Camera standards

[BentMikey]

Ages ago I spent a bit of time thinking about what sort of standards we should apply to taking videos and posting them. I'd like some input from the rest of you on what you think should be in this document since I'm sure we can do a much better version with camera community input. I'm interested in all your suggestions for changes.




General principles

• Everyone makes mistakes on the road, including all of us. For that reason, I like to be fairly tolerant of drivers, and I'll generally only put up video of the more careless and/or intentional bad driving, that goes beyond simple mistakes.

• Always complain - although it's cathartic to just put the video up, this on its own isn't going to change driving. I think it's essential to make the extra effort to complain to the company/driver/police, and explain that the driver's bad driving will be on youtube for all to see, and that it was not acceptable for xxx reason. This has at least a chance of changing driver behaviour for the better. That bad driver you may have filmed will most likely improve their driving around other cyclists as they'll no longer know who is filming them. Occasionally you might even change the behaviour of a regular - I've had much improved driving from at least two regulars on my own commute.

• Who to complain to? When the driver is in a liveried company vehicle, they are especially vulnerable to complaints as no company wants negative publicity. Even self-employed drivers such as plumbers, builders, etc., don't like it. It's a little harder with private drivers. Some areas in the UK operate schemes such as Roadsafe, run by the Met in London. This allows you to file a complaint about a driver online, and they will then often write the registered owner of the vehicle a letter, assuming they agree with your assessment after viewing your video. If you include the youtube link, Roadsafe will usually also include this in the letter, so giving a prime chance to educate that driver.

Filming standards

• Roadsafe make the excellent recommendation to avoid talking to or confronting the driver in any incident. It can be so tempting to have your say, but it's entirely possible you'll encounter a nutter and end up sorry you said anything at all. For that matter, in the heat of the moment with adrenaline flowing, it can be extremely hard to stop yourself swearing and behaving aggressively or otherwise inappropriately. If you want the moral high road, then remain calm and avoid engaging the driver at all.

• When you've had an encounter with a driver who drove badly or otherwise risked your life, let them get ahead. Overtaking them again in traffic only invites a repeat and much worse incident, especially in the sort of situation such as a close pass that you spoke to the driver about.

• I feel it's both honest and defusing to any heated situation where you haven't been able to avoid talking to the driver, to calmly point out that you have a video camera. In most cases this will cause an immediate reduction in any aggression and improved behaviour, but I imagine it's possible that a very few might take violent exception to being filmed. Because of this it's hard to know whether the best strategy is to have concealed or openly visible cameras. I myself have chosen openly visible cameras so that everyone around me notices them and talks about cyclists who film drivers.
• If you are going to post driver errors, it's as well to remember that no-one is a perfect road user, and that you yourself will also make mistakes. Be honest about this and admit that you're not perfect. Be extra careful to be attentive to the rules of the road, as hypocrisy in general, and most of all specifically on the video, will completely destroy any campaigning point you may have about the driver's driving.

Editing and titling standards

• I like to include both the company name (if there is one) and the vehicle registration number in the YouTube video title and the search tags. This ensures that the video becomes searchable on Google within a day or two. In the complaint you can then tell the company to search for their video on name or number plate, after testing that the search does in fact work. This particularly brings home to the driver and their employer the consequences of bad driving around cyclists. Most responsible companies will have a process for dealing with driving complaints involving an interview with the driver, and having the company get publicity like this will help to bring a necessary intensity to that interview. Private motorists won't like their number plates up there either, and especially not if it's a personal or vanity plate.
• Make the video title/tags/annotations, etc. factual, and don't use emotive language such as "impatient idiot" or similar. It's best to state any conclusions you make clearly as your own opinion rather than as fact, as it'd be easy to venture into libellous territory.

• If a driver overtakes too closely, there's an excellent picture in the highway code from rule 163 that demonstrates the space that should be left, and which you can compare to a still frame of what space was actually left.

• It's often hard to stop yourself from swearing on camera, and you may wish to "beep" it out. There are numerous beeps available on the internet - search for censoredbeep.wav for example. Best practice would be to avoid getting angry or swearing in the first place, of course. Drivers often don't realise just how intensely their actions affect a vulnerable road user in terms of fight/flight response and floods of adrenaline.
• Don't overstate the danger of any road user's actions, particularly in emotional terms, let the video do the talking for you. It's all too easy to allow the upset of having your life carelessly risked overwhelm the real facts shown up in the video. Overstating is also likely to make those seeing your video more critical of your actions.
• Be honest - show everything relevant to the video clip such as any previous interaction with yourself and the other vehicle/person.
• When a company apologises nicely and asks to take the video down, my own personal approach is to remove the company name so that it's no longer searchable, but to leave up the video with the registration number. I don't want to make like the incident never happened, but I do want to acknowledge and reward responsible behaviour from good companies.

Useful links:
CycleGaz's list of camera users:
http://croydoncyclist.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/video-camera-cyclists/

Some excellent tips from RoSPA on avoiding road rage:
http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformation/driving/road-rage.aspx

Police reporting systems
These allow quick and easy online reporting, and most of the time will do no more than result in a letter to the registered owner of the vehicle about the driving. If the incident is more serious such as involving a collision, you may need to report the incident in person at a police station.

Roadsafe (Greater London):
http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/
Surrey Drive Smart:
http://www.drivesmartsurrey.org.uk/contact.asp
Sussex Operation Crackdown:
http://www.operationcrackdown.org/


p.s. I appreciate you might not all agree with using cameras - this topic isn't the place for such a debate, and I'll be asking moderators to remove significantly off topic posts.

 

[BentMikey]

Ah yes, just remembered I need to add a bit about anonymity. At least one youtuber has had a horrific experience with being stalked by a filmee, going as far as blackmail and complaints to employer.

Origamist's way of putting up complaint videos is a good approach for super anonymity, so I'll document that one, as well as the more public versions.

 

[spen666]

Mikey your proposals whilst fine for some people do not apply to everyone. Different people post videos for different reasons.

 

[BentMikey]

Sure Paul, I'd go with a change there. I think you're right.

Spen, true enough. I'm hoping to make this into a set of general guidelines with the intention of making camera campaigning more effective. With input from everyone on here I hope to cover at least a good selection of the reasons and motivations.

 

[growingvegetables]

When a company apologises nicely ....

I don't know who it was now - but they had the driver come back in the comments (or maybe by message?) and apologise for their driving; and whoever-it-was took the video down. I think I'd do do the same?

I wouldn't take down a video if a driver asks the police to pass on their apologies, though .... if it's needed a police visit to get an apology, it stays! With a note or an update.

Hey - I know what I'm trying to say now. Worth broadening that section to be something like "Being sensitive to apologies"

Police reporting systems

Worth adding a suggestion that reporting an incident at the desk of your local police station is a waste of time may be a less than satisfying experience. And add strategies that people have found useful for getting past the front desk, however friendly they may be?

Fwiw - I had a few videos; e-mailed the officer in charge of the local traffic policing unit and asked his advice on whether I should report such incidents, and how best to do it. Brilliant response - contact made, with a real person. He phoned me back and we'd a good long chat; result - letters are written, and, for the more serious incidents, delivered by the hand of an officer to the driver's home or place of work.​

and +1 on "always make a complaint" - perhaps "get to know the threshold for police action"? Incidents as dangerous as left hooks (that have required emergency evasion/braking), involving aggression (eg slowing, and winding window down to give abuse), very high on the muppet scale on major/complex junctions - police here act on those. Close passes don't cut it

And just a final wandering thought - wonder if "Strategies" might replace "Standards"?

Whoa - forgot to say! That's a neat bit of work you've got there - put succinctly and clearly.

 

[growingvegetables]

And yet another afterthought (thinking of another thread) - worth adding a wee bit on lenses and how distances/clearances appear?

I've an informal scale - which I should remember to put in the description, but often don't; something like "less than 18 inches", "less than 12 inches", "less than 6 inches", and "**** **!"

 

[BSRU]

And yet another afterthought (thinking of another thread) - worth adding a wee bit on lenses and how distances/clearances appear?

I've an informal scale - which I should remember to put in the description, but often don't; something like "less than 18 inches", "less than 12 inches", "less than 6 inches", and "**** **!"

I did an experiment with my GoPro when I first got it, changing the field of view to see how it affects the video. I set it to 170, 125 and 90 and it makes a huge difference, like zooming when lowering the FOV.

 

[ufkacbln]

If it is a Company vehicle don't mention the video when you complain.

The normal reaction of the driver is to lie to the manager and then you get a letter explaining this.

Now is the time to send in the video and point out that the driver has rather misled the manager.

Managers hate being made to look fools and retract statements they have made. I have had two drivers dismissed in these circumstances!

 

[gaz]

It seems that great minds think alike..
I've been writing a 'guide' which I was going to ask for some opinions on. I'll post some of my stuff here later.

 

[BentMikey]

Gaz, I was gonna ask if you want to publish this on your blog? I don't really want it on any of my websites.

 

[gaz]

Gaz, I was gonna ask if you want to publish this on your blog? I don't really want it on any of my websites.

That was my plan for what I have been writing. More than happy to do that and credit anyone that makes a contribution.

 

[BentMikey]

OK, updated version:

Complaints/reporting videos

• Always complain if you feel an incident passes your own personal threshold for reporting. Although it's cathartic to just put the video up, this on its own isn't going to change driving. I think it's essential to make the extra effort to complain to the company/driver/police, and explain that their bad driving will be on youtube for all to see, and that it was not acceptable for xxx reason. This has at least a chance of changing driver behaviour for the better. That bad driver you may have filmed will most likely improve their driving around other cyclists as they'll no longer know who is filming them. Occasionally you might even change the behaviour of a regular - I've had much improved driving from at least two regulars on my own commute.
• Who to complain to? When the driver is in a liveried company vehicle, they are especially vulnerable to complaints as no company wants negative publicity. Even self-employed drivers such as plumbers, builders, etc., don't like it., as nowadays more and more people google companies, especially small companies, to find out more before hiring them. One approach here is to contact the company and make your complaint in a matter of fact and calm manner of writing. Suggest that they search for the video on youtube using either the company name or the vehicle registration, as this brings home how their driver affected their company reputation. Ask for someone to get back to you on the letter, and follow it up if you have no response to make sure that someone takes action on it.
• An alternative company approach is to make your complaint, but make no mention of any video, again asking for a response. It's likely that the driver will then lie to his/her manager about what happened, at which point you can then refute this and link to the video. This will likely get the driver in quite some trouble, as managers rarely appreciate their employees lying to them (aka the Cunobelin approach).

• Private or unliveried vehicle reports - it's a little harder with these. Some areas in the UK operate schemes such as Roadsafe, run by the Met in London (see list of useful links at the bottom). This allows you to file a complaint about a driver online, and they will then often write the registered owner of the vehicle a letter, assuming they agree with your assessment after viewing your video. If you include the youtube link, Roadsafe will usually also include this in the letter, so giving a prime chance to educate that driver.
• If you live outside of one of these online report areas, this makes it harder to report private vehicles, and probably only worth doing for the more serious incidents. When visiting or calling your local police station, ask to speak to a traffic officer and explain the issue to them. Ask if they will view the video, and consider at least speaking to the driver about his/her driving behaviour around cyclists.

Filming on the road

• Run your cameras all the time.

• If something happens, immediately call out the car registration plate. Best of all, use the phonetic alphabet so it's easier to know what you called later when reviewing the footage. Even the modern HD cameras don't always get enough detail to be able to read the registration, especially where there's lots of movement and lower light conditions.

• Everyone makes mistakes on the road, including all of us. For that reason, I like to be fairly tolerant of drivers, and I'll generally only put up video of the more careless and/or intentional bad driving, that goes beyond simple mistakes.
• Talk about what you observed, such as "Driver holding a phone to his ear and talking animatedly", again with the goal of getting this captured in the audio.
• Roadsafe make the excellent recommendation to avoid talking to or confronting the driver in any incident. It can be so tempting to have your say, but it's entirely possible you'll encounter a nutter and end up sorry you said anything at all. For that matter, in the heat of the moment with adrenaline flowing, it can be extremely hard to stop yourself swearing and behaving aggressively or otherwise inappropriately. If you want the moral high road, then remain calm and avoid engaging the driver at all. Don't even wave, and don't make eye contact.
• When you've had an encounter with a driver who drove badly or otherwise risked your life, let them get ahead. Overtaking them again in traffic only invites a repeat and much worse incident, especially in the sort of situation such as a close pass that you spoke to the driver about.
• I feel it's both honest and defusing to any heated situation where you haven't been able to avoid talking to the driver, to calmly point out that you have a video camera. In most cases this will cause an immediate reduction in any aggression and improved behaviour, but I imagine it's possible that a very few might take violent exception to being filmed. Because of this it's hard to know whether the best strategy is to have concealed or openly visible cameras. I myself have chosen openly visible cameras so that everyone around me notices them and talks about cyclists who film drivers.
• If you are going to post driver errors, it's as well to remember that no-one is a perfect road user, and that you yourself will also make mistakes. Be honest about this and admit that you're not perfect. Be extra careful to be attentive to the rules of the road, as hypocrisy in general, and most of all specifically on the video, will completely destroy any campaigning point you may have about the driver's driving.

Editing and titling standards

• I like to include both the company name (if there is one) and the vehicle registration number in the YouTube video title and the search tags. This ensures that the video becomes searchable on Google within a day or two. In the complaint you can then tell the company to search for their video on name or number plate, after testing that the search does in fact work. This particularly brings home to the driver and their employer the consequences of bad driving around cyclists. Most responsible companies will have a process for dealing with driving complaints involving an interview with the driver, and having the company get publicity like this will help to bring a necessary intensity to that interview. Private motorists won't like their number plates up there either, and especially not if it's a personal or vanity plate.

• If a driver overtakes too closely, there's an excellent picture in the highway code from rule 163 that demonstrates the space that should be left, and which you can compare to a still frame of what space was actually left.
• It's often hard to stop yourself from swearing on camera, and you may wish to "beep" it out. There are numerous beeps available on the internet - search for censoredbeep.wav for example. Best practice would be to avoid getting angry or swearing in the first place, of course. Drivers often don't realise just how intensely their actions affect a vulnerable road user in terms of fight/flight response and floods of adrenaline.
• Don't overstate the danger of any road user's actions, particularly in emotional terms, let the video do the talking for you. It's all too easy to allow the upset of having your life carelessly risked overwhelm the real facts shown up in the video. Overstating is also likely to make those seeing your video more critical of your actions.
• Be honest - show everything relevant to the video clip such as any previous interaction with yourself and the other vehicle/person.
• When a company apologises nicely and asks to take the video down, my own personal approach is to remove the company name so that it's no longer searchable, but to leave up the video with the registration number. I don't want to make like the incident never happened, but I do want to acknowledge and reward responsible behaviour from good companies.

Anonymity
In the past, at least one YouTuber has had a fairly horrible experience after a motorist who was filmed driving badly ended up stalking and harassing him. Criticising someone's driving can often be taken as hugely offensive, and might be amongst the worst insults you can ever deliver to someone. Because of this, it might be a good idea to make yourself as anonymous as possible.

• Don't have any links between your real life name/job/etc and your YouTube channel.

• Avoid filming your street/house/workplace, and perhaps consider letting go any incidents that happen nearby without uploading them to YouTube.
• One camera user has two channels - one for educational and interesting videos, and another on Vimeo for videos of incidents that are reported . Each video is password protected and hidden, so any drivers looking at the video of their own driving will not see multiple videos of other drivers.
• If you're a regular cycling forum member, be careful about posting about incidents, as years worth of posting history can be dredged up and looked through for someone sufficiently determined to stalk you. Don't post registrations, and don't post video links on forums. Google is a very powerful tool.

Video naming, description and tagging standards

• Here's a sample of the video format I use:
  • Video title: "RE12NOP overtakes too closely". Should this be a company vehicle, I'd add in the company name.
  • Description: "This driver overtakes too closely on a narrow lane, within about 2 foot of my right elbow. Please either wait behind if it's not safe to overtake, or overtake in the next lane." If a company vehicle, I'd include company contact information in the description and the tags below.
  • Video tags: "Overtake close cyclist bicycle RE12NOP RE12-NOP RE12 NOP Millbank London white van man 201202010830". This covers the three most common variants of this number plate that might be used to search for the vehicle, and the numeric code is in the format YYYYMMDDHHmm so that it's easy to state exactly when the incident occurred.

• Don't include any personal details such as the person's name, occupation, etc. Occasionally such information will already be publically available in Google, for example directors' names of small companies, but it's usually best not to include this.
• Keep it factual and non-emotive, and don't use insults.
• Don't leap to any conclusions about who the driver is, what they were thinking, or what their motivation was.
• Comments - Roadsafe mentioned in the past that from their point of view it's best to disable comments and votes. I imagine this is because camera cyclists have complained back to Roadsafe after drivers commented on their video and made threats against the cyclist. My view is slightly different, in that I want drivers to see what the general YouTube audience think of the videoed driving - peer pressure is an important part of driving home a lesson about being careful around cyclists.
• Don't be afraid to block or ban the obvious trolls - there seem to be a minority of people who take great joy in following around camera cyclists on YouTube and making nasty comments, swearing, name calling, and all sorts of unpleasant and unjustified abuse. On the other hand, don't block someone for just having a contrary view to your own. Often there are some excellent lessons brought home to you about your own riding, and it's wise to pay attention to these even though this can be a painful experience.

Useful links:
CycleGaz's list of camera users:
http://croydoncyclist.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/video-camera-cyclists/

Some excellent tips from RoSPA on avoiding road rage:
http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformation/driving/road-rage.aspx

Police reporting systems
These allow quick and easy online reporting, and most of the time will do no more than result in a letter to the registered owner of the vehicle about the driving. If the incident is more serious such as involving a collision, you may need to report the incident in person at a police station.

Roadsafe (Greater London):
http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/
Surrey Drive Smart:
http://www.drivesmartsurrey.org.uk/contact.asp
Sussex Operation Crackdown:
http://www.operationcrackdown.org/

 

[fossyant]

Camera thread - look out ! Popcorn time !