Dame Sarah Storey joins South Yorkshire Police on close pass operation – and almost one in five drivers get pulled over

Inspector Kevin Smith SYP wrote:

Dame Storey suggested the possibility of a mandatory requirement for cycling hours before issuing a full driving licence. I think there's something in that. Especially for "professional drivers" like buses, taxis, HGVs. 

Even standing in the pavement when a vehicle guns past at 60 is scary as hell (and that's without being buffeted on a wobbly velocipede)  so some empathy building would be a useful educational tool. 

I saw a bus driver training college in Mexico(?) did just that. The lined up the trainees on exercise bikes, got them pedaling, then drove a bus past them to show what it felt like. Think it was a great idea.

Firstly thanks!  Second - I think practice makes habit, so while adding in a "riding a bike" component to driver training might be helpful we know that having done a driving test or read the highway code doesn't have much bearing on how people drive in the years after that.

I think you do get an "empathy" effect if a much greater fraction of drivers either regularly spend time on a bike* themselves or have nears and dears who do.

* On / near the roads, not just "I ride the trails all the time" or "we always cycle at Butlins".

Inspector Kevin Smith SYP wrote:

Dame Storey suggested the possibility of a mandatory requirement for cycling hours before issuing a full driving licence. I think there's something in that. Especially for "professional drivers" like buses, taxis, HGVs. 

Even standing in the pavement when a vehicle guns past at 60 is scary as hell (and that's without being buffeted on a wobbly velocipede)  so some empathy building would be a useful educational tool. 

To some extent that already exists for HGV/PCV CPC:  in Greater Manchester, CPC-certified cycle awareness training is available for free for anybody who lives, or works* in Greater Manchester with a driving licence.  When some courses cost a packet, why would any driver or fleet manager not make sure they did that course?
(* and if you drive through in an artic, you're working, right?!)

What needs to happen is extending that as a requirement to all drivers.

Inspector Kevin Smith SYP wrote:

a_to_the_j wrote:

I bet the actual close pass was much higher but they only stopped a certain amount they could, or were deemed a real issue

Not at all. In fact some of the stops were for relatively minor infringements like sounding a horn to express displeasure. Some people managed to make perfectly safe overtakes but managed to get themselves pulled over for hitting the horn out of frustration. 
 

These drivers tended to get a talking to. One of them told my sergeant "I've been driving since before you were born and I don't think cyclists should be allowed to ride two abreast". When my deceptively youthful looking sergeant replied "and was that the last time you read the Highway Code" the chap got the message and ceased his poorly researched homily.

There was no evidence that any of the other drivers were whacked out on goof balls and we would have had them stopped if their driving was clearly poor. The 1 in 5 on this road I put down largely to ignorance of how to overtake and poor attitudes towards cyclists. 
 

also - I do think 1 in 5 drivers do seem to be not great at obeying the law which is why my team do a LOT of traffic enforcement as it is a priority for  our policing area. I don't think there's a national outcry about it because people just see other people's behaviour as the problem. What's that statistic - 90% of people think their driving standard is above average?

anyway I'm on Twitter @sheffnw_npt if people have other comments/ suggestions. 

Thanks for your efforts, and returning to post here. As ever enlightening

Thanks for your efforts, and returning to post here. As ever enlightening

Excellent point! My relentless attacks on the police reflect my local situation. It appears that things are different in South Yorkshire. I recall my first reading of something by Inspector K when I thought he might not be genuine-I was wrong and he has given us a good account of the Good Cops.

Remodel? I certainly should be remodelled....yes London is mad at the moment. Had a jaunt down to Brighton last week and felt sooo relaxed, this is why I ride...until I hit Croydon and it was here we go again...

London's my birthplace and home and I love it dearly, but I shouldn't have (as a freelance from home) to escort Mrs H most days on her commute because I'm scared of something happening to her (she's a great rider but I've been made paranoid).

It's probably the Garmin Vario - which uses radar to alert cyclists about vehicles approaching from the rear and sounds alerts on a compatible garmin bike computer.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/698001

The radar is a Garmin Varia and the feature to count the number of vehicles that overtake you is probably the third-party Connect IQ app "My Bike Radar Traffic" which installs on your Garmin watch or head unit. May only work on more modern head units with recent version of Connect IQ.

The interesting thing about My Bike Radar Traffic is that it also records the speed of traffic overtaking you. 

Creakingcrank wrote:

The radar is a Garmin Varia and the feature to count the number of vehicles that overtake you is probably the third-party Connect IQ app "My Bike Radar Traffic" which installs on your Garmin watch or head unit. May only work on more modern head units with recent version of Connect IQ.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/05/varia-radar-maps-connect-app.html

Good write up from DCR.  It also appears you can sync it with a video file.  Might be useful additional submission for close passes - perhaps even to shame those forces that ignore our video submissions or apply the "only a witness" rule unjustifiably.  

Now if only other head units could support it.

Secret_squirrel wrote:

Now if only other head units could support it.

I believe Wahoo units do. Though, of course, Garmin aren't going to tell you that.

I've got the Garmin Varia RTL515 which is a great piece of kit. It does an excellent job of tracking approaching cars that you might otherwise be unaware of. Definitely worth it's cost and it's a decent rear light as well.

It looks interesting for sure but I dont know what use I'd find for it, I'd wondered if it was just capable of recognising close passes so you could use it as data to prove you arent going insane & maybe lobby decision makers with.

plus it's another several hundred pound bit of tech,that you have to keep charged up,to the point the tech keeping me 'safe' just to ride a bike starts outweighing the cost of the bike itself.

I thought it provided some really interesting data - like the fact that one car approached us at 100kph which is 20 above the limit and crazy speeds for that road. 
 

that's not something I would have picked up on as I usually face forward when riding. 
 

However, it is something I can't afford so I don't think  it will be a regular feature. It was good to figure out the % of close passes though. 

There are two groups of people: those who own a Varia radar and those who haven't had a chance to ride with one yet.

Sadly they dont let you trial before you buy though and the cost to buy & upgrade to a compatible head unit is just too much for me.

Especially when the benefit of using it feels quite limited, if I was that concerned about what was behind me whilst riding,I could get a handlebar mirror for a fraction of the cost.

Awavey wrote:

if I was that concerned about what was behind me whilst riding,I could get a handlebar mirror for a fraction of the cost.

I never thought I would disgrace my bike with a mirror. Then I bought one for a mate - but as a bar end mirror it proved unsuitable for their straight bars - so I thought "why not" and stuck it on my drops. It's still there now, bestest cheapest thing I ever got!

Same here (except not buying it for a mate).

hirsute wrote:

Same here (except not buying it for a mate).

Yup - I can still say, in all honesty, hand on heart, I never bought myself a bicycle mirror. Although I did buy it, and it is fitted to my bike! Love it too.

I'm deeply ashamed to admit buying more than one as I tried to find one that is easily adjustable and stays where you put it. They're great once you get used to using them as you can keep aware of anything approaching from the rear and up your pace if it's another cyclist so they don't catch you (except when they do).

sensei wrote:

It has been noticeable that in the last few months driving standards have dropped significantly. More drivers now with less patience and prepared to risk the safety of others in order to save a few seconds.

It's been absolutely startling and deeply worrying, virtually every day I'm getting texts from London cycling friends saying "what the hell is going on out there now?" Professional drivers particularly bad, I think maybe they got used to much emptier roads during the worst of the pandemic and now are frustrated that traffic is back to close to normal levels; couple that with the DM narrative of all traffic jams are the fault of cycle lanes not, you know, traffic and it makes for a lot of aggression, worst I've ever known it in forty years of cycling in London.

Rendel Harris wrote:

sensei wrote:

It has been noticeable that in the last few months driving standards have dropped significantly. More drivers now with less patience and prepared to risk the safety of others in order to save a few seconds.

It's been absolutely startling and deeply worrying, virtually every day I'm getting texts from London cycling friends saying "what the hell is going on out there now?" Professional drivers particularly bad, I think maybe they got used to much emptier roads during the worst of the pandemic and now are frustrated that traffic is back to close to normal levels; couple that with the DM narrative of all traffic jams are the fault of cycle lanes not, you know, traffic and it makes for a lot of aggression, worst I've ever known it in forty years of cycling in London.

You would get close passes before the pandemic but the thing that has changed significantly for me is the level of impatience amongst driver increasing significantly. In addition, the amount of drivers not performing basic checks before manoeuvres as well. Lots of left hooks and a lot of horn beeping.

What I'm noticing is that cars and vans are giving me far more room but where they are choosing to overtake is nuts.

Bends, brows of hills etc and into oncoming traffic appears to be the new normal.