Thoughtful, evidence based, change to policing policy as regards to cyclists and how motor vehicles behave around them.

If every police force in the country adopted this approach it would genuinely be a major contribution to making the roads safer for cyclists.

https://trafficwmp.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/junction-malfunction-and-a-new-dawn/

(thanks to @beztweets for highlighting it)

Wow, that’s some quite assertive action they’re proposing 😯

For anyone who hasn’t read, they (West Midlands Police) are essentially going to have an officer ride around and contact a colleague further up the road when a car does a close pass (which they’re defining as <1.5m or not using the full width of the road if available) to pull them. They will then be given the option of 15 mins education on safe passes, or prosecution for driving without due care.

Commendable approach? Heavy-handed? I’m tending towards the former, but expect there’ll be a lot of backlash along the “shouldn’t they be catching burglars” lines. Hope it gets some publicity anyway.

Nice, that would indeed be a welcome addition.

thumbs up to that approach

At last

TBH the greatest good would be to make car drivers cycle to work once a month and see what it was really like

Ace!

Hurrah – a Chief Constable who rides a bike?

Pulling everyone who doesn’t give 1.5m. They’ll run out of officers in 20 mins.

Seems like a good idea in the short term. Influences a few drivers that get pulled over but probably does more to raise awareness by being a slightly novel approach and therefore a news story.

Pulling everyone who doesn’t give 1.5m. They’ll run out of officers in 20 mins.

You’re probably right. I was thinking ‘when was the last time I got given 1.5m space’

That’s fantastic news. Well done WMP.
Lets hope its taken up by other forces.

They’ll probably go out and do this once and then spend all week filling out paperwork.

Hmm, overall a positive move I think. In an ideal world there should be more of this thing to catch poor road use amongst all road users.

Close pass is a big enough issue to get it’s own focus though. Ford Focus near me last week, scared me and the poor bloke in the Audi he nearly hit head on.

As I posted on the Sky near miss thread, certainly around my way lorry drivers and coach drivers have got much much better over the last year, and I am sure that is because they are now more aware they can loose their job, or get prosecuted.

To me it is car drivers that are bad.

I am glad it states that cyclists need education too though.

Someone last year nearly pulled across me at a junction as I was following a Transit. I always back right off behind vehicles that could obscure me now.

Interesting that it says forget eye contact too.

About time, and while they’re at it do something about the ****ts on mobile phones.

Someone last year nearly pulled across me at a junction as I was following a Transit. I always back right off behind vehicles that could obscure me now.

Yes, this. And pull out to the right so they can see you.

Interesting that it says forget eye contact too.

Found this weird too. Not sure I believe it. I like to think I’ve developed an awareness of when someone is properly seeing, rather than just looking.

Its a great move, and as drivers it would be ironing, shirley if someone on here got a tug for a close pass….

I know a lot of the traffic lot from WMP are cyclists and commute to work by bike, some pass the parents house on the way so that is probably why they are taking a more pro-active approach.

The sentiment is certainly there in that post and it’s heading in the right direction.

We really should adopt the American approach of the bigger vehicle is always at fault unless they can prove otherwise on our roads, therefore protecting the more vulnerable traffic with the legal ‘stick’ as they put it.

Sounds excellent – hope it lasts..

God I hope it’s successful (whatever that means to them) and therefore continues and gets rolled out to other forces. They may be overwhelmed initially but hopefully that means they report major problems with driving standards and devote more time/cash to it

<cautious “like”>

Very balanced and thoughtful. Good effort by WMP.

Good idea, I also think they should make doing a ~10k journey by bike on road a part of the driving test in some way as well. Of course, not everyone can ride a bike, but they could have it as a kind of bonus or something that goes towards your theory.

Does anyone know of any research that’s looked at average passing distance by cars on cyclists? Was wondering about this the other day on my commute, could you attach some sort of laser/IR device and receptor to the end of your bars and then record distance for each pass?

Found this weird too. Not sure I believe it. I like to think I’ve developed an awareness of when someone is properly seeing, rather than just looking.

I tend to agree with this. I always look at the alloys of cars waiting to pull out, you can generally tell when they’re about to do something stupid.

Excellent stuff. A reasonable, myth-busting, evidence based approach. Can’t see it catching on with the media but what a great example they will hopefully make, and I hope it catches on.

I Hope that it works. Yesterday on the way to work i saw the aftermath of an accident involving a cyclist – probably about 30 mins or so after. 4 ambulances, air ambulance, police, fire all i saw was a very mangled road bike. Still not sure what had happened as it’s not been reported it seems, but it’s the Manorway, Stanford le Hope, Essex.. looked grim. 🙁

The road is very busy with lorries as it’s got the new port that’s now swinging into action, it’s also used as a bloody race track as well…

Fantastic – well done WMP!

Interesting that it says forget eye contact too.

Yeah I think they mean not to rely on it. Human brains are hard wired to spot other faces (see the ‘argh my eye’ thread’). So by showing your face, it makes a huge difference. If I hear a car approaching from behind and planning to squeeze by on a narrow street, I often glance over my shoulder. Invariably with this gesture they slow down and wait for proper space. Not sure if it’s the face itself, the humanisation, or the fact it looks like I’m starting to address them (of course I’m not) but something psychological happens when I do this.

However they are right in that it doens’t always work – so look at wheels as well. And suspension. You can tell when they take their foot off the brake before they even apply power.

I always look at the alloys of cars waiting to pull out

easiest place to detect movement

IIRC the eye contact thing is saccadic eye movement -ie they scan past you then they look back at you = they have seen you anything else = not seen you

Not sure how much faith i put in that and I prefer to have faith in me than them tbh. Never assume they will do x is the best bet

for ebennett:
try here

Cool. Needs to be nationwide!

for ebennett:
try here

Very interesting, thanks! Love that they got the experimenter to don a wig and pretend to be a woman 😆

Sounds great to me! I think something like this has been a long time coming.

I think that’s the best piece of cycling news Ive read in years.

Genuinely v v pleased with that. I feel a letter in green ink coming on.

I think every new driver should complete a simple motorcycle course prior to progressing to a car. Learning to ride a motorbike is an amazing way to improve your awareness on the roads when driving a car

Sounds great in theory, lets see how practice goes and if positive, forces nationwide have the budget and manpower to adopt it.

Excellent stuff… Maybe I should send videos of close passes to the local force..
Like this bastard

I wouldn’t bother;

what a complete bunch of t055ers /\ 😯

I’ll stick to my current actions then! **** sign and hopefully catch them at the next junction 😆

No doubt Motorists will be up in arms in full whingefest mode. Bloody Lycra clad road warriors who should be riding on the cycle paths…

The WMP blog includes a panel for comments at the bottom. I’ve posted a message supporting the policy and hoping they’ll spread it other forces. Comments don’t show up on the blog, but I think it’s worth telling them we’ve noticed and appreciate it; it might help the officers who have developed the idea when somebody higher up tells them they can’t afford to continue with it.

Comments don’t show up on the blog,

I suspect they moderate them prior to allowing them to be published?