Refreshing News from Sheffield

[Venod]

This is a good news story from Sheffield.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...rs-by-joining-group-ride-and-upload-to-strava

 

[ClichéGuevara]

This is a good from Sheffield.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...rs-by-joining-group-ride-and-upload-to-strava

That looks like an effective use of resources, especially when you consider the financial and personal cost of collisions. Many take their attitude to cyclists on to other road users as well. It should encourage more cycling too.

Well done to that Sheffield Police Team.

 

[mjr]

There is something about group rides that seems to bring out a different kind of nobber motorist, while others who might harass a lone rider are deterred. So groups get more incompetent overtaking but less verbal abuse, and so on.

 

[Jody]

It's been needed for some time now and respect to the Police for going about it this way.

From memory the last operation of this kind was someone riding up and down Ecclesall Road on their tod, head to toe in day glow colours, on a fairly utilitarian bicycle. It struck me at the time that someone like this would be less likely to be punished/close passed and it would be more suited to disguise as a lone MAMIL.

 

[fossyant]

I'd eat my plastic hat if it was GMP.

 

[Milzy]

This is a good news story from Sheffield.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...rs-by-joining-group-ride-and-upload-to-strava

Nice, we do that area on club runs.

 

[Drago]

Nice to see the dibble being proactive, but they wont solve the problem doing that. Fair play for puttinng the time and respurces into it.

A proper headline level effort of eductation and publicity, combined with stiffer mandatory penalties, is what the government should be doing.

Also the newspaper article is wrong. The DfT advised clearance is 1.5M on roads subject to a 30 limit or lower, and 2M on other roads. I do hope they didn't get the totality of their info in that regard from the Feds.

 

[Dolorous Edd]

From the article

While the Highway Code doesn't specify a minimum distance, it is generally accepted that anything closer than 1.5 metres is considered a close-pass, and therefore could see the motorist facing prosecution.

Therein lies the root cause of the problem - it is not "generally accepted" that less than 1.5m is a close pass. Plenty of motorists genuinely believe there is nothing wrong with 0.5m.

 

[icowden]

Therein lies the root cause of the problem - it is not "generally accepted" that less than 1.5m is a close pass. Plenty of motorists genuinely believe there is nothing wrong with 0.5m.

There is also the (apparently) prevailing wisdom that if someone has drawn a line and some bike pictures 0.75m from the side of the road and called it a bike lane, that passing rules no longer apply.

 

[Dolorous Edd]

There is also the (apparently) prevailing wisdom that if someone has drawn a line and some bike pictures 0.75m from the side of the road and called it a bike lane, that passing rules no longer apply.

In my view such painted lines are part of the problem, not part of the solution.