Greater Manchester Police roll out close-pass initiative following successful trial (+ video)

Argos74 wrote:

Hang on, that's me! Don't remember it being a particularly close pass though.

Are you riding the bike or driving the white van?

Gasman Jim wrote:

I'm lucky enough to be riding in Gran Canaria this week. I've never encountered such a courteous bunch of drivers elsewhere on earth (and I've ridden in a lot of different countries)! Not one single close pass so far, and that's despite their mountain roads being very twisty and there being quite a few cyclists.

 

How come these guys are so careful around cyclists, while the UK has so many arseholes behind the wheel?

probably the same drivers, but on holiday!

Grumpy17 wrote:

Sadly you just can't educate some drivers at all. A quick read of a few of the Twitter and Facebook comments will tell you it's a lost cause. Someone has posted a comment that says the cyclist in the above picture (this is the A5103 near to Cavendish Rd) is too far out and 'should be riding between the two yellow lines'.

No hope of educating twerps like that I'm afraid.

 

I'd be surprised if a really significant proportion of drivers can do better but just choose not to care, though I do think complacency is a factor.

But if that is the case, then the threat of plain-clothed plod cycling around, snooping on their driving, should have some effect, no?

davel wrote:

Grumpy17 wrote:

Sadly you just can't educate some drivers at all. A quick read of a few of the Twitter and Facebook comments will tell you it's a lost cause. Someone has posted a comment that says the cyclist in the above picture (this is the A5103 near to Cavendish Rd) is too far out and 'should be riding between the two yellow lines'.

No hope of educating twerps like that I'm afraid.

 

I'd be surprised if a really significant proportion of drivers can do better but just choose not to care, though I do think complacency is a factor.

But if that is the case, then the threat of plain-clothed plod cycling around, snooping on their driving, should have some effect, no?

The threat will be illusory. A bit like the cardboard cut-out police officers they spent thousands on to deter shoplifters.

Seriously, after the intial publicity phase has ended it is highly unlikely they will want to allocate resources to this initiative.

There are simply too many crimes and serious incidents already and not enough police officers to deal with them  to expect they could ever commit to this long term.

Grumpy17 wrote:

davel wrote:

Grumpy17 wrote:

Sadly you just can't educate some drivers at all. A quick read of a few of the Twitter and Facebook comments will tell you it's a lost cause. Someone has posted a comment that says the cyclist in the above picture (this is the A5103 near to Cavendish Rd) is too far out and 'should be riding between the two yellow lines'.

No hope of educating twerps like that I'm afraid.

 

I'd be surprised if a really significant proportion of drivers can do better but just choose not to care, though I do think complacency is a factor.

But if that is the case, then the threat of plain-clothed plod cycling around, snooping on their driving, should have some effect, no?

 

The threat will be illusory. A bit like the cardboard cut-out police officers they spent thousands on to deter shoplifters.

Seriously, after the intial publicity phase has ended it is highly unlikely they will want to allocate resources to this initiative.

There are simply too many crimes and serious incidents already and not enough police officers to deal with them  to expect they could ever commit to this long term.

Twitter and facebook gobshites are only representative of twitter and facebook gobshites. If the efficacy of solutions like this was measured by the nonsense spouted in response, nothing would ever get done. 

There isn't the money or resource to throw at this as it is - but it's gaining momentum. That's one of its major strengths: it's very cheap. It's not a panacea, but it could have a positive impact. Well worth a go... unless things are fine as they are. And they're not.

Grumpy17 wrote:

A positive move BUT... which drivers realistically are going to refuse some 'on the spot education' as an alternative to prosecution? Err,none. They are going to stand there listening to a boring lecture for a few minutes then be on their way ..only to carry on doing exactly what they just did over and over again.

Perhaps the police need to realise that a lot of these cases of close passes are not a consequence of a lack of driver awareness at all- it is more the case that a fair number of these  drivers  know full well what they are doing.  And all their close passes ,left hooks , must overtake at all costs type manoeuvres are merely their way of demonstrating that they  don't  G.A.F. about and in fact actively dislike cyclists .

Bloody hell, one thing at a time Grumpy! I believe from pushing these schemes out across the country you aren't just made aware of the 1.5m rule when you get stopped from the old bill but also from the media coverage it's getting. Surely can't be a bad thing can it?

James115115 wrote:

Bloody hell, one thing at a time Grumpy! I believe from pushing these schemes out across the country you aren't just made aware of the 1.5m rule when you get stopped from the old bill but also from the media coverage it's getting. Surely can't be a bad thing can it?

The 1.5m rule? No such thing.

IMHO it's dangerous to suggest as in the picture used by WMP and seemingly taken up by other forces that cyclists should cycle 0.75m from the kerb and cars should pass at 1.5m.

I usually cycle further out than 0.75m from the kerb - often much further. And equally, most cars pass with more than 1.5m space. Yes, those are minimum standards but they're surely enforcing the perception in the less courteous drivers that that is all they should give.