efforts to conceal what their promised 'action' actually was- they claim it's illegal to tell me, which is obviously untrue. I'm going to repeat the FoI request 2 years on and they'll probably try the same thing again. Rendel's item about the Met's new 'find out what we did' scheme would have been a help, but has been delayed indefinitely, probably because they suspect that people will use it to find out what they didn't do.
PS I have noted the topic address so I can find your latest information
It's finally live. Here is the link :
https://upride.cc/incident/overtake-on-blind-bend-points-and-fine/
I've uploaded the screen shot for you as well.
Excellent, just the job! Thanks
Cameras (front & rear) are the only way to (try and) sort this kind of behaviour. I've run front and rear camers on my commute for several years, on average I submit a couple of clips to the Police each week. The "hit rate" i.e. a positive action letter seems quite high here in West Yorkshire, I'd only query a few of the rejected submissions I've made.
Camera's are your only friend when supported by a halfway helpful police force.
If you get a 1 in 4 action rate (including a warning call from a copper) you are probably winning.
You could try prayer. 5 minutes after I got home last night there was an almighty bang outside my house. I came outside to see two expensive cars with custom number plates I recognised as people who had close passed me on previous occasions had crashed into each other. Witness in another vehicle said both were driving like total dicks.
The negative part was the clean up of wreckage blocked buses in both directions for two hours. So as usual, public transport users were the ones punished for driver misbehaviour.
I've submitted a few clips to Avon & Somerset Police; got the usual 'driver has been served a letter/fixed penalty/Notice to Prosecute'. In Bath the Lib Dem council are pushing ahead with active travel and cutting off rat-runs (Low Traffic Neighbourhoods) so I usually engage with the consulations where I can. It was in their manifesto but it's sending some locals wild. I think the majority either want safer cycling roads or are indifferent; problem with the 'antis' are they go full petition, social media ranting and crowd-funding for legal challenges. Fortunately the council just ignore it and get on with it. I did engage with a Nextdoor chat but realised I was up against people who thought it was their god-given right to drive wherever they want. Signed up for a local meeting organised by (supportive) councillors ref a LTN being implemented nearby; it's around the time I get back on my bike so thought I'd turn up in cycle gear! I still drive but if I can swap out some of my journeys and cycle/walk/use public transport then I don't see why other people can't make an effort.
I think that there are certain road layouts that encourage a close pass. I'm not sure exactly but it seems to be more common on wider roads or roads with multiple lanes.
So when I've been close passed more than once on a section of road I remember that as being a section where I need to ride in a position that makes it impossible to pass.
True. In particular:
Roads with cycle lanes
Roads without cycle lanes
Wide roads
Narrow roads
"Fast" roads
"Quiet residential" roads.
To be fair it's now pretty common to experience excellent passing behaviour around Edinburgh. Difficult to gauge proportions as I don't run cameras, and I probably specifically notice the poor ones!
Don't forget "notorious" roads, and "dangerous" roads.
"How's my driving.?"
...mind you, Old Cary Grant's no angel in that department.
Great film, that.
I think that there are certain road layouts that encourage a close pass
There certainly are- many of mine are in the same place: the bus/ van/ car overtakes blithely at a blind hill crest followed by a 90° right when, who'd have thought it?, but there's heavy incoming traffic so you put the foot down and squeeze the cyclist as much as you can get away with, which is everything in Lancashire
Those four foot high retro reflective SLOW markings seem to encourage some really dangerous driving.
Those four foot high retro reflective SLOW markings seem to encourage some really dangerous driving
Indeed! The county council road marking teams have a lot to answer for!! Just moments after one of them, the Stagecoach bus driver was forced into this:
https://upride.cc/incident/sk19evw_stagecoach42_closepass/
And the drivers in front of the bus also illustrate the irrational tendency for drivers to stay in the lane with the cyclist - despite there being a completely clear lane on the other side of the road
I live in a large village and have the same problem doing utility riding around the locality.
I put together a video, six close passes in six days, ranging from "Ok it's a close pass, over the double white line" to "*******!!!!" I then booked a slot at the local Parish Council meeting, showed them the video along with some explanations and basically said "What are you going to do about this then?"
The PC have very little power to actually do anything, they sent the video to the local Police Comissioner who passed it on to the County Police road safety group.
The upshot was that we got two close pass operations in the village, on the first one they pulled in 20 drivers for "education". The operations were not well received on the village facebook pages.
All in all, made no difference to driver behaviour.
Good! Presumably the worst one, at least, was reported to the police, or the OPCC would immediately have sent you there without comment. Show us the link to *******!!!!, so we can see the offence which caused the PCC to stray from the standard "I can't interfere with operational decisions of the police"!
After the vids had been passed around the county the sixweek limit had expired, so unfortunately the police were unable to prosecute ?
Here's a screen shot
That wasn't the question/ point
I suggest you write to the driver direct and start your missive with
NOTICE OF INTENDED PROSECUTION
Yes it's a waste of time, no one cares enough to fix it. So we have to put up with it unfortunately.
I ride with a pass pixi, past Suffolk Police HQ, I often see the traffic cops driving on the same road, yet I get close passed all the time on it. I had one the other week who did it with a police car coming towards them, made no difference. One with an ambulance on blues & twos coming towards us, still overtook & close passed and made the ambulance brake to avoid a collision.
no one cares enough to fix it
It's even worse than that- the authorities (police mainly) are actively working against 'active travel', cyclists in general... No police vehicle has close passed me in the past 5 years, which is the time I've been looking out for the event, but they're certainly not interested in dissuading anybody else from passing as closely as they like and reports are just binned without even declaring them 'NFA'. Close Pass of the Day on here, which could be filled many times over, has made no difference - years of propaganda with no effect at all, which is largely down to our main enemy.
Having cameras will make it easier for you to provide evidence [although don't be surprised if it gets ignored].
If you are getting close passes from commercial vehicles such as HGV, busses and coaches, upload the clip to YouTube [but keep it as Private - need to have a link to view], and send the link to the company transport manager. If they only have an online contact page, don't send the link, and mark it as 'complaint: for the attention of the Transport Manager.
Make sure your complaint lists the offenses [preferable to note legislation and index (Road Traffic Act, section 1.2.3 for example)] and keep clear and precise.
Make sure you copy yourself/ screen capture the contact form.
Print to PDF all communication between yourself and the company.
If you get no resolution, send it all to the Traffic Commissioner for your area, as they issue Operators Licence and the firm must have a robust complaint resolution process in place.
If there are enough complaints about a vehicle or company, the TC may not renew the licence.
You can do this in parallel with reporting to your local police force for them to ignore.
Your main and almost insuperable problem is the almost limitless tolerance and sympathy the police display towards motorists, especially in their interactions with us 'rats of the road'. WU59 UMH is well known to the police and to my fans on here having today achieved a landmark 7 full years without VED. Didn't quite make the 7 years without MOT, but was driving around for 6 months after an MOT failed for several "dangerous" defects. It was regularly parked for hours at a time, including most of last Christmas Day and New Year's Day, outside the pub 150 yards from the police station. If only there was some way for the crack Police Squad to locate the vehicle and owner and view the MOT and VED history of the vehicle! The trailer does not, of course, display a number plate
I don't think that's fair, sometimes the system is slow to update !
Would your local paper like this story? 7 years and the police being notified about it is quite something.
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