I've wanted to make this point in a few posts, but think its worthwhile making here in a post all to itself. I've seen more than a few angry comments about the police not understanding the concept of 'primary' and at best, berating a cyclist for it and at worst blaming it on an accident.
I'm a police officer nearing ten years service. I began cycling only in April of this year. Before this date, I had never, ever heard of the concept of primary (the first I acually saw of it was in Mikey or Gaz's YouTube channels). I have done driving courses that allow me to razz around safely in a car with lights and sirens going, I consider my level of driving higher than your normal motorist - but no one had ever told me about primary - not police training, nor general life etc.
My point is this. If I had reason to speak to you pre-April in relation to you riding in the middle of the road, holding up traffic my initial attitude and opinion would have been "Why don't you ride further to the left where its safer for you". I now know the answer to this, but back then I didn't.
What I hope to share is this. I'm often surprised by some of the anger expressed in this forum, both towards the police and motorists. Its an anger stemmed from a justifiable frustration of the police/motorists failure to understand. Therefore I'd like to ask this - if you have dealings with the police, be prepared to explain to them the concept and reasons behind primary. Please try to do this calmly, without getting angry and frustrated that they don't already know it.
If I had dealt with a cyclist pre-April that had been knocked off whilst riding in the middle of the road, I'd have been thinking of their position as a contributory factor. If said cyclist had become angry, abusive and accusing when I said this, I don't think they'd have convinced me. However, if they had calmly and politely asked if I cycled a lot, and then proceeded to explain primary, why they were using it at the time they were, then I may have understood that actually, for a driver to hit a cyclist in primary position where used correctly shows an even worse level of driving than hitting one in secondary.
If anyone out there has links with the CTC, I think they should consider putting some sort of proposal to add this training to Standard Police Driver courses too.
This post is not meant to provoke an argument of the benefits/problems of primary positioning, merely raise awareness that the police officer attending your incident probably won't know about it. edit: damn iPad always misses keypresses. I know how to spell politeness really.
