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news
road rage - via wikimedia commonsPetition calling for public awareness campaign to address driver aggression towards cyclists hits 10,000 signatures
A newly-launched petition calling for the Department for Transport to run a public information campaign aimed at driver aggression towards cyclists has now amassed 10,000 signatures, meaning that it will get a response from the Government. It comes shortly after another petition received a lot of media attention, but has so far failed to get quite so many signatures...
> road.cc readers open up on the stress of riding on Britain’s roads, with one giving it up for good
The petition, started by Helen-Louise Smith, says "the attitude that cyclists should not be on the roads needs to end", and that motorists should be educated about "dangerous, inappropriate and aggressive behaviours that can lead to the injury and even death of cyclists."
It continues: "In 2019, 16,884 cyclists were injured in reported road accidents, including 4,433 who were killed or seriously injured.
"These figures only include cyclists killed or injured in road accidents that were reported to the police. Many cyclist casualties are not reported to the police.
"Driver aggression towards cyclists feels to be increasing & we are calling on the Department of Transport to run a national public awareness campaign to educate motorists about dangerous behaviours."
This is so needed. Car drivers, bus drivers, private delivery & public services vehicle drivers each play their part in aggressive behaviour. So awareness raising in and out of the workplace is badly needed.
— David Porter (@davidfporter) June 17, 2021
The petition started to be widely shared on social media last week, and had just over 2,000 signatures before road.cc published the first version of this article. 48 hours later, there are over 10,700. The government will now respond, and if it gets 100,000 signatures before 16 December 2021, it will be considered for debate in parliament.
The petition can be viewed here.
Do you think a public information campaign could reduce aggression towards cyclists on the roads, and if so what would it look like? Let us know in the comments as always.
Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story).
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88 comments
I have no idea why people think that such a petition will work.
Recently I've been following a number of Facebook posts by local police forces trying to emphasis the "close pass" message. And every time the post is rapidly overwhelmed by cyclist-hating drivers, posting about red-light-jumping pavement cyclists who ride 5 abreast while paying no road tax and scaring the horses. Every Single Time. The actual message posted by the police? Completely lost. If it makes any impression at all, it's to get a few of the worst posting about hanging a 1.5m long plank out of their windows so they can be absolutely sure to leave the right amount (but if they don't, to eliminate the source of their problem).
Frankly a lot of people out there are pretty wretched, and my daily riding experiences just back up the idea that it's not just online that these morons think and behave like it - there are plenty of drivers quite prepared to behave like selfish, entitled, dangerous twats on the road.
But making them pass a test, be registered and licensed before they can drive is making no difference. Personally I think it will only change when we start shooting them by the dozen; anything else is just hot air.
West Midlands Police are currently running a scheme. For the next 3 months, they will be educating (or prosecuting the worst offenders). After that, they will stop educating and prosecute every single one.
This needs to be rolled out nationwide.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2016/sep/16/undercover...
We will see. Probably entirely coincidental, but I uploaded my latest footage to WMP yesterday.
That article was 5 years ago. They should be prosecuting every single one now but unfortunately they do not tell you if they are or not.
Works for me. At the moment we have mass murde of cyclists by errant motorists, after all.
PS - your bridge is over there ....
It very probably won't Richard. However any kind of activism (I mean trying to effect societal change) will inevitably have multiple failures before gaining traction and success. It's why it's so facking hard.
A DoT campaign might improve the situation, just as it did for 'pass wide and slow' for horses. However, I feel a much better improvement would be to ensure police forces take reports of aggression, close passes, etc. seriously. When the police have the same disregard for cyclists as a lot of drivers we don't have a chance of improving road safety. Some drivers will never have empathy for cyclists, but they will appreciate punishment that seriously inconveniences them .
That's one view, but surely prevention is better than cure? I'd rather that the drivers didn't close pass than punish the tiny proportion who were caught.
Quite so. But the more that are caught on camera and prosecuted and then publicised, the more will take more care.
"Three-quarters (74%) of people say drivers can get away with motoring offences due to a lack of traffic police officers."
But as we all know from bitter experience, the media would never report it that way, and would just criticise the vigilante cyclists for reporting innocent motorists going about their business; if they reported it at all that is.
Both. Why not both?
When the police have the same disregard for cyclists as a lot of drivers we don't have a chance of improving road safety
Correct! police are the Secondary Enemy which allows the Primary enemy to carry on unchecked, by simply ignoring perfect evidence of indisputable serious traffic offences.
A certain portion of the world needs to de-Trump their illogical emotions from reality.
Signed
I'm sure a lot of the aggression I experience is due to the driver being ignorant about what a cyclist can legally do, what is actually taught in cycle training and even stuff in the highway code.
So many haven't a clue that filtering is ok or that riding primary is a taught method.
Im not sure how much difference it would make even if they did, I often feel alot of the ultra aggression I witness on the roads is chemically induced, the rest of the stuff might be bourne of ignorance with a good dollop of British queueing theory in play, but can you really enourage people not to be angry all the time ?
In a word. Yes. It's the law to not to be so aggressive that you assault people.
With your reasonings we'd all be Neanderthals and civilisation wouldn't exist - because ignorance is an excuse?
All bets are off if it's a drunk/drug driver. That's where police taking dash/cycle cam footage seriously might have an impact (or some more police on the roads).
But the majority of issues I experience I'm sure are out of ignorance. It's not going to work just asking people to be nice to cyclists. You've got to explain why they're 'cycling in the middle of the road' or 'undertaking' or 'weaving about' or pay more for the upkeep of the roads than the average car driver etc.
I have much less faith than you. This is hate first , then find an excuse by a minority. Most drivers are absolutely fine around people on bikes.
It's called the Department FOR Transport.
Which is what the article calls it. Except where it's directly quoting the petition author. That's where you need to direct your pedantry.
This needs to be stickied.
It makes sense.... If there is such thing as a 'driver awareness' course then there should be a 'driver agressiveness' course
Signed.
That picture makes me chuckle every time I see it!
Unfortunately, I think we need more than an education campaign. For those that are already aggressive, any such campaign will go in one ear, and straight out the other. Sad as it is to type, I think that aggression towards cyclists needs to become a hate crime. We already have hate crimes where the only consequence of the hatred is someone's hurt feelings. A lot of the aggression on the roads genuinely threatens peoples' lives, and it is purely based on a hatred of how we have chosen to move around. If there are no consequences of hatred, there will be no change of attitudes. As it is, unless real harm is done, the police consider there to be no crime and the aggressions continue.
You may be right, but an education campaign is pretty cheap and may well change some reactions out there on the road. If a driver sees an example of cyclist-hate and thinks "that was almost me the other day" then they might just decide to not be "that person".
I think there's also another benefit in helping drivers that wind themselves up with hate, anxiety and general stress. If they can learn that their emotions are caused by the general stress of driving, then they could maybe relax a bit and hopefully achieve the zen driving state of Ogmios (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FEO-XKo4cw&t=1s). It could have a dual benefit of improving mental health and increasing safety, so I reckon it's worth a try.
Why is Mike Gatting so angry?
Probably spotted Shakoor Rana
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