LCC response:
** COME ALONG TO THE CITY CYCLING FORUM FROM 6pm TONIGHT **
http://213.86.34.248/NR/rdonlyres/77B3012B-A0D9-4EA0-A320-1DD8D5EB829B/0/HT_CycleForum2008email.pdfI've kept out of the discussion but it is interesting to see that the
conclusion seems to be that cycling contraventions can be anti-social
but rarely dangerous. Some feel that such behaviour has a significant
impact in how cyclists are treated generally. It is interesting that
while the pedestrian casualty rate is rocketing - collisions between
pedestrians and motor vehicles - the pedestrians are complaining about
cyclists not drivers.
It seems clear that the police continuing to label this as a "safety"
issue is frankly stupid and not going to get us anywhere: it will do
little to make the City's roads safer nor change cyclists' behaviour
just keep a few City bigwigs happy that "something is being done" about
those damned cyclists. Perhaps the police questionnaire which
puts "dangerous cyclists" as the first thing you can complain about -
see link below - may be partly responsible, but there are other deeper
sociological issues at play.
City of London PoliceBecause the enforcement is only targetted at a narrow range of
offences - basically ignoring both specific contraventions such as zebra
crossings (surely it is as bad for a pedestrian knocked over on a zebra
as one knocked over at traffic signals?) and general offences such as
inconsiderate driving / cycling - most behaviour is not improved,
particularly the behaviour that causes the most collisions.
Because there is zero tolerance against certain contraventions during
City Police operations - rather than officers exercising discretion -
this just increases tension and lack of respect amongst cyclists. The
same goes for car parking contraventions indeed most London local
authorities are learning from this as a lack of legitimacy erodes
compliance (see links on the City Cyclists webpage on some research on
this).
With the enforcement being targetted against cyclists again - despite
the hopes I expressed at the forum - this is only going to reinforce
both negative relative perceptions of cyclists and the idea that most
of the time cyclists are to blame for collisions. Both unfair and
likely to lead to drivers sharing the road less with cyclists (I
certainly found that when the issue was in the news earlier this year)
then cyclists feeling their needs and safety are ignored so they might
as well take the law into their own hands.
Let's see the City Police telling drivers to be considerate: at present
the only advice for drivers seems to be about avoiding theft from their
cars. A good example is:
Ten Steps to Considerate Driving For Cyclist Safety[the only thing it misses out is the need to check mirrors more than
once when doing manoeuvres to cut out the risk cyclists etc. being in
blind spots]
If the City Police started hauling up drivers breaching the above for
inconsiderate driving then that would be the start of improving better
behaviour. And if the City Police tried a blitz where they exercised
discretion, e.g. focusing on FPNing cyclists that ride through red
lights when pedestrians are using the crossing (a particular gripe of
mine), but also speaking to cyclists who don't give predence at zebras,
race through shared spaces etc. we'd be more likely to see a sea
change.
I'd be interested to see people's views about how the City Police
campaign could be better tailored to dealing with inconsiderate cycling
so that it changed behaviour rather than just the usual "zero
tolerance" approach.
regards
Ralph
