Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Police forces across country embrace Cycling UK's close pass mats

Only four forces have declined offer, three of those with good reasons

Cycling UK says that the ‘close pass’ mats that it bought earlier this year following a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign have been taken up by almost every police force in the UK.

The charity launched its #TooCloseForComfort initiative on Kickstarter in March, hitting its £12,000 target within 48 hours, and eventually raised £14,568 with nearly 1,000 people pledging financial support.

The decision to launch the campaign arose from the success of the close pass initiative launched last year by West Midlands Police which attracted interest from other forces across the country. The mats provide a visual representation of how much space motorists should give people on bikes when overtaking.

In a blog post, Sam Jones of Cycling UK wrote: “While fund raising is never easy, the hard work was still ahead, as we began seeking to find the right officers to speak to at the 45 forces across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and then convince them all of the value of running a close pass operation.

“Perhaps buoyed by both the public interest and that exhibited by several forces, it was perhaps a bit ambitious to think that we would be able to easily build a list for 45 forces each willing to take a mat and run a campaign to help make cycling safer.

“As spring started coming to a close, and many forces keen to begin operations, we instructed our printers to roll out the first tranche of mats for the 33 forces (see chart below) that had agreed to run close pass operations using Cycling UK’s close pass mats.

“All of these forces will have had their mats delivered by 16 June.

” Four police forces declined the offer.

The Metropolitan Police Service did so because it plans to undertake a close pass initiative that will not involve the use of mats, while City of London Police says it needs to adopt a different approach because of the specific issues involved in policing the Square Mile.

Lancashire Police already had their own mat, leaving Derbyshire Constabulary as the only police force in the UK not to embrace the initiative – although there are signs that could be changing.

Some other forces haven’t said ‘no’ but are yet to confirm they will accept the offer, with Jones saying: “We’re hoping peer pressure from the 34 forces which will run operations across the summer that they will reach out and start taking close passes seriously too.

“One of these forces, Northumbria, launched Operation Cadence in March, which centred on cyclists submitting video footage.

“Unfortunately despite the warm welcome, this operation ran for only a matter of weeks, and while we could be cynical and suppose that Northumbria took the positive PR and stopped consequently, we’re optimistic this is not the case and all they need is a little nudge,” he said.

Jones added: “The combination of both police and public support for this initiative has been quite incredible. “It’s always easy to slam forces for not taking cycling concerns seriously, but I’ve been speaking with officers who are very much onside, see the need for such work, and are doing their utmost to convince their seniors of the need for close pass ops under very straitened budgetary circumstances.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

10 comments

Avatar
Kendalred | 6 years ago
0 likes

“As spring started coming to a close, and many forces keen to begin operations, we instructed our printers to roll out the first tranche of mats for the 33 forces (see chart below) that had agreed to run close pass operations using Cycling UK’s close pass mats.
 

Is it me, or is this chart missing? I can't see one.

Avatar
gmehje1 | 6 years ago
3 likes

I doubt any Police force will ever use it as IMO it’s fundamentally flawed.
I suspect that accurately judging what 1.5 metres is whilst driving in a car and thinking about other hazards is quite difficult.
The Scotland example is better: http://www.scotland.police.uk/whats-happening/news/2017/april/operation-... as it focusses on the approximate clearance without a distance mentioned on the mat.
However how do you estimate and rerecall that distance once driving? Still difficult.
Best to refer to something that the driver knows and has inmate sense of every time they drive (and park). The obvious answer being the width of their own car. 
The average width of a UK car is c.1.8m (http://www.automobiledimension.com/  if drivers bear this in mind with the message 'you must pass leaving the width of your car between yourself and and the cyclist' we will stand a chance of educating people.
Keep it simple using relative terms and it may work better.
 

Avatar
Tired of the tr... replied to gmehje1 | 6 years ago
4 likes

gmehje1 wrote:

However how do you estimate and rerecall that distance once driving? Still difficult.
Best to refer to something that the driver knows and has inmate sense of every time they drive (and park). The obvious answer being the width of their own car. 

Good point and this is what Police Scotland were thinking too, as far as I understand. We had a good presentation by the leading officer and also a practical demonstration of the mat last week (organised by Spokes, the Lothian campaign group).

From that I understand, when they stop drivers, the officers want to give them a feeling for how much space is needed using the width of the bike, a person and the car as comparison. Precise number like 0.75m and 1.5m are misleading because often more is needed, so they avoid that.

 

Avatar
Tired of the tr... | 6 years ago
3 likes

The first thing drivers see in that picture is "0.75 m" from the kerb.

While the initiative and on-road education is very good, it's sad that Cycling UK totally ignored the wiedesprad criticism of giving the 0.75m number such a prominent place.

For this reason, Police Scotland decided deliberately not to use the Cycling UK mat but produced their own, which doesn't have numbers printed on it. The point is that the distance depends on circumstances and a fixed number of 0.75m gives mixed messages and also makes the on-road education more difficult.

Let's hope Cycling UK learns and the next batch of mats will follow the Police Scotland example.

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds replied to Tired of the trolls here and gone cycling instead | 6 years ago
2 likes

Stephan Matthiesen wrote:

The first thing drivers see in that picture is "0.75 m" from the kerb.

While the initiative and on-road education is very good, it's sad that Cycling UK totally ignored the wiedesprad criticism of giving the 0.75m number such a prominent place.

For this reason, Police Scotland decided deliberately not to use the Cycling UK mat but produced their own, which doesn't have numbers printed on it. The point is that the distance depends on circumstances and a fixed number of 0.75m gives mixed messages and also makes the on-road education more difficult.

Let's hope Cycling UK learns and the next batch of mats will follow the Police Scotland example.

We chatted extensively on the CTC/CUK forum about this and several including myself made this point. https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=112889&hilit=75cm

it appears to me that those promoting this have no idea about human behaviour/thought process when it comes to these things!

Even then the distances shown are nowhere near enough when overtaken by bigger vehicles especially at speed.

Avatar
RobD | 6 years ago
1 like

Hopefully some forces aren't just giving in to pressure, showing that they've taken up the offer but then aren't going to do anything with it.

If there isn't buy in and enthusiasm from people within the each force then it's unlikely they'll do anything useful with it, but at least it's going in the right direction and some places really are taking it seriously. Just waiting to see when Essex police actually decide they're going to do something about poor driving in the county.

Avatar
BrokenBootneck | 6 years ago
3 likes

Hampshire got theirs out, put it twitter then put it away again. They still don't give a shit. 

Avatar
brooksby | 6 years ago
2 likes

So why *has* Derbyshire said 'no'? (as the article implies that they don't have a good reason)

Avatar
Milkfloat | 6 years ago
6 likes

Taking a free tarpaulin and running a close pass initiative are very different things.

Avatar
ktache | 6 years ago
3 likes

This one is slightly less stream of consiousness.

Latest Comments