Despite criticism London's 'Think! Cyclist' campaign extends to 5 other cities

Bad logic Congo. I would imagine not wearing a helmet on a building site could result in more serious injury than wearing one and hospitals see less head injuries from building sites because helmets are mandatory.

Of course they're mandatory for insurance reasons and I personally would never make wearing bike helmets compulsory. It doesn't mean they don't offer partial protection.

As I've said before on this site. Hit yourself on the head with a hammer whilst wearing a bike helmet and then hit yourself again with without. Remember to make sure you film it so we can see it on YouTube. When you're ready?

What does the HC say about cars overtaking other cars?

I don't get why they would half bake the advice. It seems quite reasonable to try and educate all road users including cyclists; but why not working with cycling groups to make sure you are accurate with one's advice?

So, mostly good, but sheer unadulterated genius to put them in bus shelters, where the only people to see them will be bus passengers. What are they going to do, give the driver advice as he follows the bus route?

This would have been a much better use of the advertising vans recently stopped by the govt, which were telling illegal immigrants to go home. And they could have demonstrated their cycle awareness to other road users at the same time.

you can see how one sided the advice is.

Advice to cyclists "Follow the Highway Code including observing ‘stop’ and ‘give way’ signs and traffic lights"

Yet they don't give that same assertive tone to ASL and giving the same width as a car when passing.

I'm all for this campaign but TfL/DfT must not be biased to vehicles, cyclists are considered a 'carriage' that has the same road rights as any other.

Another close- but- no- cigar waste of taxpaying cyclists' money!

Overall this looks like a decent campaign. Certainly the messages it is trying to put across are infinitely better than the Nice Way Code.

Heading into Manchester a couple of times over the next couple of weeks so will be looking out for these.

Perhaps the posters should have pictures like the rule 163 highway code as detailed above printed on them.. There is absolutely no question where everyone should be having seen that.

Goes along with my experience with a corpulent driver today, who overtook and turned left across me, when I caught up with her, and after she had almost immediately shouted that I didn't pay road tax, she informed me that she hadn't cut me up, she had gone around me. I was lost for words, printable words.

Who, when driving, leaves a car's width between them and the car they are overtaking?

Leave a cars width...... it really would be funny if it wasn't so sad. A lot of motorists leaving just enough space not damage their wing mirrors if the cyclist wobbles or falls off. Half a cars width is far more than I usually get!

As far as the rest of it goes, I think the thinking behind it is very sound, the wording is just a case of interpretation. It's good the authorities are making an effort.

As far as helmets are concerned, my wife's an A&E nurse; over the years she's seen the aftermath on not wearing one compared to wearing one. I'm convinced and never go out without mine.

Overall I'd rather have these campaigns than not, anything promoting a better attitude between cyclists and motorists is surely a good thing!

Why do we think we can solve all our problems in the UK with posters? Immigrants, bad driving, terrible cycling, you name it, we've a poster for it! Lip service.

I saw one of these adverts in central Bristol today, which suggests that they may have a bit more budget behind the campaign than previous efforts. However the initial CTC reports suggested otherwise, and £80k really isn't going to do a lot to raise awareness, even without some of the slightly dodgy advice: http://www.ctc.org.uk/government-think-cycling-campaign-misses-bigger-pi...

I also have to wonder, even if they're giving out sound advice, how much effect these types of campaigns have. For example there are plenty of people who are aware of the advice to "take the lane" where a road narrows, but don't want to do it because they're worried about antagonising the people driving behind them.

Changing conditions on the ground seems a lot more sensible than blowing a bit of leftover budget on an underfunded advertising campaign; this seems like another example of lip service to cycling that the government can point to when criticised, but which isn't going to make a blind bit of difference overall.

I feel so much more safer now in Leeds...

What's all this 'Half a car is OK' crap?
What sort of car, Fiat 500 or Humvee?
HC says leave as much room as you would for a car; and that is generally interpreted as a car's width. It was when I took my test over 30 years ago and also when my daughter took hers 4 years ago. The rule hasn't changed, just some drivers' interpretation of it.
If you take up prime position on the road and they can't get round you safely then they shouldn't be trying to pass.
Remember, you have as much right to be on the road as they have.

Just to add something that no one else has seen - these things are plastered over the back of a lot of buses. I commute every day in London (all the way up the old kent road, which is horrible) and as far as I'm concerned, any highlighting of the issues is a good thing. There will always be those who don't agree with the advice, whoever has been consulted, so some visibility and at least putting it in people's minds is better than none at all.

As for the highway code - Edgeley and Fluffy are spot on. The text is fine if seen with the picture, but without the pic, it's open to interpretation. As someone who has also had their hand clipped by overtakers (mopeds, motorcycles and cars), and seeing other drivers overtake cars, buses and lorries etc, I can assure you that most people's interpretation of "as much space as you would a car" is about 6 inches...at least on London's congested roads.

We're all over the place we are Tom

Roadcc has an east London office? I thought you guys worked out of Bath?

Where, apart from bus shelters, are the messages aimed at drivers going to appear? Television adverts? The backs of buses?

The campaign's website doesn't offer us any clues.
http://think.direct.gov.uk/cycling.html

It seems a very hit and miss approach to rolling out a campaign that supposedly aims to make roads safer for vulnerable road users (if that indeed is its aim - to me the campaign looks wishy washy in the extreme, to the extent of being completely ineffectual).

Apparently the campaign has already been running in London since September 2012. But is there any data to suggest how effective it has been? I noted that when the original campaign was launched, there were quite a few 'going in the right direction' comments. Does anyone think now that any progress has been made? To me, it looks like we're exactly where we were a year ago.

If the campaign aims to change attitudes between motorists and people on bikes, I'd say nothing has changed. From what I've seen over the past year, ask motorists to 'think cyclist' and the prevailing 'thought' appears to be 'they're in my way' followed by 'they don't even pay road tax'.

I'd actually want to see something a lot more effective and also know more about how it's being publicised before I start 'welcoming' it as the CTC does.

CTC is being awkward here - all of the advice above is sound including half a cars width for overtaking and if you think cars should be giving you the whole lane in all situations then it's just not needed 99% of the time. Helmets, as usual personal choice and is the only questionable point

The Highway Code advice on passing a cyclist is ambiguous at best. I'd like more than "half a car's width" on the posters too, but at least it doesn't say that you only have to leave as much room as you would leave a car, which is what the HC appears to say, and which could mean only the width of a white line.