Petition "To introduce a permanent, minimum passing distance

[jefmcg]

Government responded

This Government currently does not have plans to legislate on a set minimum space e.g. 1 metre on roads with a speed limit of up to 30mph when overtaking a cyclist.

Read the response in full
This type of legislation would be extremely difficult to enforce and the Government does not believe that it would add to the existing rules and guidance, including those set out in the Highway Code, which advises drivers to give cyclists “at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car”.

We are keeping this position under review, and are interested in learning from the experience of places where legislation of this type has been introduced. One example is South Australia, where since 25th October 2015, drivers are required to give a minimum of one metre when passing a cyclist where the speed limit is 60km/h (37.3mph) or less or 1.5 metres where the speed limit is over 60km/h (40mph). The penalty for drivers caught disobeying this rule is a $287 (£148) fine, plus a $60 (£31) victim of crime levy and 2 demerit (penalty) points. However, it will take time to understand the benefits and impacts of this legislation on cyclists and other road users.

Department for Transport

 

[slowmotion]

I sometimes get passed by cars so close that I could stick out my little finger and touch their bodywork without taking my thumb off the brake hood. There's absolutely no point in passing a law that is completely and absolutely unenforcable. It just makes a laughing-stock of the legal process.

Driving and mobile phones anyone?

 

[summerdays]

Yes I got one of those too!

What does it matter if they can't enforce a new rule.... They don't enforce it currently but at least it would be clearer than the vague wording they have as to how far they should pass a cyclist.

 

[growingvegetables]

There's absolutely no point in passing a law that is completely and absolutely unenforcable. It just makes a laughing-stock of the legal process.

Sadly - that applies to huge sections of the Highway Code . It's not that the law is unenforcable - but that it is not enforced.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

And yet it is enforceable in Australia and elsewhere. What suddenly makes it unenforceable here then?

I'm interested, do we have evidence of anybody being fined for breaking this yet?

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Sadly - that applies to huge sections of the Highway Code . It's not that the law is unenforcable - but that it is not enforced.

The majority of the highway code is simply advice on good driving. NOT law.

 

[classic33]

I'm interested, do we have evidence of anybody being fined for breaking this yet?

Safer Cycling Australia showed what happenned to one driver who failed to give the room required. Looking for alternate employment as a result.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Safer Cycling Australia showed what happenned to one driver who failed to give the room required. Looking for alternate employment as a result.

Link?

I've had a brief look on their website but can't see it.

Although I did like their information video for Queensland.

 

[classic33]

Link?

I've had a brief look on their website but can't see it.

Although I did like their information video for Queensland.

It'd be an early video on the stayinaliveat1.5 on fb(safercyclingireland.org?)

 

[jefmcg]

Safer Cycling Australia

safercyclingireland.org

 

[jonny jeez]

And yet it is enforceable in Australia and elsewhere. What suddenly makes it unenforceable here then?

Money

 

[jonny jeez]

- but that it is not enforced.

Its just not economical to enforce

 

[jefmcg]

I heard a driver who's mirror had knocked down a cyclist say "she wobbled into me". He believed, even after the collision that he had given her "enough room". He wasn't claiming he was anywhere close to a metre away from her. He seemed like a competent driver, who kept within the law. This particular collision would probably not have occurred if 1 metre (or 1 yard) were in the statutes.

 

[classic33]

The Irish site copied the Australian one. Both sites acknowledge the fact.

I'm thinking if they'd to remove it from the Australian site, it may still be elsewhere.

 

[jefmcg]

I'm interested, do we have evidence of anybody being fined for breaking this yet?

Thank you, google.com.au ....

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...s/news-story/05a2c8f42848f66182a0d51d3eab94ac

Edit: and this one ...

More cyclists than motorists have been fined after new road rules came into effect last year

Figures from Traffic and Main Roads (TMR) state over the nine month period stretching from the introduction of the new laws to the end of last year, 32 motorists were fined to going too close to a person on a bike.
[..]
In contrast 101 cyclists were fined $94 — by police — for riding in the middle of the road, over the same period.

Ugh! maybe no action is a good outcome