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Suicide, passing side sticker (kimberleytew via Twitter).jpgOpenreach driver adds van sticker implying filtering cyclists are suicidal
An Openreach van sporting a sticker equating filtering up its near side with suicide has been spotted outside an exchange in Nottinghamshire. The sticker was reportedly added by the driver. Openreach has apologised and said it has now been removed.
A subsidiary of BT Group, Openreach owns the pipes and telephone cables connecting almost all businesses and homes in the United Kingdom to the national broadband and telephone network. The firm does not deal with customers directly, but is accountable to the various telecoms providers.
Twitter user Kimberley spotted the vehicle.
This is in no way appropriate or acceptable @bt_uk @btcare pic.twitter.com/kQwTIFGGI2
— Kimberley (@Kimberleytew) July 25, 2017
It is not illegal to pass slow or stationary traffic on the left – and where there is a cycle lane, a cyclist is highly likely to be passing a queue of stationary traffic to their right.
Cyclists filtering under fire in local press
When the sticker was brought to the attention of Openreach, a member of the team manning the company’s Twitter account responded to one complaint, saying “please accept my apologies for this. I've raised this with the engineer's manager and this will be dealt with.”
Our own David Arthur was later told: “The driver is a cyclist and was trying to promote safety. This wasn't meant to cause upset and has been removed.”
An Openreach spokesman said: “Road safety is absolutely paramount at Openreach and we’re sorry if this caused any distress.
“The sticker was put on one of our vans by a cyclist with the best intentions, but it doesn’t adhere to our policies so we’ll be removing it immediately.”
The sticker also brought to mind one that featured on some Edinburgh and Glasgow buses, produced as part of Scotland’s controversial Nice Way Code road safety campaign.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- David9694 5 min 12 sec ago
business as usual for drivers as regards people with disabilities:...
- Rome73 41 min 45 sec ago
'Meanwhile, the council says that the anti-cycle lane opponents’ suggested alternative route – through a nearby parkland – would mean a greater...
- Pub bike 2 hours 12 min ago
The owners of the private car park made reasonable attempts to contact Lime and ask them to remove the bikes that were fly-tipped on their property...
- Pub bike 2 hours 17 min ago
Could be for cyclists with congenitally long arms.
- mark1a 7 hours 59 min ago
I'll put you down as a no then.
- chrisonabike 10 hours 20 min ago
May need insurance, tax and a licence. No problem with the lights though.
- chrisonabike 13 hours 26 min ago
Well if you *can* interview the original riders at all surely they worked, at least?...
- David9694 13 hours 55 min ago
Live: Car plunges over wall and lands on beach rocks...
- brooksby 19 hours 8 min ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
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33 comments
“The sticker ... doesn’t adhere to our policies..."
Not even much cop as a sticker then.
I remember a more romantic age of car stickers.
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You ain't no cyclist, bro, you ain't no cyclist.
The problem with these stickers on any motor vehicle that they strongly infer that cyclists using the roads to filter are performing an illegal and / or dangerous act. Company fleet managers who fit this type of notice are lending the authority of the company itself to the same view. The public see this and think the fleet managers would only do this if filtering was wrong. It's a misinformation campaign which should be resisted; even if we look as if we have no sense of humour.
There was footage on this site a couple of weeks ago of a cyclist and an LGV driver in London arguing after the cyclist was struck at a pinch point. Everyone on this site blamed the cyclist as there is a belief that lorry drivers can't see you on their nearside. The driving instructors who have lorry qualifications on a facebook page I contribute to blamed the lorry driver as he should have seen the cyclist without difficulty. (Yes, I have seen the video of the lorry driver who can't see the 20 cyclists next to his vehicle. This can only occur if you deliberately set your mirrors not to see your nearside).
"Everyone on this site blamed the cyclist"
not everyone
Fuss about nothing. The scandal is the lack of the upwards pointing arrow saying "worse and most expensive broadband and telephone supplier in the known universe".
Thansk for levving and excess useage charge on my 97 year old grandmother who has exactly zero devices in her house, and taking over 7 months to still not refund it. Khuntz.
Luxury! We've got painted cycle lanes that mysteriously disappear before pinch points. Or if you're really lucky there'll be a giveway sign just before the pinch point, which are usually kerbed traffic islands, to put you in your place properly.
The wording doesn't bother me, it's just a slightly misjudged attempt at humour. The fact that it's on a van rather than a HGV is what bothers me.
Wow. Seriously? People need to find other things to be offended about. I don't see anything wrong with the sticker.
Those harking on about if the driver can't see out of the vehicle etc etc..... Sometimes even the most aware drivers can miss things.
On sunday i was taking part in a sportive (yes i'm a cyclist who covers 8000+ miles a year, Strava athlete 446348 if you want to check!) and was surprised by another rider creeping up on my right. I was checking my left shoulder to see where a mate was at the top of a climb. Someone was in my blind spot and when i turned to face front there he was right next to me. Like a ninja. It happens.
Stickers like these do not obsolve responsibilty in the eyes of the law. If the driver turned left and took a cyclist down then i would expect the driver would face a legal investigation. The sticker is simply stating, albeit bluntly, that people need to think before diving down the left.
For the record i don't go left side of anything even if it's stationary. Call it road craft or whatever you like i just have an inbuilt defense mechanism that means i don't trust drivers to look to their left. I would rather hold back and be sure of my own safety, after all that is something i'm in control of.
Probably should have said 'Attempted murder by aggressive van driver-side' on the left
Drivers are even less likely to expect a cyclist passing them on the right, as anyone who has tried to overtake someone crawling over speedhumps knows.
The mis-match between the sticker and the "cycle lane" which the van is likely to have 2 wheels in is the perpetual elephant in the room.
Cycle lanes are dangerous, never asume you are safe in one. The road was a certain width in the first place, because we had vans and lorries before cycle lanes came along. Drivers think because there is a white line, they don't have to give space!
We have one in particular here in Cambridge and the buses, cars etc have to drive in the lane with traffic coming the other way, so if there is traffic approaching, I always move out of the lane, otherwise some tit will try and squeeze me into the gutter!
Unless the lane is really wide/the recommended 2.0m (so none in the UK) then I simply won't ride in the centre of it and will be for the most part either on the line or just outside, just outside is the norm because of how piss poor/narrow they are everywhere that i encounter. Basically I take my normal primary/secondary or something inbetween depending on the conditions/road.
cycle lanes just encourage close overtakes, the lines attract motorists to drive right up to the edge of them when passing because if they're outside of that line then it's all okay in their eyes. These on road marked lanes are worse than none at all unless they are as i mentioned above 2.0m or wider.
best option is to just remove one side of the carriageway for cycle use only (so it then becomes two way) and make the other side one way only for motoring, not much money needed for full segregated then and all the 'new' cycle lanes go absolutely everywhere and with priority everywhere, plus the added bonus of not having to buy stickers for your motor, win/win.
I followed an HGV last night, and bailed out of passing it in the painted cycle lane when I noticed that the truck was wider than the main lane and was in the cycle lane just driving in a straight line.
That notice looks like it's an admission that the vehicle isn't road worthy as the Highway Code specifically mentions motorbikes and cycles can pass on either side. I'd like to see it used in court as fore-knowledge that the vans aren't being driven safely.
“The driver is a cyclist and was trying to promote safety."
"I cycle too, mate" is fast becoming a drivers version of "I've got many black friends"
In that case he could have stuck on a classic meme...
I don't always overtake cyclists...
but when i do i always leave 1.5m
FTFY
Or the: This vehicle is restricted to 70mph (!)
I occasionally drive a hatchback and manage to check my mirrors before turning left.
What is about being a profesional driver that makes them so incompetent?
If you cant see out a vehicle it shouldnt be on the road.
Some people (I'm thinking some delivery/minicab drivers) are such brain donors that I can't help thinking that they're not employable in any other roles.
But anyone can drive, right?
I took the 'passing side' on Sunday morning (came across an enormous queue of people wanting to see dogs! at Harewood House) and I got beeped at a few times. A couple seemed to be from people in the queue and one was from a man coming the other way, even though I was still actually within the lines on MY side of the road. You can't win. I think for some the idea of them being overtaken by a bicycle is too much.
Well, what do you expect? Of course it offends them: they paid a lot of money for those cars, and they don't just let anyone have a car... Oh, wait...
Yep: this looks like nasty, lazy bollocks from someone who just doesn't want to deal with filtering cyclists.
Meh, doesn't seem _that_ bad. Overkill for a van but not terrible advice if it were on a lorry.
"Stay back" stickers on Fiesta-sized vans on the other hand...
I think that's the point: it's a vaguely offensive sticker on a vehicle which really shouldn't have any problems with visibility if the driver is paying attention and has their mirrors set properly.
(If that sticker had been seen on a HGV, people would have moaned about it but we kind of expect that cr*p from HGV drivers...).
"not terrible advice if it were on a lorry."
Yes it is. Why do these people, like the one whose petition is featured in another piece at the moment, think they should be advising me, unasked? I'm an adult of sound mind, I don't need their advice. Who do they think they are? I don't tell them how to behave (other than to advise them to fuck off), and I don't need them telling me how to behave.
Balfour Beatty Fiesta vans have "Pedestrians, do not walk close to this vehicle" signs on the nearside doors here in Southampton
Which is just f-ing stupid. Or are BB admitting that their drivers are so stupid and/or their vans so dangerous that they Can't be allowed near normal humans?
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