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North Yorkshire Police Insp Dave Barf with Cycling UK's David Murray – photo credit JoolzeDymond-CyclingUK.jpgNorth Yorkshire Police becomes first force to get one of Cycling UK’s close pass mats
North Yorkshire Police has become the first force in the UK to use ‘close pass’mats’ provided by Cycling UK following the charity’s successful crowdfunding drive earlier this year to raise money to have them made. Other forces across the UK will receive their mats by the end of the month.
Building on the award-winning close pass operation launched by West Midlands Police last year, the mats will enable officers to clearly demonstrate to motorists spotted passing too close to cyclists just how much safe passing distance they should give riders.
> Cycling UK hits £12,000 Kickstarter ‘close pass’ target in less than 48 hours
Launched on Tuesday at the cycling track at York Sport Village, the force’s Operation Spartan is being run in partnership with 95 Alive and Cycling UK, whose ‘Too Close for Comfort’ crowdfunding appeal saw almost 970 people and organisations donate a total of £14,500 to fund the mats.
Traffic Constable Michelle Bergstrand from North Yorkshire Police’s Major Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Following the success of the Tour de Yorkshire we have seen an increase in the number of cyclists on our roads.
“By the nature of cycling, cyclists are some of the most vulnerable road users and Operation Spartan aims to ensure that drivers are aware of the fact they need to leave sufficient space when passing a cyclist.
“Rule 163 of the Highway Code states at least the width of a car should be left between cyclist and vehicle. However, to make it easier for drivers, we are advising this should be 1.5m from the cyclist.
“Drivers need to remember that cyclists need enough room so they can safely navigate around uneven road surfaces, drain covers and other debris that finds its way onto our road surfaces.
“We want to ensure that every driver in our region feels confident to overtake a cyclist safely and is aware of the guidance," she continued.
“The close pass mat is a great way of depicting really easily exactly how much room that is and we are grateful to Cycling UK, and all those who supported the fundraising campaign, for their support,” she added.
“370 cyclists were injured on our roads in 2015, with four cyclists sadly losing their lives.
“We believe that everyone should use the roads with care and consideration towards each other and Operation Spartan will take every step necessary to increase the level of safety for all and reduce the number of cyclist who are killed or seriously injured on the roads of North Yorkshire.”
As we reported on road.cc earlier this month, West Yorkshire Police have also chosen to follow West Midlands Police in introducing a close pass initiative, initially targeting motorists in Leeds.
> West Yorkshire Police adopts close pass initiative
However, South Yorkshire Police has yet to implement such a campaign, leading dozens of organisations including Cycling UK, British Cycling and Cycle Sheffield, among others, to write an open letter to the force urging it to take action.
> Dozens of groups urge South Yorkshire Police to adopt close pass initiative
David Murray, head of campaigns and communications at Cycling UK, commented: “We’re really pleased to see North Yorkshire Police roll out the first of our close pass mats – particularly as Cycling UK’s spiritual home of Harrogate sits squarely in their patch.
“Over the rest of May, thanks to the generosity of cyclists across the UK, who supported our #toocloseforcomfort Kickstarter campaign, we’ll be donating these mats to every force in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales as we aim to make it a summer of safe cycling on all our roads,” he added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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18 comments
A lot of my local roads are too narrow for this guidance to work - so what happens then?
A: the car waits behind you til it's safe to pass? (???)
i've had a few instances lately where a car has barged its way past in the usual way, only to turn offf within 50 yards, such is the "stuck behind a cyclist" avoidance instinct. They're close enough, normally disembarking by this time to go up and speak to - but I assume this is likely to do more harm than good?
in Richard's Bicycle Book he mentions the value of passengers as a source of embarrassment for drivers "Colin", or "Da-aad" they might s say, "what are you doing?", when I give them the upturned palm "really?" signal.
I'd like to see UK police forces getting some of these. http://codaxus.com/c3ft/
Already being succesfully used in the USA.
I'm a CTC member, i won't put a penny to this nonsense, it's idiotic and most of all it sets a very very dangerous precedence and the wrong message. In the eyes of motorists it means if you're further out than 75cm then you're in territory you shouldn't be, this is actually worse than narrow on street marked cycle lanes.
And in any case without enforcement just as shown in all the other countries around the world that have this it will mean absolutely diddly shit in terms of KSIs. Urban areas in spain (KSIs up, Australia, cycling helmet/bell/no Id infringements in NSW up, injuries up (Especially in Canberra where Mike Hall was killed and the local cycling prsident said cycling in ACT was safe despite it being twice the rate as other areas for cycling hospitalisations!), close pass fines, a handful
We already had a law for close passes, we already had the rules for overtaking and when it is safe to do so, so fecking well ensure that those rules are adhered to not make up more random shite that also won't get policed but actually give ammunition to the anti cyclist lot/motorists and confuse the matter even more.
Give me fucking strength!
I love the way you cherry pick your stats to (supposedly) back up your nonsense argument. In the ACT total cyclist numbers are ever increasing year by year and indeed the ACT has one of the higher rates of cycling in the country - it makes sense then that the injury/collision rate/ hospitilasions will be greater year by year. As a true percentage of population cycling, the ACT has one of the lower rates of injury. Your stats show no evidence that the KSI rate would have been lower WITHOUT the initiatives implememented.
It also means more than 'diddly shit' as education can only help rather than hinder. In this country (as in most) you only get tested on the Highway Code ONCE in your life (unless you are very aged). The propensity for motorists who have had licences for many years to forget the rules is very high.
I can only applaud this initiative - if it saves just one life it is money well spent.
Do please counter my cherry picking with some actual facts then sonshine!
Go to the spanish websites an educate your self with respect to how the distance passing laws have made fuck all difference in that country with increasees in incidents for biciclists in all the major conurbations.
Go educate yourself and ask those in Asutralia that have the passing 'laws' and what effect this has had and how many motorists have being pulled up.
C'mon if you're going to talk bollocks at least back it up with something solid!
I did my level 2 velodrome coaching course in Middlesbrough last year with a Michelle Bergstrand, she was a police officer too, I wonder..........
Why do we (cyclists) only get 0.75m of space? In that 0.75m of space are storm drains, white/yellow lines/pot holes and all other number of obsticles there to trip/slip us up. The mat should read 1m from the curb and at least 1.5m to pass... IMO.
We don't. We get as much as we decide we need.
What's missing from the photo is the context of the talk given by the officers explaining why cyclists take certain positions (I know WMP do this, hopefully the same is true for other forces who've been on the WMP seminar).
The 0.75m is a fairly representative distance from the kerb that many cyclists riding in secondary might take, particularly the purely utility cyclist or occasional sunny weekend rider. You know, the ones most likely to be scared off cycling by a close pass.
Most storm drains (around here at least) are about a foot wide (300mm) and road markings typically extend no more than 400mm into the carriageway (double yellows would be at 375mm if done perfectly but standard allows +/-25mm tolerance on both the lines and the gap between them, if I read the linked diagram correctly -- I'm sure some council roads maintenance bod will correct me if I'm wrong)
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/images/uksi_20160362_en_190
Well, no, what it should have is 75cm from the kerb as a general guideline minimum, then another 75cm of me-and-my-bike, and then 1.5 metres to pass.
An excellent initiative, but I'm more than slightly concerned at the comments of Traffic Constable Michelle Bergstrand “Rule 163 of the Highway Code states at least the width of a car should be left between cyclist and vehicle."
No it doesn't. What it actually says is "give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car"
Which could be zero.
This rule is why we have to crowd fund mats to make cycling safer. Perhaps if the rule did say what she thought it did, we could keep our money and add to n.
Following hot on the footsteps of the police motorcyclist who didn't know the Highway Code or the law, but stopped two perfectly legal cyclists anyway, I'm beginning to lose whatever confidence I had in traffic police, who really, really, really should know both the law and the Highway Code.
Road cc, why have you not included the width of the cyclist/handlebars in the measurements on the mat?
I don't think you can blame road.cc for that - that's what the mat has on it (and, yes, it posits a cyclist who is the width of a white line!). Bez did a blog post on it here - https://beyondthekerb.org.uk/2017/03/31/flaw-on-the-floor/
But 1.5m from the centre line of my wheels is a vast improvement on some of the passes I get.
Yeah I'm not a fan of this at all.
The images of it will be circulated a great deal more widely than the accompanying education. I suspect it will reinforce, in many drivers' minds, that cyclists should be in the gutter, and a safe overtake occurs within the same lane.
It does not convey that cyclists should cycle where it's safe. Sometimes that could even be *within*75cm from the kerb, but often it'll be further out, or in primary. It does not convey that the 1.5m is meant to be beyond wherever the cyclist is in the lane.
Honestly, I can see this leading to more moton righteous indignation and punishment passes aimed at cyclists not being in the position that the mat seems to say they should be.
We like to have a grumble on road.cc, but this is a positive development which could make a difference, and I want to say something positive about it.
A lot of North Yorkshire drivers do need to be told to leave enough space when overtaking. There are not many malicious people on the county's roads, but plenty of dopey ones who pass way too close, especially when there's oncoming traffic, or who overtake on blind bends or blind rises.
This operation won't be a silver bullet to solve the problem, but it should help, particularly if it's carried out in a determined and effective way by North Yorks police.
Wonder if they'll use it...?
Shit drivers will drive shittily.
£14,500 paid by cyclists because police couldn't work out how to use a tape measure and a stick of chalk to do exactly the same thing for pennies.