Cyclists fined over £1,000,000 in London police crackdown

I ride in London every week and love the quirky feel of the spaces I get to see. IT is still a pleasure to do 50 / 60 k. However, I am constantly dismayed at the volume of all road users breaking the rules and getting away with it. I ride with a gopro and often think about becoming one of those who upload their footage to show the cars / cycles at fault. But whats the point. No one cares. I saw a lady on the Finchley Road last month in traffic reading her kindle as she drove. I filmed her, she saw me, gave me the finger and carried on. I rode on and spoke to a policeman in his vehicle on the side of the road and was told 'If we haven't seen her then there's nothing they can do' . ( Even though I had filmed her they were not interested. ( camera was off when I spoke to them - should have left it on)

Well it's coming up to Christmas so the police need some extra cash to pay for presents, parties and over time.

Surely cyclists who cycle on the pavement aren't going to get crushed by a taxi, truck or bus which seems to be the greatest hazards to cyclists when riding in London?

Due to this I'm expecting a vast reduction in London fatalities next year, after all cyclist get themselves killed because thay ride without lights, contravening traffic signals and ride on the pavement.

You guys down there should thank your lucky stars you have the police looking out for you so much!

The RLJ of cars in London seems to be getting worse all the time, to the point where you need to be aware when starting off on your green light, because you know there will be just one more car/taxi/bus thats going to come sailing through.

I wonder how much safer London cyclists now are after all these fines.

I don't have a problem with the crack-down however I am amazed that trying to kill someone doesn't even register as an offense.

A driver, distracted by his phone, buzzed me coming up to some traffic lights in Brixton. I suggested he put his phone away because it was dangerous. Calmly and politely. As the lights changed he then tried to run me over as he drove off. The policeman at the junction, having seen it all, couldn't give a s***. He wasn't interested.

The sad thing is I didn't expect him to do anything. They never have, whenever I've approached them.

I'd be interested to see how many motorists were fined for driving on the pavement. My local police never fine motorists for this, despite it forcing pedestrians into the road.

I think this is a great scheme.

I see the officers around and about London all the time and they're always very polite and courteous; the message seems to be about education rather than just hitting you with a FPN as many traffic cops would for driving misdemeanours.

The standard of cycling around London is absolutely shocking on many levels, ranging from the inexperience of the congested surroundings to the downright selfish attitudes of many cyclists in London; I hope this scheme can go some small way to reversing that.

I say that as a rural cyclist and London cycle commuter.

"driver offences can be picked up in other ways”

Such as? They might be, but I suspect most of them aren’t.

What other way do they use to catch drivers using mobile phones? Do they have some new fangled automatic camera that can do this? Or have they started correlating mobile phone call data with traffic camera data. We should be told!