Current theme of knobheads in cars

[All uphill]

I am of the opinion that the behaviour of drivers changes primarily in response to the frequency with which they encounter cyclists.

Here in Taunton we have a much higher number of local journeys made by bicycle than the national average. That means that any drive through the town will encounter three or four people on bikes. My sense is that even Mr Angry can't sustain his fury every day in the face of that.

Personally I'm not too bothered about whether cars have to slow for cyclists, illegal ebikes or scooters; they all change the balance.

 

[Alex321]

I am of the opinion that the behaviour of drivers changes primarily in response to the frequency with which they encounter cyclists.

Here in Taunton we have a much higher number of local journeys made by bicycle than the national average. That means that any drive through the town will encounter three or four people on bikes. My sense is that even Mr Angry can't sustain his fury every day in the face of that.

Personally I'm not too bothered about whether cars have to slow for cyclists, illegal ebikes or scooters; they all change the balance.

I think there is a lot of truth to that. Here in the Vale of Glamorgan is also a high cyclist-density area, and my personal experience of cycling here is that it is quite rare to encounter real knobheads driving.

 

[Solocle]

In terms of cameras and close passes, I wish the cameras could be calibrated to judge the speed of passing vehicles and the distance from the camera lens to the passing vehicle, to then automatically cut a reliable section of the recording of a close pass and send it to police (with the rider having filled in a form with their details when setting up the camera, that will be attached to the clip submission).

The idea being it saves riders spending a load of time reviewing recordings, grabbing clips of potential close passes, which they then ask the police to review and judge whether to take action. A calibrated system would only submit clips that the calibrated camera says were too close at the given speed of the vehicle, less police reviewing time needed, freeing them up to do more police action during shifts.

It's not exactly like it's difficult to do either...

This one I got a result from, despite Wiltshire ostensibly not taking operation snap submissions... the van driver behind, however, gave me a witness!

How to achieve calibration? 3 metres of tape measure and your camera, then fade the two images.

It might not be totally precise, but for the far too close, it's striking.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

I think there is a lot of truth to that. Here in the Vale of Glamorgan is also a high cyclist-density area, and my personal experience of cycling here is that it is quite rare to encounter real knobheads driving.

I think the factors determining driver behaviour are far more complex than simply the frequency of encountering cyclists, at least in Southampton.

Southampton is a moderately big (~5 mile radius for the ~180 degree arc away from Southampton Water), rather populous city, with a substantial number of cyclists.
But there are an awful lots of motorists, with a small number of severe road bottlenecks to get to the east of the city over three bridges, one of which is a toll bridge.
The vehicle hostility to cyclists between the eastern edges of the city and through the other side is very real, despite all the cyclists around the city centre, I suspect from how long vehicle journeys take around rush hours compared to quiet times.
Yet if I head north, north east or east on my bike from the eastern edge of the city, the level of aggression drops dramatically within 2-3 miles.

My general rule is avoid heading out or coming back around rush hours and school run times, all because of that ~2 miles closest to home. I can head up around Old Winchester Hill and be unlucky if I have a handful of cars overtake me, when I'm away from the A32.

 

[Binky]

I think ultimately it just boils down to the individual in the vehicle. I live and ride mainly in a quiet rural coastal area and I still get idiots close passing when i ride. However, the vast majority of drivers are great. Courteous, give me plenty of room when overtaking, slow down when approaching from opposite direction on a narrow back road etc.
I'd have thought that areas where there is a big density of cyclists could go either way. 1)Drivers totally accept they will encounter cyclists and learn to live with it. 2) Because of lots of cyclists, drivers get fed up with their journey being "disrupted" by having to wait for 10 seconds before able to safely overtake. So, again just down to person in vehicle.

I cycle quite a lot in Majorca/Menorca and Majorca especially has 1000s of cyclists yet the drivers there are almost always really good. It's very rare to get a bad overtake etc there.