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Close passing, like MOT/ VED/ insurance evasion red light jumping and unbroken white line offences, has never gone away in Lancashire. I haven't detected any change.

Could just be me too but I've saw more dodgy driving/ passes/ abuse in the last 5wk than I saw in the 5 years or more previously!

last week was the worst its been for me at least this year with close passes. If Id lived in Devon I might have said it was something in the water.

But wasn't this the one where in an extremely nasty and inappropriate comment the sadly deceased's relatives were told that the cyclist would have been prosecuted, had they survived?
I've ridden the crossroads there a few times, my route to and from Wokingham, you have to be going at a fair lick, given the nature of the lights, the motorists are all traveling quickly and with great impatience.

Apparently this is to be upgraded from paint + wands to ... just paint, do I read that right?

A range of issues are listed as being considered.  There are the serious - blue-light emergency services apparently said "it had become difficult to conduct blue light responses along that stretch of the road".  No further detail but this brings up several questions e.g. "why"?  I imagine the actual reason is "because cars in the way" - why's that different?  Also you'd think they could - in an emergency (which it would be...) carefully use the (now free from cars) cycle lane?

There are some reasonable observations such as "but the lanes fill with detritus and are hard to clean" (this seems to be as much "blocking drains" as it does "affecting cyclists").  This can happen with these designs but you'll get some debris build up with no cycle lanes also.

Of course this invites the question "so why not do this properly then, so you don't have the issue"?  The fix is "just make proper cycle path" or accept you need to pony up for a) suitable-sized cleaning vehicles / attachments and b) appropriate cleaning schedules.

I suspect the real clincher was the "prevented cars from having safe spaces to stop along the road" part!

when the safety wands were removed locally to me, at the behest of the local MP, I dont know that emergency services officially complained it impacted them, but lots of drivers complained on their behalf, because the drivers wanted to stop & pull over instantly the moment they noticed an emergency vehicle, and the wands confused them about how to do that.

as for cleaning the roads thing, well again lots of drivers complained on behalf of others about it, the reality is mechanical road sweepers are few and far between judging by the blocked drains full of leaf mulch in autumn and the glass and other rubbish left alongside most roads, and it of course is beyond the wit of councils to employ someone with a broom or leaf sucker/blower.

equally Im pretty sure the Dutch and even the USAians have solved that problem with narrow build road sweeping machines for bike lanes.

stonojnr wrote:

... lots of drivers complained on their behalf, because the drivers wanted to stop & pull over instantly the moment they noticed an emergency vehicle, and the wands confused them about how to do that.

That won't be a problem because drivers are trained Yeah, that's a thing.  Example the one (reported here IIRC) in Canonmills in Edinburgh (fortunately not a long delay).

As for the sweeping does having cars up to the kerb blow / splash debris it out of the way?  Where though - it's got to go somewhere?

it is true that some cycle lane designs can trap more junk.  I think it's more of a factor when there are actually things like blocks, not just wands.  But I would bet either this happened before but "oh - cycle lanes and now the drains are blocked!"  And / or that maintenance was indifferent at best before, but since we added these we didn't do anything".

I'm guesing "cock up" and "left hand not knowing what the right's doing" on this one.  Perhaps they just didn't inform the cleaning crews?

Pretty sure the council will have vehicles that can get there.  They certainly exist in the UK, I think I've seem something like the one below in Edinburgh (they even managed to do a snow clear one year with a Bobact / mini tractor thing).  They may only have a few, or have restrictions on using them on roads?

Perhaps a bigger vehicle *could* do this from beside the lane (perhaps with another guy as a sweeper) but a) can't hold up the traffic while doing this! or b) 'elf and safety concerns by the cleaners (maybe fair...) or c) nothing in the budget for "cleaning the road twice" e.g. an extra lane.

Harm minimization!

What we want is to NOT ban those illegal / careless / dangerous drivers from driving.  Because otherwise they might be tempted to cycle - which we all know we have too much of now!  (Plus of course it's an attack on their basic human rights / won't you think of the innocent children or old people they won't be able to care for / the tax lost / the threat to society if it makes everyone think they'll have to pay a bit more attention on the road?)

What we need is to ban those illegal / careless / dangerous cyclists from driving.  They've clearly shown they're not fit even to be in charge of a child's toy.  Just imagine the damage those antisocial, speeding lycra louts could do behind the wheel of a motor vehicle!  (But of course we should emphasise that people driving are generally in no way a threat to anyone because we have licencing, vehicle inspections, road infra to keep pedestrians safe etc.)

Gus T wrote:

ask him why he had made a career defending dangerous drivers if he's all about road safety but as it was a pro-cyclist comment it was not put to him.

Is there some mechanism to work out if anyone he’s ever helped avoid a ban, has re-offended and killed or injured someone else within the period of the ban he got them off of? I’d actually be surprised if his wasn’t the case, seeing as he specialises in it.

How anyone who makes a living making sure known dangerous drivers stay on the road can have the fucking gall to describe themselves as “pro road safety” is actually sickening.

Gus T wrote:

promoting banning cyclists from driving if they get a conviction that would have resulted in a driving ban if it had been a motorist

are there any? it seems like keeping drivers on the roads at all costs is the current system

Mr Freeman needs to brush up on the law. The courts can already ban individuals from driving under Section146. They also have provision under Sec147 if they've used a vehicle as a weapon.  These are up to the judge's discretion though  

I would assume that this would be up for consideration if a cyclist was being charged under the current careless/dangerous cycling on the books. It would also be used with the new death by charges being introduced.