Reporting drivers

Hi,

On my bicycle commute I go around a small roundabout to take the third exit. Three times in the last seven days cars have pulled out in front of me from the second entrance after my and I have had to break sharply to avoid colliding with them. I believe that two of the drivers saw me and just didn’t care. The third was a young female who seemed to be chatting to her friends in the car rather than watching the road.

I am getting pretty fed up with this. I have been considering gettting a camera to record close passes for a while but this roundabout stupidity seems more dangerous. Would the Police take action if I report using Operation Snap? I can find dozens of close pass videos on-line but have not seen any showing the type of incident I am encountering.

You really need to have vid as proof otherwise it will just get added to an ever growing pile of reports that they can’t really follow up on.

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I hate roundabouts. They have to be the most dangerous part of any road system, and car drivers seem to get confused about which lane they should be in. If i had a quid for every beep of the horn i’ve heard from people trying to exit off the wrong lane …

If the road is busy, I’ll hop onto the pavement, cross the road(up a bit) then back on just basically avoiding it totally. You might be the best rider, but accidents aren’t caused by the best, they are caused by the worst, and if it takes a few mins to get around by avoiding it, thats better for you.

Maybe.

I think it’s a reflection partially on how obscenely big “cars” are becoming.  They straddle lanes on larger roundabouts and on smaller ones just cut them entirely going over the painted hump or even the wrong side.  If they can’t get round it without taking a “racing” line then they’re going too fast and/or need to rethink their car choice.  Mini roundabouts need bollards on them to enforce the rules.

One one hand a camera will capture the events, and you can report them and police might take action, which could be anything from a warning to a prosecution in court (are you prepared to go to court?).  On the otherhand it will in reality do nothing to stop the driver – if I’d had 3 close calls at the same junction in a week I’d either be changing my route to avoid a terrible bit of road engineering or trying to work out how to make myself and my intentions more obvious.

Mini roundabouts need bollards on them to enforce the rules.

That would make it tricky for long vehicles following the rules.

Thanks. I don’t think the design of the roundabout is particularly dangerous. It is the standard of driving that makes it so. Two of the drivers clearly saw me but were willing to risk that I would brake in time to avoid a collision.

I am wondering whether it is just a glitch that I have encountered three bad drivers in such a short space of time. I have been using the route for a couple of years and would say the average is around two of that type of incident per month.

It would be difficult to modify my route to avoid this roundabout without introducing other risky junctions/areas.

My query was really about whether anyone had experience of video reports of this type of behaviour resulting in Police action.

My query was really about whether anyone had experience of video reports of this type of behaviour resulting in Police action.

Me – not this specifically but close passes and general dangerous manoeuvres like this.

They don’t always say what the action taken was but it does get followed up. This from GMP who aren’t exactly known as especially cycle friendly, but I’ve usually had good results.

One one hand a camera will capture the events, and you can report them and police might take action, which could be anything from a warning to a prosecution in court (are you prepared to go to court?).  On the otherhand it will in reality do nothing to stop the driver – if I’d had 3 close calls at the same junction in a week I’d either be changing my route to avoid a terrible bit of road engineering or trying to work out how to make myself and my intentions more obvious.

Over the last few years I’ve alternated between working away and back in a local office.  And I always seem to go through a bedding in period where I end up having robust discussions with drivers.  Then it calms down.

So either I get better at adopting primary, or develop a tolerance for bad driving.

Or the minority of really bad drivers learn the lesson and don’t do it again (it’s a short commute at the same time each day, I recognize pretty much every car).  Obviously this isn’t an option available to everyone, I’m big and loud enough to make people think twice.

On that basis a camera might actually work if the police do anything with the evidence.

That would make it tricky for long vehicles following the rules.

Thus neatly disproving the claim that roads were built for cars.

Would the Police take action if I report using Operation Snap?

seems to be very much a postcode lottery

One thing is with roundabouts you get the disappearing cyclist in the A pillar. ( some call it the B pillar but basically due to geometry as both a car and a bike approach a roundabout the bike can be completely in the blind spot the entire approach

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/commuting/article/trav20091012-Autoglass-reveals-blind-spot-dangers-for-cyclists-0

Two of the drivers clearly saw me but were willing to risk that I would brake in time to avoid a collision.

That is entirely possible but I’ve seen people who seem to look right at you but basically are looking through you.  Their brain wasn’t expecting to see a bike so didn’t see a bike, it was looking for the vehicle behind which they had seen approaching from someway off.  Obviously that’s not acceptable either, did they acknowledge you afterwards?

My query was really about whether anyone had experience of video reports of this type of behaviour resulting in Police action.

I think there’s varying experiences around the country – I’ve hear of people being knocked off at junctions with video footage and it being a strongly worded letter, and other cases where the cyclist has had to break hard and its gone to court (probably because the driver says they didn’t do anything wrong).  I have no magic wand here but even if the cop who gets it is a cyclists and takes it really seriously and that driver learns their lesson the next 1000 drivers through that junction will be just as bad as they currently are.  It is a good thing to remove the worst drivers from our roads, its even a good thing to send a wakeup call to drivers who have become complacent BUT even if you sent a video every day it won’t stop you getting mashed.

If you mean does failing to giveway to a cyclist at a mini-roundabout meet the requirements for prosecution – yes.  If they accept that you had to take some avoiding action (either steering or braking) to actively avoid the collision then its likely to be pursued.  BUT of course there are cycle haters everywhere – will it be obvious from the video what your hand signals, lane position indicated to the drivers – if a cop wanted an excuse not to follow it up (or a defence lawyer wanted to point out the weakness in the evidence) thats the sort of place they’d hide.

I was hit by a van that failed to stop at a roundabout – fortunately I noticed that it wasn’t slowing and was able to brake and steer into the centre of the roundabout so it was a side to side impact rather than being T boned. All caught on video, reported and the police ended up asking me whether I wanted to take it to court or deal with it through a driver improvement course.

It shouldn’t be this way, but I always use bright flashing lights front and back on roads during the day and ride assertively in the middle of the lane, making eye contact every driver who’s about to pull out. Still get hit occasionally, but I think it helps.

My query was really about whether anyone had experience of video reports of this type of behaviour resulting in Police action.

I have, warning letter sent etc…not much happens tbh but I think it worth while.

This for example got sent a letter.

It shouldn’t be this way, but I always use bright flashing lights front and back on roads during the day and ride assertively in the middle of the lane, making eye contact every driver who’s about to pull out.

This! However as the op says some just look at you and think **** the cyclist.

I did this to a driver, 5 points and £600 fine later.  Camera front and back.  Go for it

In my experience with police Scotland absolutely no action is taken, despite physical assault or deliberate ‘ramming’ of a cyclist.
This on two occasions, with a third being a very deliberate close pass.
Police come round take statement, um and ahh about it, moan about the car involved having no MOT etc, and then do bugger all.

My query was really about whether anyone had experience of video reports of this type of behaviour resulting in Police action.

In the year I’ve been running a rear camera I’ve made ten close pass reports. A couple of weeks ago I got my first response that a driver is being prosecuted for driving without due care. I’m looking forward to going to court as witness.

Some £1k+ fines handed out after reports to Devon & Cornwall police here.

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/idiot-devon-cornwall-drivers-caught-9393167?utm_source=mynewsassistant.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=embedded_search_item_desktop

A timely post, I was out on the road bike on Monday for the first time in a couple of weeks and had 6 very close passes and a head on white van man overtaking a parked car transporter.

Camera recommends please…..

I’ve had 2 Chilli Tech ones and whilst they are Ok in good light conditions they were next to useless in low light.

Decent review of the Cycliq12 on this channel, however, the price puts this way out of my affordability bracket:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2jw1H2dWkQ

I use a Garmin Varia RCT715 on the back. I don’t use a front.

Thanks for the responses. anagallis_arvensis that video is very similar to what has happened to me although with cars rather than a van.

Oddly all three incidents were youngish drivers in Corsa sized cars. Good to hear that some action was taken against the driver even if it was just a letter. I guess that is kept on file and further incidents might result in points and/or  a fine.

Has anyone tried Chilli-Tech’s more advanced cameras? – looking at the 4k with image stabilization for £99.

i just ride assuming that everyone is going to **** up at some point and position myself/take liberties as required. Urban cycling definitely needs to be an active, rather than passive, pursuit.

I also ride with flashing lights both ends at all times of the day to make sure being seen isn’t an issue and make sure I eyeball everyone I can and make large hand signals where required.  It doesn’t always work and occasionally things go wrong but I try not to hold it against anyone.  We’re all human.

I did almost report a guy I passed this morning that was texting on his phone while the traffic in front moved away. There was a police car 4 cars behind and I very nearly stopped on my way past to alert him to the fact but life’s too short and who hasn’t fiddled with the satnav or radio in traffic?

but life’s too short

Brutally so for many which is why it should be reported.