Do you still report it?

[Matthew_T]

If your local police service doesnt have an online reporting service such as Roadsafe, do you still report things to the normal police?

I only report incidents nowadays where a driver threatens me or was driving particularly dangerous. I dont report things such as mobile phone use or double white line overtakers because I suspect nothing will come of it. I also dont want to get a reputation for myself (probably already have) of reporting trivial matters.
Yes mobile phone use isnt really a trivial matter but there isnt really much point is there? Yes the police could fine the driver but would they just based on your evidence?

With Roadsafe you can report most things and they will be looked at or at least investigated a little, but if you were to report the same things to the normal police, they would probably be overlooked or not investigated in the same depth.

 

[Iain M Norman]

I haven't bothered reporting anything for years unless I have a witness. I was once told by a desk sergeant that there's not a lot they will do without a witness. Even though in that case a white van had pulled alongside me, matched my speed, and then repeatedly veered left trying to have me off.

 

[Boris Bajic]

If your local police service doesnt have an online reporting service such as Roadsafe, do you still report things to the normal police?

I only report incidents nowadays where a driver threatens me or was driving particularly dangerous. I dont report things such as mobile phone use or double white line overtakers because I suspect nothing will come of it. I also dont want to get a reputation for myself (probably already have) of reporting trivial matters.
Yes mobile phone use isnt really a trivial matter but there isnt really much point is there? Yes the police could fine the driver but would they just based on your evidence?

With Roadsafe you can report most things and they will be looked at or at least investigated a little, but if you were to report the same things to the normal police, they would probably be overlooked or not investigated in the same depth.

In your shoes, I would simply avoid reporting things.

These pages display occasionally the fury and the accusing finger of one outraged road user against another, but in almost all cases it is sound and fury signifying nothing. It is not World War Two and it is not an X-Box war game. I wonder whether some cyclists (with or without camera) occasionally go looking for outrage and feel a slight sense of regret when they find none.

I once reported a driver (on my mobile, whist driving behind him) because he drove as if extremely drunk and I thought him a hazard. That is once in over forty years of cycling and over thirty driving. Once. One does get slightly cross from time to time, but in many (not all) cases the authorities may have better things to do.

It may be that I am reading between the lines, but there seems sometimes to be in your posts (and others) a feeling that 'report everything' is a default that is hard to override. Believe me, in most road users there is no great desire to report anything at all.

As to your reference to 'normal police', I'm not sure what the opposite would be.... Abnormal police?

 

[Matthew_T]

It may be that I am reading between the lines, but there seems sometimes to be in your posts (and others) a feeling that 'report everything' is a default that is hard to override. Believe me, in most road users there is no great desire to report anything at all.

The purpose of the post wasnt to say "I want to report everything". I understand that there are many other things that the police are busy with and a minor traffic offence is just that. I wouldnt report anything to the police unless I was put in harms way or thought that the driver (or anyone for that matter) was a threat to the public.
There is no point in reporting something 'just to go on file' because the police are unlikely to give a flying f*** about trivial matters.

The purpose of this thread was to try and define something worth reporting. If you saw someone roll over a stop line, would you report that? If you saw someone using their mobile phone, would you report that? If you saw someone clip a pedestrian at a crossing, would you report that?
There are many different types of offences and even though they are all wrong, some are overlooked by everyone.

Systems like Roadsafe allow the public to report pretty much everything road related and then an officer goes through all the reports and selects the ones which should be investigated (I believe thats how it works).

 

[Boris Bajic]

I quite understand that you weren't saying 'I want to report everything'.

I was trying to show that thinking in terms of 'what should I report?' and 'what isn't worth reporting'? somehow demonstrates a mindset predisposed to making a report.

Your question is a clear one, but it includes (or implies) a continuing fascination with the idea of reporting transgressors.

For most road users, this is not a fascination or even much of a topic of conjecture or reflection.

Seriously, just ride your bicycle and cross bridges when you get to them.

You don't have to; it's a free world. But I would if I were you.

I've reported one road user in forty years. I wish I'd reported none. The roads in North Wales can't be that much worse than London (where I grew up) or The Marches where I now live. Often, if you are not looking for transgressors, they will not find you.

I expect to see five or ten people using a handheld mobile every time I ride a decent distance. Likewise people rolling across stop signs or crossing unbroken white lines or breaking speed limits. It happens.

The trigger for making a report will become obvious when something strikes one as serious enough. For some this trigger will be higher than it is for others.

 

[Sandra6]

I've never used roadsafe, I don't really know anything about it, but I do ring the non emergency number if I've been threatened or intimidated in any way by a driver, or if they've done something ridiculously stupid.
Like the woman who almost hit me because she wasn't paying attention on the RAB, and the numpties who were throwing stuff out of the car window.
People using their phones while driving are really stupid, and obviously breaking the law, but I don't feel it's my job to police that.

 

[Cycling Dan]

101 is the way of reporting or go to your local station and fill out form which is representative to what you are report.

 

[Radchenister]

Beats praying to god I suppose?

 

[Matthew_T]

I think the evaluation of the severity of an incident becomes obvious with experience. I am still quite young but have learnt many things from the two and a half years that I have been using this website.
I have learnt that many of the overtakes which I used to deem close, other people deemed as acceptable. I used to get a lot of criticism over what I was worrying about. Now I rarely report anything and I have taken a long look at what I used to behave like.
As a result, I still save the video files of individual incidents and record all the number plates but I suspect that is just a part of my Autism.

Over the past 12 months the only people I have reported to the police were the guy who cut the corner and then chased me down the road to have a word, the bus driver who tried to knock me off my bike, and the taxi driver on New Years Day who felt it acceptable to harass me and follow me around town.

I have learnt from experience now that unless you have solid evidence and a serious incident on your hands, then the police are unable to do anything. This was the situation with the taxi. I knew he was videoing me and doing it purposefully but I didnt have any evidence with just my video, I only bothered to report it when his video came online and was showing malicious intent to follow me and harass me.

 

[boydj]

I'd only report something if it was genuinely dangerous and there was evidence to back it up - video or an independent witness.

 

[endoman]

Never reported anything, in about 10,000 miles of cycling and 500,000 of driving.

 

[Crankarm]

I wouldn't bother reporting anything to the police as they are useless feckers, unless perhaps I saw some one suffering a sustained assault ie they might die which would merit a 999 call first for an ambulance and then the police, that I had done everything reasoanbly possible short of becoming involved myself and therefore risking my own safety. Minor indicents on or around the roads I just simply don't bother whether driving or cycling. I have better things to do with my time.

 

[classic33]

Prople keep on saying that it isn't a case of "them and us" on the roads. I disagree, you have practically every section/class of road user complaining about the action of some other class of road user.
Only rarely will a cyclist being injured in a collision will it be reported to the police & even then I doubt it will merit any consideration of whether or not its worth bothering with.

A few years ago, more was said/made about the fact that the horse injured in a collision was put down, due to the injuries it received, than those of the rider. She's now wheelchair bound as a result of her injuries sustained in the very same incident.

Bicycles are not seen as a valuble item in the same way a motor vehicle is, whether it actually costs more or not. We as cyclists will never be worth reporting as RTA's/RTC's because we don't count in many forces priorities.

And as for

I once reported a driver (on my mobile, whist driving behind him) because he drove as if extremely drunk and I thought him a hazard. That is once in over forty years of cycling and over thirty driving. Once. One does get slightly cross from time to time, but in many (not all) cases the authorities may have better things to do.

Pot, kettle & black spring readily to mind. Two wrongs, with the latter "justified" by reporting the behaviour of the other driver. What did following traffic make of the two drivers on mobile phones driving, I wonder.

 

[Boris Bajic]

And as for

Pot, kettle & black spring readily to mind. Two wrongs, with the latter "justified" by reporting the behaviour of the other driver. What did following traffic make of the two drivers on mobile phones driving, I wonder.

This is an odd response...

1. Because the other driver was almost certainly drunk. He (or she) wasn't on the 'phone.

2. Because I told the person on the other end that I was almone in my car and on hand-held and he asked me to continue to speak and advise on my position.

Maybe it's a little pot & kettle. I don't know. The person who took my call seemed grateful and concerned. I had to apologise for hanging up and heading home because I was getting a long way off my route.

Maybe a serving copper can dispel any doubt. I was told during the call that it was OK as I was reporting an offence. I don't know, but I made the decision to make the call and was not criticised for my judgement.

 

[Andy_R]

............
Maybe a serving copper can dispel any doubt. I was told during the call that it was OK as I was reporting an offence. I don't know, but I made the decision to make the call and was not criticised for my judgement.

If the operator had told you to have a quick shot of brandy to calm down, would you have done so? Tests have shown that driving whilst using a mobile can cause the same level of impairment as drink driving. So committing an offence whilst reporting an offence is not OK.