Sheffield close pass operation - 10 miles per prosecution

"Also, the driver who took the time to open a window and face away from the road to shout abuse - were they driving with due care and attention"

no. 

There's nowhere safe to pass on that stretch - hence the double white lines. As the speed of the bike was around 20mph taking the lane was the sensible option. 
 

Didn't stop that dodgy overtake though. On the plus side putting that out via social media allows us to educate more than one motorist at once. 

Well, it means one every 10 miles that is serious enough to be pulled over and nicked.

Shrewsbury drivers have mostly been quite courteous in recent weeks but IME generally on local A-roads I'd be likely to get two risky manoeuvres per mile. More often than not they give me plenty of room when overtaking but as a result endanger the oncoming driver, forcing them to brake. If it's a 30 or 40 mph zone the odds are also pretty high that both drivers are exceeding the speed limit.

I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if he'll change his behaviour as a result?

I agree, It's profoundly depressing. I was involved in a close pass operation recently in N London. The police choose a road and stay for 30 minutes - otherwise drivers wise up to their presence. In 30 minutes they stopped 8 drivers. Essentially an officer got on the bike, rode, got cut up, stopped driver, chat etc, on yer way, got back on bike repeat for 30 minutes. 

And in reality they could do this on pretty much any road in the UK on any day, and there would be dangerous close passes. So while these operations are welcome, they don't change anything.

They don't change anything and they are so under resourced that one is lucky to see a close pass operation in one's area every 5 - 10 years. They are almost pointless. 

They don't change anything

True, but we would feel better about these operations if we knew that significant action was taken as a result. I suspect they were handing out 'advice', but I hope I'm wrong. Points on the licence is the ony significant outcome.

Hi,

I don't agree that points on the licence is the only significant outcome. Some people we pull over are regular normal people who happen to be completely unaware that that are doing anything wrong. Many people have not looked at the Highway Code in decades so sometimes speaking to them and getting them to understand they are behaving in a dangerous matter has an effect. 

however some people are aware that they are being selfish and putting others at risk. They are more likely to get points. As the headline says - 4 prosecutions in 40 miles - that's four people less likely to do the same thing again 

I don't agree that points on the licence is the only significant outcome

Thank you for joining in Inspector, and we have to take seriously the views of someone actually doing the job. I think it's the case that the maximum penalty is only 3 points, but am happy to be corrected, and there are many experienced people on here (most definitely including me) who think that it's impossible to fail to realise that passing within 20 cms of a cyclist at 50 mph is an offence. Lancashire has never prosecuted a motorist for non-contact close passing of a cyclist, and it was only through arduous agitprop that the 30.9.19 offence below was accepted for prosecution- initially the driver apologised and LC thought that was good enough. LC fought back and gave the prosecution such a low priority that the court case is provisionally booked for June 2021 but it is unlikely that it will actually take place then. We have seen on here that Essex Police has an official criterion for significantly close passing: the video has to show the cyclist either wobbled or braked as the vehicle passed. This foot-dragging brings the police in general into disrepute.

I don't wish to blame Inspector Smith for the 'cyclists are a nuisance' and work-avoidance views of many officers and forces as he could be one of the Good Guys, and I have inflicted these photos on this forum before. However, presumably even the police do not suggest that drivers are unaware that passing traffic lights at red is an offence. It is a fact that no action has been, or will be, taken against this driver of F2 YNY although the admirably presented and complete incident report was submitted to Lancashire the day after the offence- and yes the black Range Rover did continue through the red light to cross the junction. There were 3 other comparable offences committed the same day which were also ignored.

No action was taken against this driver of Chevrolet MF09 HYK either. This was why I moved onto the indisputable offence of passing lights at red- to show how traffic offences are simply ignored by the police no matter how serious the offence or how impeccable the evidence.

we've done 6 in 9 months, admittedly over a large geographical area. I agree about the resourcing but we believe we are making a difference. 
 

We targeted the roads that local cyclists told us they felt were worst for close passes to try and have the most impact. We will continue to run the operation next year when hopefully more of my team will be trained on the bikes which will make them easier to organise. 

Happy Christmas Inspector Kevin Smith, thank you for trying.