compulsory rider education - clapham common

[ajw]

tip for cyclists on CS7 going north past clapham common in the mornings (near the Windmill on the Common pub).

watch for a single guy  with a flourescent top standing just under the trees past the duck pond, near the pub. he's easy to miss but the giveaway is the blue police hat.

I almost always stop for lights. all lights, regardless of traffic, etc. I was a bit late, could see all the traffic, etc. and rolled through a very definitely pink light. I was given the option of a fine or some training. when? well, right now, just step in line over there with the rest of the offenders. there were three ahead of me in waiting in line. I got in line.

as it happens, this was no ordinary rider education. the police had hired a big white lorry. one of the officers gave us a talk while we waited for our turn in the cab.

did you know that more than a dozen cyclists had been killed by lorries in London last year? and that this year the number is 7? did you know that women cyclists are more likely to obey lights and signs but are more likely to be run over by lorries? I did not know this. I did wonder what the figures for motorcycles is, but felt it would be bad form to ask.

anyway, when my turn came, I got a quick lesson on how to climb into a lorry. in the cab, got a brief lesson on the mirrors and which mirrors in the cab would be absent from lorries on the road before the various years. then the 'driver's' colleague on the ground moved the bike around and just like magic the bike would just disappear. poof. when you're stopped at a light next to a lorry, you're pretty much invisible. in front of the lorry, invisible. behind the lorry, invisible.

so very educational overall. worth being a couple of minutes late for a meeting for sure.

cynically I suspect Barclays were coerced into providing some funding for 'cyclist education' as part of their various cycling campaigns they have going at the moment and this approach (captive audience) seems to be successful.

so if your commute takes you along CS7 in the mornings, look out for the lone flourescent jacket clad guy with the blue hat. if you have a couple of extra minutes, ask if you can sit in the lorry and see what the driver doesn't 'see'. they offer to mark your bike for free as well.I saw them out last week as well (with the lorry) so maybe this is a regular event. probably not related but I've also seen a lot more cyclists receiving tickets/citations in and around the city where my commute ends.
 

[Cudzoziemiec]

When you started quoting the stats, I thought it was going to turn out to have been a dry, impractical lecture. But actually seeing things from the driver's perspective must be very instructional. A good idea. Don't know what's in it for Barclays.

[TimO]

The junction that you mention is one where I most often come close to hitting other cyclists.  The North bit looks like it's the top of a T-Junction, and it is for cars, but for cyclists it's part of a crossroad, and I regularly see cyclists going along the East to West direction when the light's red.  When I've (legally on greem) been crossing South to North or North to South, I've come within a hare's whisker of hitting an illegally crossing East to West or West to East cyclist.

I've also twice seen police cyclists cross through that light, clearly on red, ahead of me.  Of course by the time the light's cycle has completed they've gone too far ahead, not that I think asking a copper wtf he thinks he was doing, is a good idea.

I've never seen anyone hanging around, as you describe, but I was off ill the last couple of days last week, and I rarely go through it much earlier than 9-30.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Thinking a bit more though, there is a slight disconnect between the offence - going through a red light - and the education, which was to do with what a lorry driver can and cannot see from the cab. That's still good education but is surely more relevant to the scenario of creeping up the inside of a lorry which has itself stopped at a red light. When the cyclist's offence is going through a red light, more suitable education would be on the lines of "cars are coming very fast through the green light and expecting to have a clear junction. If or when they hit you, they will hurt you very much indeed."