Cyclists who jumped red light in front of police stopped and fined, as force shares footage with "red means stop" warning

 If "red means stop", why do so many police forces take no action when presented with blatant RLJs like these

Pfff! Lancashire Constabulary cruises the Ignoring RLJs Award. Those are 4 years ago, this is just over 2 months ago, and I have already bored people with many other recent similar RLJs on the A6

https://upride.cc/incident/a15tjv_bmwm4_redlightpass/

This was the situation when BMW M4 A15 TJV decided to speed through the red light, cheered on by the very understanding Lancashire police

I reported a car going through a red light not long ago and the Met appear to have acted upon it.

However, reading all the excuses they make for not acting I think I can be forgiven for thinking that they haven't acted even though they've provided me with reference number.  They also don't even seem to be able to use the tab key, either that or they have a nervous twitch whenever they press the space bar.  The line about posting on social media is dumb because they don't tell you when the case is concluded.  They state that they won't actually tell you anything.  There's no accountability.  The line about the conduct of victims and Met police values is particularly ridiculous.

"Cases will not be accepted where footage has been lifted directly from social media

-          We request that footage is not put on social media until your case is concluded

-          Only footage in its original format will be accepted. We will not accept footage edited in any way and this includes captions, slow motion and 360 footage not in its original format

-          All footage will be shared with the offending driver/rider in its original format so please do not submit footage containing anything you are not willing to be shared. This includes things such as your home/work address, facial images of yourself/family or your vehicle registration mark (VRM) We do not have the facility to edit these things from your footage

-          Unless there are extenuating circumstances please only submit a maximum of 2 pieces of footage no longer than 3 minutes in length to support your statement. We do not require supporting photographs as these will not be considered when making a case disposal decision

-          For all allegations of moving traffic offences we require real-time footage which captures the offence in question. Still images alone will not be accepted

-          We will not seek or request footage from 3rd parties on your behalf. Disposal decisions will purely be based on the evidence submitted

-          If the VRM of the offending vehicle is not clearly visible in the original footage cases will not be proceeded with

-          Only one vehicle will be accepted per report submission

-          If the date/time stamp on the footage is incorrect and does not reflect the date/time of the incident reported, the case will not be proceeded with

-          All supporting statements must be completed in full and contain full personal details and the VRM of the offending vehicle

-          Due to the decriminalisation of a large number of traffic offences we are unable to deal with any parking allegations except those relating to white zigzag lines.  We are also unable to deal with any offences relating to driving/riding in bus/cycle lanes and the majority of offences relating to contravention of road traffic signs. This includes, but is not limited to, “keep left”, “no motor vehicle”, “one-way street” and “no left/right turn” signs

-          We are unable to deal with allegations relating to vehicle document offences such as driving without a licence, insurance or tax

-          Do not seek to actively confront, reprimand or engage with drivers/riders in any way. If your conduct is deemed to be aggressive, unacceptable or does not conform to the Met Police values, cases will not be proceeded with

-          Our decision in these cases is final and we will not engage in further communication"

You can find out whether they're lying about 'taking action' by asking them what they actually did. When they refuse to tell you, citing various GDPR excuses and claiming it's illegal to tell you (it obviously isn't because Northamptonshire police WILL tell you) then you know they either did nothing at all or sent out the worse-than-useless advice letter. When, as Lancashire has done, they're prepared to go to all the trouble and expense of following through the long FoI procedure, refusing at every step, you REALLY know they did nothing at all and are trying to cover it up

Are you seriously suggesting that motorists apply even a modacum of logic or balance to their hatred for cyclists. 

mctrials23 wrote:

Are you seriously suggesting that motorists apply even a modacum of logic or balance to their hatred for cyclists. 

GPWM

Surreyrider wrote:

If only they did the same for drivers...

...because I see a lot more of them going through red lights daily.

REALLY?   I see loads of cyclists going through red lights everyday.

Fact is a subset of RLJ cyclsits and car drivers will only be caught when the resource strained cops have time or inclination to do this.

This isnt playground tit for tat - grow the fuck up.

Sitting at the front of the traffic lights on a bicycle you can often see the lights for the other directions that you would not see in a car. On my 50km daily commute I typically see 10-15 cars rush through lights at high speed just after they have turned red. There are not many bicycles on my route so I will only see 2 or 3 cyclists cautiously go through a red.

neilmck wrote:

Sitting at the front of the traffic lights on a bicycle you can often see the lights for the other directions that you would not see in a car. On my 50km daily commute I typically see 10-15 cars rush through lights at high speed just after they have turned red. There are not many bicycles on my route so I will only see 2 or 3 cyclists cautiously go through a red.

That's how it used to work in Madrid for the cars, see the opposing light on red and off we go. 

How many have you seen posted on Social media with cars ? The police don't handle this well in any way .Wether it's cars or bikes. This is a not to the cyclist haters by the pigs, it's a look at us .Happy to be corrected if they advertise it the same with cars ,but I won't hold my breath

I see a car go through a red light at almost every single cycle at every single junction.

Of course you have to remember that amber means the same as red, ie stop. Sometimes it's just one, they'll see the light turn to amber and think it's too late to stop so carry on, but then often another one will follow them putting their foot down before it hits red, but then another one will follow putting his foot down and getting through it just as it turns red, and then there's another one who gets through just before the other lights turn green.

If they think they'll get away with it, they'll do it.

There's no need for foul language.

Are you Nigel? 

In other countries they have realised that it is silly enforcing irrelevant laws. Most people when on a bicycle realise that it is reasonable to treat a red light as give-way/stop in the same way as nearly everybody treats a red man light as give-way when they are not sitting on a bicycle. There is the Ioha Stop law that implents red lights as stop signs for cyclists and here in France we have give-way signs on traffic-light poles telling cyclists which directions they can treat as give-way if the light is red (often it is just right, but quite often straight-on as well and sometimes all directions).

Or ... they just fix it so cyclists can cycle "past" some red lights in complete safety.  Or the lights are "smarter" and rules slightly different so they don't have to wait as long.  Or make it so cyclists encounter far fewer lights in the first place.

Traffic lights are really for motor vehicles (or because motor vehicles).  But where they're really necessary (see above - eventually mostly only for motorists) I'm in favour of the rules being really clear and cut-and-dried e.g. red (and red and yellow, people...) = stop, in all circumstances.  (Despite the Dutch doing a bit of "free right turn for cyclists"...)

It's then up to people (and enforcement) whether they comply but I think there should just be one clear rule.

Any chance you could precis that into a couple of sentences so that I can be bothered to read it?

panda wrote:

As I type that, I wonder whether the prevalence of the behaviour means there is now a buffer built in?  Hmm.

Flame away.

It may be built in at some junctions, but my obervations (mainly in Scotland) where lights have been installed on roundabouts, this is certainly not the case. there is virtually no dead spot between one green and theother, amber gamblers are normally very close to a collision.

There's a built in buffer in my head now, as I have learned to expect there to be vehicles still crossing (or even preparing to do so) when the light turns green for me...

I think they might have.  I was half asleep when I scrolled through my phone last night and came across the video of the two cyclist at the crossing, posted next to a video of a close passing driver and I think the inference was the latter is worse.  The comments though (I should not read the comments ) were just as vile, typically pointing out that it was ok for the driver to do the dangerous manouvre as they could be caught due to their licence plate, etc

I've checked on Facebook and stopping the red light running cyclists was simply revenue raising and police time is better spent chasing real criminals...as to the cyclist on the footpath had his vehicle got a registration plate it would have been easy for the police to check if had responsibility for a string of pedestrian murders...typical police chasing down people who for all we know have an untarnished record and the heat of the moment and a concern for the environment meant slowing down wasn't an option

HoarseMann wrote:

...Yes, it's illegal...

To be exact, it's illegal in UK, both of the these two actions are legal in other places in the world, especially pavement riding.