MrHappyCyclist
Riding the Devil's HIghway
- Location
- Bolton, England
We now have in Greater Manchester a Road Policing Unit that is actively trying to address issues of poor and anti-social driving and its relation to road safety. They have been very keen to receive and follow up on incidents reported by cyclists with video evidence, and I have been in contact for a while with the sergeant who is doing most of the work on this. Cliffjumper24 put me onto this, and has been actively involved. It is extremely encouraging that they are not only accepting video reports, but actively encouraging them.
I just finished a discussion on the phone with the Sergeant about some reports that I submitted just before Christmas. He expressed some valid concerns around the issue of entering into discussions with drivers on the road immediately after incidents; particularly a concern that there is a risk of diluting the effectiveness of the video evidence should a case come to court. I agree with this, and also mentioned that as the police become more effective in dealing with incidents, the likelihood is that cyclists like myself will feel less need to try to educate drivers ourselves.
We went on to discuss how they make decisions regarding whether to follow up on a report, and in that discussion used some of my own examples. I was quite perturbed to hear just how far apart their view is from my own on this. As an example, we looked at this video:
View: http://youtu.be/8kD-e886DKU
I consider this driving to be quite a bad case but, after consulting with a colleague, the police view seems to be that this was not considered to be sufficiently bad driving to warrant action of any kind. I asked whether the fact that I spoke to the driver was a factor, but he was clear that this was purely about the overtake itself. I did express my surprise at hearing that view, but I didn't want to push too far for fear of alienating the people who are at least trying to do something about the problems.
Now, I am aware that some people on here seem to be of the view that a pass leaving anything more than about 3 inches clearance at 30mph is no cause for concern, but I was surprised that the police should take the view they have. The lack of follow up could reinforce this driver's belief that (a) his overtake was perfectly acceptable, and (b) a cyclist should indeed be riding in the gutter. (He stated that 3 feet from the kerb is too far out.)
It is clear that the deliberation of the police is not so much about what they themselves think, but more about whether they would be able to convince the magistrates in court of the seriousness of the incident. It makes me realize that, whilst we may be seeing the start of a change here, we have a long, long road ahead of us before we will get anywhere near the kind of culture change that is really needed on our roads. Perhaps the hard-line segregationists have a point.
I just finished a discussion on the phone with the Sergeant about some reports that I submitted just before Christmas. He expressed some valid concerns around the issue of entering into discussions with drivers on the road immediately after incidents; particularly a concern that there is a risk of diluting the effectiveness of the video evidence should a case come to court. I agree with this, and also mentioned that as the police become more effective in dealing with incidents, the likelihood is that cyclists like myself will feel less need to try to educate drivers ourselves.
We went on to discuss how they make decisions regarding whether to follow up on a report, and in that discussion used some of my own examples. I was quite perturbed to hear just how far apart their view is from my own on this. As an example, we looked at this video:
View: http://youtu.be/8kD-e886DKU
I consider this driving to be quite a bad case but, after consulting with a colleague, the police view seems to be that this was not considered to be sufficiently bad driving to warrant action of any kind. I asked whether the fact that I spoke to the driver was a factor, but he was clear that this was purely about the overtake itself. I did express my surprise at hearing that view, but I didn't want to push too far for fear of alienating the people who are at least trying to do something about the problems.
Now, I am aware that some people on here seem to be of the view that a pass leaving anything more than about 3 inches clearance at 30mph is no cause for concern, but I was surprised that the police should take the view they have. The lack of follow up could reinforce this driver's belief that (a) his overtake was perfectly acceptable, and (b) a cyclist should indeed be riding in the gutter. (He stated that 3 feet from the kerb is too far out.)
It is clear that the deliberation of the police is not so much about what they themselves think, but more about whether they would be able to convince the magistrates in court of the seriousness of the incident. It makes me realize that, whilst we may be seeing the start of a change here, we have a long, long road ahead of us before we will get anywhere near the kind of culture change that is really needed on our roads. Perhaps the hard-line segregationists have a point.