Reporting bad driving in London

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Origamist

Legendary Member
BigSteev said:
Oh great, another place for the whingey cyclists on here to post their moans on.

Says a cyclist whinging on the interweb about other cyclists whinging on the interweb! It's like a hall of mirrors in here...
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
BigSteev said:
Oh great, another place for the whingey cyclists on here to post their moans on.

Yes, they should get out of the way of the terribly important people in their motor cars, shouldn't they? Only themselves to blame, what?
 

buddha

Veteran
One WVM I don't need to report. Did it himself!

Plonker is tailgating me at 30mph (downhill). He then decides to pull out into the opposite lane for an overtake - straight into the sight of a speed camera. Result = 2 Flashes:thumbsup:
I catch up at the next roundabout, make eye contact and smile:smile::wacko:
 

Tinuts

Wham Bam Helmet Cam
Location
London, UK.
hackbike 666 said:
A lot of people seem to hold their mobile phones while they drive.

It's as if they feel comforted holding their mobile penis.

Yes, that and the cup of coffee in the other hand.........
 

EC2boy

Veteran
Just tried this and had the following response. My original email to them is below.

I'm very impressed just to have a response. Whether or not it leads to anything, let's see....

Hi
Thank you for the email and for your information, Be rest assured that I
will look into this presently.
I think on this occasion is was a good idea to let him get ahead.
I hope you are feeling a little calmer now and please don't hesitate to
email us again.
Kind regards
Sarah
-----Original Message-----
From: Web Editor [mailto:web.editor@met.police.uk]
Sent: 09 March 2010 11:52
To: DoI Mailbox - Online Forms; Traffic Mailbox - Crackdown
Subject: RoadsafeLondon CRK01-00000104
Form title:
RoadsafeLondon
Reference:
CRK01-00000104
Submitted:
09-03-2010 11:51:31
----------------------------------------------------------------
Type of Incident Reporting
----------------------------------------------------------------
Type of Incident Reporting:Anti social / nuisance car use /
inconsiderate driving
----------------------------------------------------------------
Vehicle details
----------------------------------------------------------------
Registration Number:
Colour: Black
Make: London Taxi
----------------------------------------------------------------
Driver details
----------------------------------------------------------------
Driver Description: Male, white, older than 50 but couldn't really tell
----------------------------------------------------------------
Your Information
----------------------------------------------------------------
Your Information:
Yesterday evening (08/03/10), I was cycling home through Trafalgar
Square at approximately 8pm. I turned into St Martin's Place from
William IV St and headed south. I proceeded through the first traffic
light at green and then queued at the front of the traffic at red at the
next traffic light. When this turned green there was a queue of traffic
in front of me occupying both the lanes heading south and held at the
red traffic light. I filtered past the stationary traffic in the right
hand side of the second lane and then pulled back into the traffic flow
in front of taxi registration number Y215HMY (I think) once I noticed
the lights changing to green.

At this point, incidentally, the road narrows and there is only one lane
heading south on to the Strand/Trafalgar Square roundabout because there
are roadworks blocking the lefthand lane before the traffic lights that
let you onto the roundabout.

I was proceeding towards Whitehall. There is a further set of lights as
you enter on to the roundabout section of Trafalgar Square. These lights
were red as I left the previous set of lights.

In order to proceed into Whitehall, I followed the lane markings and
headed for the middle lane of three that let traffic on to the Trafalgar
Square roundabout. I was taking a course slightly to the left of centre
of the lane to avoid being cut up by other traffic and to make it clear
I was heading for Whitehall, not intending to turn left to Northumerland
Avenue. The left lane indicates entry into Northumberland Avenue and the
middle and right lanes indicate straight ahead.

As I passed through the traffic light (which had now changed to green) I
became aware that the taxi behind me was trying to both overtake and
push into exactly the same space I was taking in the lane. He was, in
effect, driving straight into the side of me. In fact, as I turned my
head to check my own safety, his left hand front light came within less
than ten centimetres of my right leg.

I was terrified by this unnecessarily aggressive driving. He came so
close to me that I instinctively swerved towards the left hand lane
beside me to avoid contact. I was fortunate that there were no vehicles
in that left hand lane. I didn't have time to check whether there was
space to my left because I was having to act evasively to avoid the
threatening situation that was occuring behind me.

I realise that it must be frustrating to be overtaken by a cycle when in
stationary traffic but by no means was I acting outside of the Highway
Code and I was certainly acting with care and consideration for the
drivers around me. I was wearing a hi-viz nighttime jacket and had two
rear lights functioning. There is no way the driver of the taxi couldn't
have seen me. My suspicion is he was acting aggressively because he may
have felt annoyed that I had taken the space in front of him. In my
mind, he was using his vehicle to try and get me out of his way. And by
doing so, he was putting my life at risk and risking other road users
who could potentially have been in the left hand lane.

I was completely shaken up by the incident and deliberately hung back
along Whitehall to avoid the driver.
 

gaz

Cycle Camera TV
Location
South Croydon
Has anyone got anywhere with reporting anything?

I've had no response (apart from the initial one) with regarads to one of my incidences.

I tried to ring the met to find out if i can speak to someone, ooooh what a bad idea that was, just got passed around to the wrong department everytime.

In the end i just replied to the e-mail they sent me. and they sent me an initial response to their process, which was nice to read and i have quoted below. But i'm still waiting to know what has actually happened so far.

as is practice we research the incident via
numerous cameras available to us, research the driver/ registered
keeper, check insurance databases, and the legality of the driver plus
many more options we have access to. Where YOUTUBE links are submitted
we view these with various trained drivers of all levels, cars through
to HGV licence holders and also many cyclists and discuss the incident
in question.

If the detail is sufficient we will always contact the Keeper directly.
 

EC2boy

Veteran
I'm still waiting to hear back too about what actually happened but I had at least three back and forth email exchanges with the person at the Met. She says she's a cyclist and that she really wants to crack down on bad driving etc and that she'll get back to me when she has an update. The initial exchange was great. It really gave me confidence someone's actually looking at it. Whether it really works or not, let's see though.....
 

gaz

Cycle Camera TV
Location
South Croydon
After many many many many phone calls trying to find out if i can actually speak to someone about the report i made ( the answer is no)... i replied to the initial e-mail i was sent. after many many e-mails i finally got a response i was looking for and have found out what happened.

This is what was sent to the registered owner of the vehicle
We have received information that suggests a male driver of the above vehicle was seen driving without due care and attention on the A222 (Croydon Road by Elmers End)
If the information is correct the driver was committing an offence that often attracts a fine and penalty points.

Last year there were over 180 deaths on London roads; there were many more collisions that resulted in very serious injuries.

The purpose of this letter is to increase driver awareness and promote road safety.

Please drive carefully, keep yourself and others safe and avoid the risk of being prosecuted.

If you were not the driver on this occasion please pass this letter to the person who was

If the information is correct? i had video proof! Not the result i was looking for.

They also told me this about the roadsafe london service which i used to report this incident.
You may be aware that 'Roadsafe London' is in its infancy and your report has raised issues that had not before been dealt with, particularly around possible prosecutions of offenders and the wording of our standard letter.

Roadsafe London was set up largely to provide the Metropolitan Police Service with a source of intelligence that relates to road incidents as opposed to the crime matters normally dealt with by Crimestoppers. This will enable tasking of roads policing units based on a number of reports as opposed to individual incidents per se. We anticipated, and have received, a large number of reports and considered a standard letter to drivers on a first notification was the only practical way to deal with volume reports and a 'standard' letter was sent to the driver in your case.

I appreciate this will not always provide satisfaction of prosecution or direct police contact on a first case but I hope you will understand what we are trying to achieve by this gathering of information. ALL identifiable drivers that have allegedly been driven in an unacceptable manner will be contacted by letter and, where a vehicle receives multiple reports, an intervention against an individual may be warranted backed up by Roadsafe reports and other intelligence where available.

I won't be using this service again to report what i would define as major altercations with other vehicles on the road but will continue to use it for reporting minor incidents.
 

Tinuts

Wham Bam Helmet Cam
Location
London, UK.
I've not had any reply to the last two incidents I've reported to Roadsafe so I'm afraid my opinion of the scheme is declining rapidly. One of the incidents was cycling related (
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTCxNlMwgo
) the other not.

Gaz, if you do get an offer to "meet and discuss" as mentioned in RS' reply I'd love to attend. I can think of a number of ways they can improve their service with regard to cyclsts. If you've read my posting on my experiences with RS (https://www.cyclechat.net/) I'm sure you'll understand!

Perhaps some other London cyclists might also be interested.
 

gaz

Cycle Camera TV
Location
South Croydon
Tinuts said:
I've not had any reply to the last two incidents I've reported to Roadsafe so I'm afraid my opinion of the scheme is declining rapidly. One of the incidents was cycling related (
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTCxNlMwgo
) the other not.

Gaz, if you do get an offer to "meet and discuss" as mentioned in RS' reply I'd love to attend. I can think of a number of ways they can improve their service with regard to cyclsts. If you've read my posting on my experiences with RS (https://www.cyclechat.net/) I'm sure you'll understand!

Perhaps some other London cyclists might also be interested.

I had one very similar
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybeGZchdY-c
And the roadsafe guys told me to report it to my local police station.

I recall you posting that reply, and from watching the video again, until the driver passes you are matching the speed of the bus.
 
Seems like London is getting worse....even on one of my three videos so far I had a cabbie and bus totally disregard the fact that I was there...which was shocking because if I had cocked it up I would have scratched their paintwork.Shame.
 
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