Cambridgeshire police demonstrate their stupidity

http://road.cc/content/news/230361-cambridge-police-say-close-pass-operation-‘not-practical’-due-lack-road-space#comment-1613172

Their response regarding setting up a close pass initiative, as effectively demonstrated by West Midlands Police (20% reduction in cyclist injury):

“We have been liaising with officers in the West Midlands about Operation Close Pass and have explored the possibility of implementing something similar locally.

“The average road is approximately 3.5 metres from the kerb to the white lines. Cyclists are advised to cycle 0.75 metres away from the kerb to avoid drain covers and an average car is about two metres wide. Operation Close Pass recommends drivers leave about 1.5 metres when passing a cyclist. If we add all those figures together it would mean drivers are moving into the opposite lane to overtake.

“For Cambridge city where roads are narrower and often very congested we would be potentially forcing motorists to drive at the speed of cyclists when there isn’t the recommended space to overtake.

“Cyclists are vulnerable road users and it’s important that we are doing all we can to make the roads safer for everyone but at this time we don’t believe Operation Close Pass in its current format is practical in Cambridge.”

😯

It’s not that they’re stupid, it’s that they’re dangerously incompetent. Do they really not understand?

<facepalm>

Utter cretins
Even our barely competent force managed this

Sometimes it helps to look at person to see whether he is an imbecile and/or dangerously incompetent. Chap on the left. The chap on the right is the police commissioner.

What makes me laugh is that I got this off the police commissioner’s Twitter, where he said:

Great to meet @cambscops Casualty Reduction Officer, Jon Morris – Changing driver behaviour is key to reducing road death and injury

And the only guy who posted on the picture (back in May) said:

@roadpoliceBCH so when are you going to step up the plate and help protect vulnerable cyclists in Cambridgeshire #OpClosePass @WestMidsPCC

doh!

They could easily police this. The slower the overtake, the less space is needed for a safe pass. Just needs the overall situation taking into account.

A 1.0 metre pass at 60mph on an open road would be considered pretty dangerous/careless, a 0.5m pass at 15mph could be forgivable in heavy town traffic where the driver is showing consideration for the cyclist.

Can’t fix stupid

I don’t like to judge by appearances, but I know a Tory **** when I see one.

Oh FFS really?

If only they came to their senses and realised it’s on narrower roads where cyclists need more protection from 1+ ton motor vehicles being driven centimetres away from vulnerable road users. 💡

It would mean drivers are moving into the opposite lane to overtake.

yes, that’s how you overtake…as per the highway code (and common sense/courtesy)

For that to be released as a public statement it means not only did some cretin write it, another cretin checked and OK’d it. 😯

“For Cambridge city where roads are narrower and often very congested we would be potentially forcing motorists to drive at the speed of cyclists when there isn’t the recommended space to overtake.
…
“we don’t believe Operation Close Pass in its current format is practical in Cambridge.”

If they honestly mean this then they’ve also basically just said they’re encouraging dangerous overtaking in Cambridgeshire as by their own admission you can’t leave a safe space if there is traffic coming the other way.

Mind boggled….

There is no hope

shindiggy – Member
Can’t fix stupid

Could one find it a more appropriate job, I wonder? Surely they have toilets to clean?

Promotion or a move to community safety/school liaison are the usual methods of removing the harder of thinking from interaction with the general public. This one must have got the facebook password somehow.

It’s OK though, because no-one cycles in Cambridge, it’s really hilly and there isn’t a large population of vulnerable young people their either. Good news for the police, imagine if there was an huge population of city cyclists. Crikey, lucky for the police there isn’t a network of narrow country roads heavily used by commuters avoiding the often gridlocked A road as well. Lucky escape there CHAPS.

Better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt.

At least they’ve admitted it. Unlike Hampshire, who said they would do something, and are nowhere to be seen.
Still, budgets an all that, shit time to be a copper.

So if I lived in Cambridge I’d take the whole lane to make sure no-one can pass. And I would use this story as evidence. According to the Police it isn’t safe to pass a cyclist on their roads. 🙄

Hampshire close pass is supposed to be starting any time, according to a pm I was sent recently.

From the mouth of our Police & Crime Commissioner: ” I wouldn’t ride a bike here, it’s far too dangerous.”

All this close pass stuff, will it make any difference ? Seems lower on the police “can be arsed” scale than drivers holding/using mobile phones and that’s pretty much ignored.

When one face palm just won’t do.

All this close pass stuff, will it make any difference ?

Yes. Measurable results.

As a Cambridge roadie and bike commuter, I just read their statement as ‘hey mr aggressive taxi / Audi / van driver, go ahead and scare the shit out of cyclists – you now have our express permission’. Utter ****.

As someone who lived in Cambridge for four year as a student and 2 and a half as a civilian; I can say that he has a valid point when considering the centre of town.
There is no room to give 1.5 m and at any sensible time of day a bike is by far the faster form of transport for pretty much any central journey.

There is no room to give 1.5 m and at any sensible time of day a bike is by far the faster form of transport for pretty much any central journey.

So genuinely no point in overtaking cyclists then so they can enforce the close pass rule.

It’s bad enough being close passed by some clag nut but being close passed when they stand zero chance of actually benefitting in journey time compared to the bike is just as dangerous but twice as pointless.

It’s like overtaking someone only to slam on the brakes 5 feet in front of them to take the next sliproad.

It’s bad enough being close passed by some clag nut but being close passed when they stand zero chance of actually benefitting in journey time compared to the bike is just as dangerous but twice as pointless.

The correct response is to pause a very short while and open their boot or near side rear door, before escaping into the traffic while they are still processing what just happened. 😈 😆

So why doesn’t he just say that drivers shouldn’t be overtaking cyclists there, rather than suggesting it’s unreasonable for cars to be held up behind them? Meanwhile you’re only talking about a handful of streets in a very small area there – outside that, but still within Cambridge City there are plenty of roads which are wider (the same width as roads anywhere else) and where traffic flows more freely, but which are also used by cyclists, where Operation Close Pass would be wholly appropriate (I also have plenty of experience of cycling and driving around Cambridge).

In any context the statement there is ridiculous, because he’s basically saying that if there isn’t space drivers should just overtake anyway. But it simply doesn’t hold up in the context of Cambridge, where most vehicle movements take place outside the narrow roads in the centre.