Was South Yorkshire Police right not to follow West Midlands Police’s ‘close pass’ initiative? We look at the numbers

Wiltshire Police did a Cycle Safety campaign last year, it started out by telling people what to take on a ride including Gel's???, Water etc. It was all the usual victim blaming stuff, until a few people started commenting. Hardly anything was targetted at drivers and giving cyclists space and why they need it. One of our towns CPT priorities for the next 6 months is pavement cycling.

It doesn't come as a surprise as I have been close passed by Wiltshire Police vehicles twice in the last year (neither on blue lights) and a few weeks ago got close passed by a car, as it avoided a Wiltshire Police car coming the other way, needless to say the Police Officer did nothing.

We have had a number of fatal incidents (not cyclists) on the surrounding main roads and Wiltshire Police & the PCC seem either incapable or reluctant to actually carry out any major traffic enforcement to clamp down on the idiot drivers who belt around just extracting the urine. They seem more interested in focusing on high profile vanity projects, that affect a few or unlikely to happen, rather than clamping down on things that actually threaten peoples lives on a day to day basis.

I have yet to be killed riding my bike, probably.

I have yet to have a SI.

I will not appear in the KSI stats.

At over 6 feet tall and 13 stone riding with helmet (steady) a reflective coat and at least 3 lights visible from the rear and the same from the front, I was knocked off my bike twice by drivers last year. Once I knew it was coming as on the approach to the roundabout the driver was aiming for a line that wasn't there and once by a woman that had seen me but decided her McDonald's was more important.

It doesn't need to be about KSI's - how many millions of incidents are there where we just "get lucky" and how many of us think there's a good chance that this luck will inevitably run out at some point. The close pass initiative is a good start though one of the punishments should be to sit them on a bike and repeat their driving, see how they feel.

I reckon they should rebadge it "set off earlier, drive slower, have consideration, your shopping isn't that important, you self-obsessed selfish knob jockey".

Councils and police forces often justify inaction with "well, nobody (or not enough people) has been killed here".  God forbid that we make changes so nobody does...

First a slight correction - the training day which 18 police services are sending to in Birmingham is on Friday, not Thursday. I am privileged to have been asked to make some introductory remarks  at the beginning of the day.

With regard to the issue of how many cyclists are reported Killed and Seriously Injured: while KSIs are related to close passing, a key reason justifying this kind of policing has been that cyclists (and those thinking of cycling) experience it as intimidatory and a problem in itself whether or not injury or death occurs. West Midlands Police have made it clear that when they started "Give Space: Be Safe" a key justification was that potential cyclists are put off cycling by seeing or hearing about close passing .  The point is that cyclist KSI numbers is only part of the justification for this kind of law enforcement.

For the story behind this policing and why the Road Danger Reduction Forum gave a special award to West Midlands Police, see:

https://rdrf.org.uk/2016/11/22/a-new-dawn-in-policing-to-prevent-danger-...

If anyone attends a public meeting with the police it would be worth asking them if they enforce legislation in respect of litter or dog fouling.  When they reply that they consistently do so, then point out that no danger is caused by these acts yet no assistance is given to vulnerable road users.  Hopefully embarrassment will follow. 

Good article.

Always nice to see some data to counter the "Not enough cyclists dying" argument.

So what they are saying is, cyclists lives don't matter.

Can you imagine the resources that would be made available if it were bicycle users who were killing motorists?

The worrying thing is that 11.4% of all KSI's involving  cycles is *really enormous* when you realise how few journeys are actually done by bike (2%?) and how many fewer Kms are travelled by bikes. 

I suspect that the chance of a KSI on a cycle is at last 10 times greater than in a car. Certainly the evidence is supported by the number yof cyclists I know who have had a KSI. 

I wonder how many life changing accidents and deaths these police forces want to watch before they do anything? It's not exactly difficult when the cyclists produces the video evidence is it?

The worrying thing is that 11.4% of all KSI's involving  cycles is *really enormous* when you realise how few journeys are actually done by bike (2%?) and how many fewer Kms are travelled by bikes. 

I suspect that the chance of a KSI on a cycle is at last 10 times greater than in a car. Certainly the evidence is supported by the number yof cyclists I know who have had a KSI. 

I wonder how many life changing accidents and deaths these police forces want to watch before they do anything? It's not exactly difficult when the cyclists produces the video evidence is it?

Very short sighted of SYP. What they are failing to take into account is the impact that dangerous and aggressive driving has on people's willingness to cycle. In short people are afraid of drivers so don't cycle.

I live in Sheffield and was very disappointed by SYP's stance on this. The infrastructure is terrible and so are many of the drivers. I'm very committed to cycling for transport, but eve as an experienced cyclist I choose my routes very carefully. Many of my friends tell me that they'd love to cycle but are too afraid of drivers to do so. 

I live in Sheffield, I ride and race all over the county and out in the Peak District. It's lovely as I'm sure people have seen from the TdF and TdY footage if they haven't had the opportunity to ride here.

The nature of the roads in many places makes passing quite difficult as there are a lot of typical country lanes without markings (I drive here too and take the patient approach, but it is a bit frustrating at times- no excuse of course). The number of times me and my riding mates have nearly been taken out by utterly stupid drivers taking risks with our lives (not theirs) is probably into the hundreds. We get all sorts of numbskull behaviour: shouting, throwing things out of cars, slapping our behind as they pass, "road tax", "single file" etc. Morons. It's commonplace to the point that we are used to it and it has become 'normal'.

The close-pass initiative would help massively here, it's not just about deaths it's about driving dangerously/carelessly and that is something that I see in droves. It's intimidating and completely out of order, people need educating.

Arrest a few of them, fine them and tell them to spread the word to their idiotic friends that it's not acceptable.

Ironically, I commute by bike and rarely find any trouble at commuting times in the city itself- it is the surrounding areas and especially the weekend group rides that are affected in my experience.

There is a post from a gentleman called TVL at the end of the discussion from the previous South Yorkshire story, where he links to a ridiculous close pass and describes his treatment by the police force there.  It's worth a watch, just to see the level of bad driving that SYP don't think is worth pursuing.  

Only a relatively few police officers were on trial for killing 96 people in the Hillsborough disaster through incompetent policing. That didn't stop South Yorkshire Police from spending large amounts out of its budget on their defence, and when that ran out going to the government for more, including 2.1 million pounds on top lawyers for its suspended chief constable alone. But sure, preventing your own citizens from be intimidated and injured by criminally negligent and sometimes violent drivers, that would be a waste of money, if only a few of them are being killed.

We have 3 people hit by cars in South Yorkshire in the last year just in my office, that's a sample size of about 50 people. Only once they have had to go to hospital but it still doesn't gel well for the force

"Force said not enough cyclists were dying on the roads"

You needn't continue.