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news
Bingo sign (CC BY-SA 3.0 by Peter Rimar on Flickr)Local police Facebook post provokes ultimate anti-cyclist bingo thread
Bingo is popular at this time of year – and perhaps because the period between Christmas and New Year is one when many people take time off work and have a lot of time on their hands, a Facebook post promoting the safety of cyclists from a local policing team in Leicestershire has resulted in a thread that ticks every box on the anti-cyclist bingo card, an example of which you can find here.
The post from Market Bosworth Police, who cover an area of rural Leicestershire that contains more than 50 villages in rural Leicestershire, underlined that from 1 January, motorists who fail to leave cyclists a minimum of 1.5 metres when overtaking will face a £100 fine.
It was accompanied by a picture showing that under the Highway Code, cyclists are allowed to ride side-by-side.
In the 48 hours or so since the post was published, it has attracted well over 300 comments – and many of those in turn have received dozens of replies.
Paste the whole thread into a Word document, and it runs to several hundred pages – and that’s ignoring the comments that the police have hidden because of issues such as swearing.
All the usual suspects are in there, and then some – cyclists don’t pay road tax, they should wear helmets and hi-viz and ride in cycle lanes and on bike paths where they are provided and in single file on the road, they ignore the rules of the road including jumping red lights, and so on.
There are also a number of posts from cyclists thanking officers for flagging up issues aimed at protecting vulnerable road users, however.
While the road.cc reader who flagged the thread up to us highlighted how the post had turned the page into a “cycling hate page” and added that the replies from officers had encouraged that.
Granted, we haven’t read the entire thread, but while police acknowledged, for example, that cyclists ignoring the rules of the road was an issue at times, mostly we saw that far from supporting incorrect views about cyclists and the law, the officers – who mention that they respond to comments in their own time – actually put people straight on many of the common misconceptions.
And accused by one commenter that they “always take the side of the cyclists anyway,” the police replied, “we take the side of human beings. We don't care whose lives are saved with safety education.”
Head over here to read the full thread.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- Steve K 3 sec ago
It is, apparently, "packed with high visibility reflective details on back and shoulder."
- David9694 14 min 55 sec ago
Devon man's warning after getting stung in restricted car park...
- Oldfatgit 1 hour 11 min ago
This is kinda what happened to me ... but in slow motion....
- Rendel Harris 1 hour 22 min ago
The Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) was one of the most important battles of the ancient world, where 7,000 Greeks, led by the Spartans under...
- ktache 9 hours 21 min ago
The people at Hexlox have asked me to tell others about their black Friday deals, but I don't quite know what the offer is yet. But saving anything...
- Dnnnnnn 10 hours 18 min ago
I'm unclear how simply considering the views of people who travel through an area is voting for rat-runs. No need to explain though.
- biking59boomer 11 hours 58 min ago
Sadly the cyclist hate in this country seems to have worsened of late. Dangerous motoring combined with anti-cycling officialdom in some places is...
- Cyclo1964 14 hours 30 min ago
Brilliant 🤣
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42 comments
Not sure why a system of world government has to be totalitarian in nature? just to be clear, I’m not advocating that, quite the opposite. Where does that assumption come from - science fiction, perhaps? (But see below).
However, I do accept that there are now some difficult decisions we face as a species occupying this planet that won’t get any easier : arguably, it’s already 200 years too late to start. Issues that the nation state by itself doesn’t have any real answer to. Then I get all science fiction-ey: many roads will lead to Mad Max and Waterworld, if Threads doesn’t get there first.
if those things about forming a European army, the EU prodding the Russian Bear are true, they won’t go away just because little old us have ended our 46 year membership.
I share the hope that where we have the wish (and the means) to buy, sellers will want to sell to us - we seem to manage that with the wider world at present.
I should also say I don’t have any great affection for the EU as an entity. From what I’ve seen, long-term EU membership and joining the Euro hasn’t made the French any less French, or the Germans any less German, not that there’s a direct comparison.
If it helps, Hinckley & Market Bosworth was 60.3% in favour of leaving: https://ig.ft.com/sites/elections/2016/uk/eu-referendum/
So these are all people who have friended their local police force, or at least have shown enough interest in their local police to get the original post in their feed or wall or whatever it’s called? I’m just curious because I don’t get anything from Wiltshire Police.
The police get a lot of stick on here at times, when we’re frustrated by inaction for what for us is seriious and dangerous wrong-doing by car, van and lorry drivers, so it’s good to see them taking a clear and positive stand, at least in this instance. We need to keep encouraging this.
If some of these posters actually knew a cyclist it would make a difference. This is what amazes me about the Brexit vote - in Hinckley & Bosworth that’s 39,501 people who, and I”m making some assumptions here about what they want to happen with regard to overseas workers, have it seems never been to hospital, or never even checked in at a Premier Inn. Who do they think is staffing these places?? Our hospitals have been recruiting nurses and nursing assistant from around the world in the past few years: most places couldn’t function without them.
There are times when someone’s viewpoint is so at-odds, I’ll-informed and so out of proportion it’s hard to know where to start with a response - like the insurance and vehicle excise duty and driving test arguments. Can someone give me a line to take, preferenably in as few syllables as possible for use on the road? “Are you actaullay telling me you won’t kill me if I’ve got an up to date VED/certificate of insurance/ licence?” Doesnt quite cut it.
As an idealist, I’m Depressed about the Brexit vote because I think we need to be moving towards world government in the longer term and the EUs of this world are the regional sub units that would underpin this.
In the medium term, I think that we’re a titchy little island that needs friends. I guess in the medium term we can hopefully make new friends, new deals.
But I still don’t understand why we’re inflicting this on ourselves.
In the short term, I’m getting increasingly concerned about the effects of the “wrench” of leaving, especially without a deal when at the moment, it looks like all roads on this side of the Channel lead That way.
The wrench includes the potential effects on life’s vital supplies - like food, energy, transport (vague link to cycling - petrol rationing Yaay!) It will be the most vulnerable that things like this will affect the most. My mother lives in sheltered housing - my worry list includes will there be petrol for her twice daily carers to come to work, will there be food so the cook can cook, will there be gas so she is warm, spare parts for when the lift breaks, and electric so her hoist works (and the lift, she’s on the first floor) and her wheelchair re-charges, gas so she is warm?
An idealist? This is called totalitarianism, and our country has a long and proud history of leading Europe away from such systems of government.
It's time to squish this trope that people who dislike the EU don't want to be "friends" (whatever that means) with Europeans. I have travelled extensively around Europe and like a lot of it very much; there are some aspects of the culture and geography that I like more than England. However, it does not follow that I want our country to belong to an anti-democratic, supranational organisation that has unleashed economic chaos across much of the continent, wants to abolish the nation state, establish its own army, poke the Russian bear with a stick and alienate the world's biggest economy.
And may I remind you that countries don't trade; people and companies do - and they do not need a trade deal to be in place in order to do so. When it comes to trade, politicians only ever get in the way, and the EU's have certainly done that.
Germany hasn't; manufacturing remains at around 25% of German GDP. It's almost as if the EU was designed to protect German manufacturing, French agriculture and UK financial services at the expense of other EU nations...
And people think some Brexiters are completely bonkers. Can't imagine where they got that idea.
Is a single government for the UK also 'totalitarianism'? How large can a nation be, in squre km (or miles, as you are a Brexiter) before it is 'totalitarianism' in your view? And can you justify your answer?
Do you have a dictionary?
I would question, though, whether the EU is what David9694 thinks it is and if it really is leading towards what he wants. On balance though I think I'd prefer to stay in, despite all its many, many faults (and the fact it might fall apart anyway).
A single government for the entire world would have to, by defintion, be totalitarian in style, given how many people of different cultures, religions, economies and preferences it would govern.
Seriously, a dig about metrication? Do you seriously believe that anything other than a handful of confused UKIPpers voted to leave the EU because they love the imperial system?
Why?
It seemed to work fine in Star Trek...
There you are almost talking sense. Maybe stick with that line rather than wild ranting about 'totalitarianism'?
I'll highlight one thing that has gone badly wrong since 1979. The number of complete idiots who post on forums and don't stick to the topic. Seconded by the number of grasping and lazy forum moderators who don't delete such posts. Oh no, better to have the click bait. Grow up the lot of you.
I'll highlight one thing that has gone badly wrong since 1979. The number of complete idiots who post on forums and don't stick to the topic. Seconded by the number of grasping and lazy forum moderators who don't delete such posts. Oh no, better to have the click bait. Grow up the lot of you.
Oh dear, someone's still got a hangover.
The UK fishing industry has been in trouble since declines in North Sea stocks from the mid 1950s and massive overexpansion of UK fishing fleets / catch capability in the years before we joined the EU.
If it had not been for the controls of fishing quotas, we would almost certainly be looking at a total loss of commercial fisheries in UK waters as has happened in other unregulated jurisdictions. Leaving the EU will do nothing to change the basic ecology of fisheries management. It will however reduce access for our fishing fleet to EU waters and restrict the landing of catches in EU ports, important markets for fish species that are unpopular with the British consumer. Any idea that leaving the EU will restore our fishing industry is ignorant cat burp.
Double post
Not sure if serious. You've quoted your own post where you call the Brexit-voting half of the population idiots.
The twin strange attractors of all forum discussion - Brexit and helmets. Every discussion will eventually stray into the basin of attraction of one of those, if it goes on long enough.
I certainly hope we can start using a new, improved British safety standard for bike helmets once we get rid of that meddlesome EU.
BTBS approved cycling protection. One size fits all. Protecion level rating - anecdotal - the highest level.
brexit is entirely driven by the Mogglodites and their ilk manipulating the Daily Mail readership and related cretins. Since the former wish only for total deregulation so that they can further exploit the latter, and the latter wish only to rid the world of cyclists and other foreigners, I foresee a land where there is only one law, and that is the one which makes cyclists wear full-face cast iron helmets for their own good. No more nanny state, no more cyclists, no more Brussels. A New United Kingdom of Utopia, Nirvana and Narnia.
Mogglodites - nice new word!
A pedant might suggest that Mogglodyte would be a more appropriate spelling, but even so, nice. Thanks
Double post
Have a read of some of the comments made about other Market Bosworth police FB posts. They all seem to attract far more negative comments than positive regardless of the original topic. Must be something in the water
There is the actual law, and there is the imagined law of the road that a certain type of driver believes in, and thinks the police should be enforcing. Some of them reckon themselves to be amongst a "silent majority" which supports the latter, so they naturally shout it at us cyclists out of the windows of their cars as they pass, or type it in all caps on online forums. But it takes a special kind of stupidity to believe you can argue against police officers who have made it clear that their duty is to uphold the former. It is this attitude which attracts parallels to Brexit, and the tendency of some people to think the laws of the club we helped to write as members can and should be bypassed now simply because they aren't what they perceived them to be back in 2016.
Double post
I got tired of reading the same old comments, you know the usual stuff.
The lack of understanding by the motoring public is down to a lack of information and I'd offer up the option of a driver awareness course rather than passing the £100 fine for the close pass.
Compulsory elements would be.
Sit the driver on a stationary bike and have a car do a close pass
Make them ride in heavy city traffic, whilst wearing hi via, a helmet and using lights
A history lesson on road tax
An economics lesson on how roads are funded
Education on why cyclists can ride two abreast, why number plates aren't feasible, why filtering is legal
All to be concluded with a pass or fail test, if you fail no licence for a week
To balance this up
Cyclists jumping red lights would be forced to watch videos of the resultant damage to cyclist's jumping red lights
Cyclists riding up the inside of HGVs would have to watch videos of cyclist's being crushed by left turning HGV's
All courses to be self funding by students paying a fee and run by the same people who run speed awareness courses now.
It's going to be a growth industry.
Jesus! Have we always been this stupid as a nation and social media has merely revealed it? No wonder we've ended up with Brexit, given the collective idiocy of a large part of the population.
No, it started around 1979 and has been getting progessively worse.
I'd probably go back to at least the crusades, the original british yobs on a rampage.
Just found this informative link, but couldn't find any stats on British stupidity: http://www.vexen.co.uk/UK/trashculture.html
it started directly after WWII, 1946 to be precise and got progressively worse, Labour have been as much a culprit as the cons, or maybe you think the way other countries have swept past us in manufacturing whilst labour ran the country and labour led unions basically condoning and encouraging piss poor work productivity never happened?
And Eaton rifle, if you don't understand the role the EU played in our demise in manufacturing amongst many other aspects then I suggest you bother to do some research! Massive trade gap that has continued to get wider whilst under the EU cosh and puts the predicted 'losses' under any of the outcomes with regards to leaving the EU next year as pocket change. The EU has cost the UK trillions since the mid 70s and much more besides!
Comparing people's incorrect (according to the law) thoughts on cyclists and the direct threat of harm including loss of life to those with regards the corrupt cabal that is the EU is ridiculous!
tl;dr.
But more than happy to be linked to the findings that you have, I'd point to a post 1979 sell off of manufacturing there too.
But what would I know, I'm just a newbie...
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