An officer from the Metropolitan Police Cycle Safety Team was struck by aa vehicle’s wing mirror during a close pass operation today.
A post on the unit’s Twitter account said that the team was conducting the operation, which sees a non-uniformed officer on a bike radio ahead to uniformed colleagues after motorists pass too closely.
The tweet said: “PC Simon safe and well after a glancing blow from a wing mirror.”
Cycle Safety Team were this morning conducting an operation close pass in Hayes Lane @LBBromley @SuptAndyCox Two drivers reported for driving without due care and attention. PC Simon safe and well after a glancing blow from a wing mirror #visionzeroldn pic.twitter.com/Q2RLx2Amtn
— Cycle Safety Team (@MetCycleCops) September 23, 2019
Drivers who have been stopped as a result are given advice on how to pass cyclists safety, typically with the use of a mat showing the safe passing distance of a minimum of 1.5 metres.
In cases of particularly poor driving, motorists can also be referred for prosecution, and the tweet said that two drivers had been reported for driving without due care and attention.
Initially launched in late 2015 by West Midlands Police, which won awards for the initiative, close pass operations have since been adopted by police forces across the UK.
> West Midlands Police outline how their award-winning Operation Close Pass will evolve
29 thoughts on “Met Cycle Safety officer hit by wing mirror during close pass operation”
If you ride in the gutter,
If you ride in the gutter, expect drivers to try and squeeze by whilst staying left of the centre line.
Ride central, 1.5m from left kerb to create a rolling road block to make drivers think about the overtake manoeuvre. I have had much less hassle or close passes by riding central.
CXR94Di2 wrote:
Interesting what happens when drivers have to think about overtaking… https://youtu.be/vWW4cRgUuX4
CXR94Di2 wrote:
so where there is a cycle lane Width 1.5 metres your cycling on the painted line forming your “rolling road block”. Very co-operative.
nicmason wrote:
so where there is a cycle lane Width 1.5 metres your cycling on the painted line forming your “rolling road block”. Very co-operative.— CXR94Di2
But if you ride within that 1.5m cycle lane, motorists will pass you with whatever the distance is between the absolute edge of the white line and wherever you are – after all, they didn’t go into the cycle lane so its safe, innit?
brooksby wrote:
Maybe if mr rolling road block want to be adversarial the police could start applying this rule to cyclist as well.
“The police recommendation to slow-moving vehicles is to pull over, where it is safe to do so, and make use of lay-bys, when you have six or more vehicles behind you.”
nicmason wrote:
Is “slow moving” an absolute or relative term?
For example: if all the cars ahead of me are sitting in a queue and are holding me up because I can travel faster than them, should I therefore reasonably expect them to pull over and let me past?
brooksby wrote:
I had a driver try to half-arsedly overtake me on the approach to a roundabout this evening. They failed because they ran out of road before the bit of kerb dividing the road at the roundabout. They then overtook me the other side of the roundabout just in time to land themselves in the massive queue that is there every night. I filtered past and they shouted at me from the window. Always in a hurry to get to the next queue.
[/quote]I had a driver try to
[/quote]I had a driver try to half-arsedly overtake me on the approach to a roundabout this evening. They failed because they ran out of road before the bit of kerb dividing the road at the roundabout. They then overtook me the other side of the roundabout just in time to land themselves in the massive queue that is there every night. I filtered past and they shouted at me from the window. Always in a hurry to get to the next queue.[/quote]
Right?! Never fails to amaze me, how many times I get close-passed by people who don’t seem to see the line of cars at the stop light no more than 50m in front of them! This is on a straight road. It’s like they can only see the bicycle in front of them, and the only logical decision to them is to get by as quickly as possible, even if it puts my safety at risk and yet they get no time savings benefit from it at all
OR_biker wrote:
Yup. Happens all the time. I think its in the driving test or something…
nicmason wrote:
Cycle lane 1.5m wide ? Yes please ! I get busses trying to pass me on this bit, so they can turn left in the roundabout in about 10m
Then I’ll blast my horn as i pass you to warn you I’m making a manouvre that coild be dangerous if i meet oncoming motorists travelling too fast as i entre the lane for oncoming traffic……hope you won’t mind.
disherwood wrote:
So do you do that with any vehicle or just going to do that with cycles? Because I’m sure Farmer Giles or John the Truck driver wouldn’t appreciate it either if you decide to beep when passing slower vehicles all the time.
disherwood wrote:
You use you horn contrary to the highway code, you think an overtake is dangerous but do it anyway.
Perhaps driving is not for you then, as you don’t seem to know how to use the roads safely.
disherwood wrote:
Seems to me that someone needs to go back to driving school. Since you are supposed to cross the white line when overtaking a cyclist, and not attempt to pass while staying within the lane, the onus is on you not to overtake until you can safely do so without worrying about oncoming traffic.
If you cannot see far enough ahead to know that there is nothing coming, you shouldn’t be overtaking … regardless of where in the lane the cyclist has positioned themselves.
cf. Highway Code Rule 163 …
https://bit.ly/2mTFZjX
Hmm, will the person driving
Hmm, will the person driving be charged with attempted murder? Seems to be the default if the victim is a policeman.
Glad to see they’re not
Glad to see they’re not spending all their time chasing down cyclists in one-way streets. I hope they taught that motorist a lesson about being careful.
hawkinspeter wrote:
riding the wrong way down a one way street is just deserving of punishment ……..such cyclists need to be taught several lesson surely
Half the forces in Britain
Half the forces in Britain won’t consider that a crime anyway.
Plus, does the plod have a video with 2 minutes before and after said close pass? Or is the proof required miraculously less when the victim is a plod.
racyrich wrote:
Slight breakdown in logic here. They are going to need their cameras (I wonder what make/model they use?) running all of the operation.
Unless they have a two-minute warning crystal ball. “Right, close pass Bromley Road in two minutes. Set cameras to run”.
P.S. I can do crystal ball road mounts for $10. Identical gravel ones are $20. ‘Cos they’re GRAVEL.
This is an excellent
This is an excellent initiative, but given the endemic nature of the crime, the cycle safety team really shouldn’t be spending time on crimes by cyclists. I’m assuming that this isn’t a 24/7/365 scheme, so at the very best, they can only catch the minutest fraction of the drivers who daily threaten our lives.
This should be happening every day in every town and city in the country, and the drivers should receive suitable punishment, not the slap on the wrist our laughingly called justice system gives them. My suggestion would be immediate confiscation of the car until the driver has passed the cycle proficiency test.
burtthebike wrote:
Passing the cycling proficiency test should be a requirement for getting a provision licence for any motorized vehicle, with obvious exceptions for the disabled.
Meantime, down in Sussex
Meantime, down in Sussex
“The Mercedes rear door handle clipped my hip and I thought I was off,” said Phil. “This has certainly made me think twice about cycling on UK roads.
“I reported it to Sussex police’s operation crackdown with the result of: ‘No action will be taken but the report will be kept and possibly reviewed if the driver is reported again.’
https://road.cc/content/news/266303-near-miss-day-303-glancing-blow-police-wont-even-speak-driver
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@nicmason
@nicmason
Although that’s a recommendation, not a rule, and likely written with slow moving motor vechicles in mind, which are considerably wider than a cyclist.
@nicmason
@nicmason
It is telling that you think a cyclist trying to keep themselves safe is being ‘adversarial’.
Maybe people should stop driving around aggressively in oversized, polluting, dangerous vehicles quite so much, causing traffic jams (being ‘adversarial’?) because you know, be co-operative.
You mean it’s not like the
You mean it’s not like the parting of the red sea for you, booksby?
ktache wrote:
I thought about fitting a cow-catcher to the front of my bike, but no…
I hope you waved back in a
I hope you waved back in a happy manner just to rub it in.
But vonhelmet, today could
But vonhelmet, today could have been the day there was no queue.
That’s why they MGIF, even if you can see the queue, and indeed it’s always there, even during the summer holidays, today just might be the day, and it’s so very worth risking your life and wellbeing, because, well, only a cyclist…
And of course, more time in traffic, more time for the phone.
You are taught to “make
You are taught to “make progress” but that shouldn’t be at the cost of people’s safety.