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West Midlands Police Initiative - Hooray!

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Tom B:
Campaigners hope the operation, which sees plain clothes police on bikes pull over drivers that pass too close, will be taken up across the country

RichMoss:
I think WMP deserve some credit for this - lets hope the "new dawn" doesn't turn out to be a false one.
Link to West Midlands Police blog

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

"Our time and effort, we have quickly realised, is better spent enforcing the law and prosecuting, thus creating a scenario whereby should someone not give a cyclist the time and space necessary or fail to see them completely they should expect to be prosecuted."

...and (paraphrased) "bad driving of other vehicles is the thing that kills whereas bad cycling is effectively only an irritant, (which may actually be solved with better infrastructure) ".

Also, in the blog is a link to a download from RoSPA with presentation and video clips from different perspectives. (This took a while to download).

T42:
Bloody good.  Around here drivers generally give us a good margin. Funnily enough, the ones who don't usually sport a red A-plate on the back, meaning "Apprentice" - i.e. a new licence.

mattc:
Yup, all jolly good, and it's getting lots of soc-med* coverage.  :thumbsup:

(click to show/hide)I dont think close passes are half the problem they are made out to be. I get the odd one - I commute/train on country roads, so when it happens they're fast! - but I try not to let it bother me. My bicycles have struck 3 cars in my life, and each incident was at a junction; I believe the accidents stats support that junctions are the danger point (just as they are for motons - not sure about peds?) I've been only been in an ambulance once, that was a classic SMIDSY.

*I made that abbreviation up - hopefully the BBC will steal it.

red marley:
In response to MattC's spoiler comment... Tackling close passes is important in two ways even if not directly related to KSI incidents.

Firstly they are a symptom of a more general lack of consideration or awareness by vehicle drivers of cyclists and other vulnerable road users (e.g. horse riders and pedestrians). I think that is why the 'education' bit of WMP's approach is really important. They end up targeting exactly the drivers whose behaviour needs to change.

Secondly, and importantly in my view, close passes or the fear of them has a huge deterrent effect on new riders. Who would willingly encourage their 8 year old offspring to ride in the conditions shown in some those close pass videos? Wide, slow respectful passes  (or complete segregation) has to become the absolute norm before we have any chance of that 96% who do not ride regularly on the road turning to Copenhagen levels.

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