Police officers to be issued with tape measures!

Police officers to be issued with tape measures!
Should go to Specsavers!
https://www.petrolprices.com/news/driving-close-cyclist-leads-fine/

 

I always give cyclists a wide berth anyway so I don t have problem with this at all .Sometimes I would like cyclists to give me a wide berth too, giving adequate space cuts both ways .

 

I am a keen cyclist but most of the other cyclists i see on the road are always more than 0.75m out from the kerb. I bet the rozzers won't do them but they will be all to keen to do the money pit motorist for being 1mm too close...

 

The problem is, that with the lack of road maintenance by local authorities, any cyclist will not be able to stay at a fixed distance from the kerb. I normally ride a few inches to the right of double yellows, but frequently have to manoeuvre around the many potholes that tend to appear at drainage grids (after a glance over the right shoulder ). Very few vehicles passing cyclists leave a 1.5 m gap. So to try to enforce a measurement is IMO impossible. It just needs a bit of consideration and common sense on both sides.

 

have been known to pull over on a country lane and allow the cars through, as my 15mph average on the bike is going to cause irritation.
as above - common sense and manners should apply to all road users

 

Agree with @pinewood and @Mieke . Sadly however, common sense is a lot less common than it used to be...

 

It's a misnomer, it's not at all common.

 

So true! . . . sadly.

 

so we have to give a cyclist 1.5 mts of space as we pass them and we could get fined if we dont

but when traffic lights cause traffic to come to a halt the cyclist will happily squeeze through a 20 cm gap down the inside kerb to get to the front of the queue and then everybody has to pass them again giving them 1.5 mts of room, I have even seen cyclists mount the pavement to get to the front of a queue of traffic

 

Isn't it great when drivers can be so heavily punished if they don't give a cyclist 1.5m of space when overtaking? But the highway code can rarely be enforced when cyclists regularly break the law, such as running a red light, riding two abreast in heavy traffic, riding across a pedestrian crossing without dismounting, cycling on pavements etc. They need regulating somehow with registration plates and insurance, and hopefully one day we can catch them on our front and rear cameras and send the videos to the police, as they do to us with their helmet cameras. I've had door mirrors damaged twice because of cyclists trying to squeeze between my car and one in another lane whilst stationary. Another time a cyclist just rode straight into my back bumper and ended up on the boot because he just wasn't paying attention. Take a wild guess who had to pay for the damage, although in the case of the fella who rode into the back of me and refused to pay for repairs I at least took the opportunity to bend the frame of the bike, courtesy of a nearby concrete post!

See, that's got me started!!........

 

drivers are photographed, video'd,take a test ,have insurance and yet far more drivers are caught behaving illegally EVERY SINGLE DAY on our roads. They kill 5 humans every day. What makes you think putting those controls on a 14 year old boy will help? ... Now you got me started!!

 

Regardless of who's at fault, it's the cyclist that is going to come off worse. For that reason I take extra care when passing any cyclist, as well as horse riders. Waiting for the right time to pass, only costs a few seconds. When I'm on my bike, one of the dangers is being passed by vehicles when there is other traffic approaching on the other side of the road - it becomes a tight squeeze on narrow single lane roads. But I have to say, the majority of car drivers are considerate (at least here in Cheshire ).

 

The problem here is cyclists who are not drivers. Any cyclist who also drives a vehicle will understand the problems from both sides. I cycle in my commute during the week as it makes no sense to use the car for the few miles I do, I do not have a helmet camera and so far have not needed one as I give consideration to drivers and stay out of the way as much as possible.
However, sadly, there is an anti cyclist feeling in and around London which contributes to the problem. Don’t get me wrong, many cyclists squeeze down the sides of lorries where the driver has no chance of seeing them, many jump lights and generally consider themselves immune to the law, but in my experience there are many drivers who simply hate cyclists and do their best to give them a hard time.
At the end of the day there is no right or wrong answer to the problem apart from consideration on everyone’s part. Drivers need to stay cool and ignore the stupid behaviour of SOME cyclists and cyclists need to abide by the law and consider other drivers, end of.

 

@mach one see that everyday, plus go through at red, plus go on pavement and across the crossing, then back on the road. I even saw one bombing past a line of cars straight over a zebra with a woman pushing a push chair, unfortunately as he stood ready to make an impressive jump on the raised section he didn't quite get enough height to clear the push chair, fortunately the woman saw him at he last minute.

But equally I have seen seriously bad driving by car drivers, such as going round traffic islands.

@rigeng - cyclists squeezing though two lines of traffic happens to me every night on my way home, god knows how much my mirror would cost, if I see them coming I put my hand out onto the mirror, mainly to protect the mirror as my hand would repair, (now I wonder if I could claim for personal injury ) I can remember a TV sketch where someone opened a door on cyclist blasting down the gap, everyone in a car got out and cheered.
I am sure most of us would do it though if we were on a bike.

@pinewood - "caught" being the operative word,

@kleynie - I am sure the majority of cyclists are drivers. In Leeds we have many sensible cyclists. In London there doesn't seem many when I have driven through, probably because the roads tend to be ridiculously jammed up, and so of course its natural to cut through. I would if I had a bike. I agree with your last sentence and there are many who hate cyclists.


I have generally given bikes a wide berth having once been blown off my bike when I was a kid by a bus. Even more so with an electric car.

The cyclist v motorist war will go on and on.

I think @Mieke sums it up pretty well.

 

Some years ago (2003), we witnessed police in Oxford waiting in shop fronts just down from a crossing where cyclists frequently went straight across (red light) when pedestrians were on it.
I distinctly saw them step in front of offenders, take them to one side and write down credentials. I do not know what came of it, because I did not see anything in the local papers.
I am not sure whether the police have the resources to do this anymore.

 

GunRunner, Zebra is the one crossing that doesn't have a red light!

After reading through this thread I've led to believe it cultural, the attitude in the UK between drivers to riders, and vice versa. And perhaps the law doesn't exactly help.

In France, and other continental countries I've ridden and driven through, there's a healthy respect shown between road user groups: the majority of car drivers do their best to aid, rather than obstruct, motorcycle passage, and it's usually acknowledged by the wave of a leg; cyclist are given a wide berth by other road users - one metre in built up areas and one and a half metre out of town, it's the law with points and fines if ignored. And if it means following a cyclist for a mile or two waiting for an opportunity to overtake, that's what happens. OK, not all the time, not everyone plays by the rules, but the vast majority do. It helps to make driving and riding a pleasure rather than a chore, and it's a pity it's an attitude the UK seems unwilling to embrace.

 

Well it was an error when referencing the fact that it was a pedestrian crossing controlled by a red light. It matters little what it was called...eh? The cyclists were still breaking the law and were having their details taken for doing so!

Hang on, I will correct the error!

 

That certainly doesn't apply to pedestrians in Spain. I worked in Madrid for 5 years and if you stepped on a zebra crossing to cross the road, you'd be at serious risk of being mown down. I still remember being in a taxi on the way to work one morning. There was a group of school children waiting at a crossing. My driver pulled up to let them cross, when there was a loud horn blairing and a car driven by a woman zoomed past and missed the children by inches. She never even slowed down.

Similar incidents happened on numerous occasions. Whenever I came home to the UK the traffic seemed positively sedate in comparison. And anyone that has driven through Paris will know how aggressive drivers are. But since those days, we have caught up with poor and aggressive driving, cycling, riding on the increase. When anger and aggression are involved, someone will inevitably pay the price. We all just need to take a moment to calm down and think of others.

 

equally I think drivers of cars,trucks, and buses should spend 30 minutes riding a bike on a public road to get a sense of the dangers that close passing has on a cyclist. It's about all road users being considerate. For every 1 cyclist that jumps a red light I can guarantee there will be 5 cars that RLJ . saw two last night , but that is almost accepted by society. So is speeding.

 

Yes, agree with that @pinewood . But the law does seem to be in favour of the cyclist at present.