Dame Sarah Storey, who earlier this month became Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian athlete, joined road policing officers in South Yorkshire last week for a close pass operation targeting drivers who overtake cyclists too closely.
Fresh from winning the 17th Paralympic gold medal of her career at Tokyo three weeks ago and wearing the rainbow jersey of para-cycling road world champion, Storey accompanied the operation on Friday afternoon on the A57 through her role as active travel commissioner for the Sheffield City Region.
> Dame Sarah Storey named Sheffield City Region’s first Active Travel Commissioner
It was carried out as part of last week’s Project EDWARD, with the acronym standing for European Day Without A Road Death, a Europe-wide initiative launched five years ago by the European Traffic Police Network and supported by the European Commission.
An account of the operation, carried out on Manchester Road from Rails Road up to Cutthroat Bridge, was posted to Strava by Inspector Kevin Smith of the Sheffield Northwest Neighbourhood Policing Team, who said that it was one of the roads they receive most complaints over.
“Two teams of cyclists were used, two on road bikes wearing road bike gear and looking, at least in one case, like an athlete,” he wrote. “The other pair were on our electrically assisted e-bikes.”
He outlined the specific issues related to the stretch of road chosen, which reflect a scenario we often see in submissions to our Near Miss of the Day feature.
“The A57 is a long climb with lots of double white lines due to some blind bends,” Inspector Smith said.
“It is often safer to cycle two abreast on these sections to reduce the temptation of some motorists to try and ‘squeeze’ the cyclist to the side of the road by overtaking on a blind bend and then pulling back left to avoid a head on collision with traffic the other way approaching at 50 miles per hour.
“Even when cycling solo, it is often safest to ride in primary position on these bends, to ensure that you are visible around the bends,” the officer said.
“Unfortunately, it was not the most stress-free afternoon of cycling, with lots of people apparently unable to overtake without the assistance of their horn (perhaps it is linked to a booster system?).
“Sarah’s Garmin radar detected 110 overtakes over the two laps we completed, and of those 110 overtakes, 20 were stopped for advice purposes, which is disappointing.
“Our other pair were also close passed a few times, taking the total to 25 vehicles stopped for advice purposes, and another five that we will catch up with through the post,” Inspector Smith said.
“In total 10 prosecutions for a range of offences from careless driving to contravening double white lines. It seems many drivers are unaware that if a cyclist is travelling at more than 10 miles per hour there is no loophole to allow them to overtake on double white lines, and we saw a depressing level of selfish and poor behaviour throughout the day.”
Referring to the rule which says, among other things, that cyclists “should never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends,” the inspector revealed, “We’ve already seen some ‘what about Highway Code rule 66’ whataboutism on twitter by people trying to justify close passes.
“My reply is that on this road, the only safe place to be to overtake is on the opposite side of the carriageway (it is a 50mph road), and if you need to be on the opposite side of the carriageway, it doesn’t matter how far into the road the cyclists are, if there’s no room on the opposite side of the road, there’s not enough room to overtake.”
Inspector Smith added: “As you can imagine, trying to keep up with a gold medallist also added a new level of difficulty to the affair (this was my second highest wattage 20 minutes of 2021. and trust me, I wasn’t planning on going all out), but it was good to show Dame [Sarah] Storey how we run close pass operations to try and educate road users, either by speaking to them at the side of the road, or by providing consequences to their poor driving choices.”
> Dame Sarah Storey to campaign for safer roads for cyclists on behalf of British Cycling
69 thoughts on “Dame Sarah Storey joins South Yorkshire Police on close pass operation – and almost one in five drivers get pulled over”
That’s an awful percentage –
That’s an awful percentage – shame on those drivers!
(And great job by the officers and Dame Sarah Storey)
It has been noticeable that
It has been noticeable that in the last few months driving standards have dropped significantly. More drivers now with less patience and prepared to risk the safety of others in order to save a few seconds.
The close pass operation the police conducted here will serve as a chilling reminder of how bad the problem is and on this evidence they can expect to be very busy on this issue alone.
sensei wrote:
It’s been absolutely startling and deeply worrying, virtually every day I’m getting texts from London cycling friends saying “what the hell is going on out there now?” Professional drivers particularly bad, I think maybe they got used to much emptier roads during the worst of the pandemic and now are frustrated that traffic is back to close to normal levels; couple that with the DM narrative of all traffic jams are the fault of cycle lanes not, you know, traffic and it makes for a lot of aggression, worst I’ve ever known it in forty years of cycling in London.
Rendel Harris wrote:
You would get close passes before the pandemic but the thing that has changed significantly for me is the level of impatience amongst driver increasing significantly. In addition, the amount of drivers not performing basic checks before manoeuvres as well. Lots of left hooks and a lot of horn beeping.
What I’m noticing is that
What I’m noticing is that cars and vans are giving me far more room but where they are choosing to overtake is nuts.
Bends, brows of hills etc and into oncoming traffic appears to be the new normal.
S13SFC wrote:
Agreed on this. I’ve found that on pretty much every occasion those overtaking on bends, brows of hills etc, are young drivers.
I was driving through the
I was driving through the Cotswolds with some friends in the car a couple of months ago and we came across 3 cyclists. I waited patiently behind.
One of my friends asked “aren’t you going to overtake?”. It was a NSL road with a brow of a hill about 50m away
mr_pickles2 wrote:
You mean you waited? Crazy dude….
Captain Badger wrote:
and amazingly the sky did not fall down, and the car did not even self destruct. Mr Pickles most likely arrived at his destination within a minute of the time he would have, by dangerously overtaking any cyclists he came across.
mr_pickles2 wrote:
I was recently criticised for being too cautious when driving, probably because I don’t break the speed limits, observe carefully before carrying out a manouvre and don’t overtake dangerously, especially cyclists.
It’s true; cyclists make the safest drivers.
eburtthebike wrote:
I’m the same. I was tailgated by some loon the other day when I was driving with my daughter. He tried to overtake me when passing under a narrow blind bridge, continued to TG up teh following road, (perfectly wide enough to o/take there- I was making probably about 25). He then decided to overtake when I encountered and slowed for 2 riders in x1 file, wait for it, on the approach to traffic lights. He o/took me, and immediately cut across to take the left turn filter and performed an emergency stop between the two riders.
Off he then sped with much revving and squealing of tyres. Interestingly I turned up 1 car behind him at a traffic lights 4 miles (and about 10 mins) later, in spite of the fact that he was speeding and I was my usual ~10% below.
I imagine his behaviour is my fault for going too slowly, in spite of the fact that on average we were going exactly the same speed between the 1st bridge and second lights. My blood pressure is lower though….
I’ve done a lot of miles by
I’ve done a lot of miles by bike over the last 18 months and noticed that the standard of driving is getting more polarised. Most are considerate and safe, almost to the point over over-caution in a few cases but the bad ones are getting worse.
Typical example would be a Lambo that passed me about a metre away on full noise in a 30 with no oncoming traffic. About 400m later he pulled into a drive so obviously I stopped for a word. He could not understand that his feeling that he’d given me enough space was incorrect. He was also reluctant to swap places so I could show him how wrong he was, even though I used to instruct on race circuits in Lambos!
I now drive a large delivery van, always at the speed limit and it’s depressing how many cars feel like you are holding them up and are either so close behind that I can’t see them in my mirrors or actually overtake just to wait at the next lights or pull into their work car park just up the road….
Im glad its not just me that
Im glad its not just me that’s noticed this, I thought I was being oversensitive.
Its not reserved for cyclists either, I’ve noticed a lot more horn blowing when I’m driving too.
FWIW whilst the EDWARD part
FWIW whilst the EDWARD part of Project EDWARD might be an acronym, it actually stands now for “Every Day Without A Road Death”, check out the official site https://projectedward.org/
but that aside, what is this Garmin radar detector they were using ? is this a hitherto unknown feature of my Garmin I wasnt aware of.
It’s probably the Garmin
It’s probably the Garmin Vario – which uses radar to alert cyclists about vehicles approaching from the rear and sounds alerts on a compatible garmin bike computer.
https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/698001
The radar is a Garmin Varia
The radar is a Garmin Varia and the feature to count the number of vehicles that overtake you is probably the third-party Connect IQ app “My Bike Radar Traffic” which installs on your Garmin watch or head unit. May only work on more modern head units with recent version of Connect IQ.
The interesting thing about
The interesting thing about My Bike Radar Traffic is that it also records the speed of traffic overtaking you.
Creakingcrank wrote:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/05/varia-radar-maps-connect-app.html
Good write up from DCR. It also appears you can sync it with a video file. Might be useful additional submission for close passes – perhaps even to shame those forces that ignore our video submissions or apply the “only a witness” rule unjustifiably.
Now if only other head units could support it.
Secret_squirrel wrote:
I believe Wahoo units do. Though, of course, Garmin aren’t going to tell you that.
I’ve got the Garmin Varia
I’ve got the Garmin Varia RTL515 which is a great piece of kit. It does an excellent job of tracking approaching cars that you might otherwise be unaware of. Definitely worth it’s cost and it’s a decent rear light as well.
It looks interesting for sure
It looks interesting for sure but I dont know what use I’d find for it, I’d wondered if it was just capable of recognising close passes so you could use it as data to prove you arent going insane & maybe lobby decision makers with.
plus it’s another several hundred pound bit of tech,that you have to keep charged up,to the point the tech keeping me ‘safe’ just to ride a bike starts outweighing the cost of the bike itself.
I thought it provided some
I thought it provided some really interesting data – like the fact that one car approached us at 100kph which is 20 above the limit and crazy speeds for that road.
that’s not something I would have picked up on as I usually face forward when riding.
However, it is something I can’t afford so I don’t think it will be a regular feature. It was good to figure out the % of close passes though.
There are two groups of
There are two groups of people: those who own a Varia radar and those who haven’t had a chance to ride with one yet.
Sadly they dont let you trial
Sadly they dont let you trial before you buy though and the cost to buy & upgrade to a compatible head unit is just too much for me.
Especially when the benefit of using it feels quite limited, if I was that concerned about what was behind me whilst riding,I could get a handlebar mirror for a fraction of the cost.
Awavey wrote:
I never thought I would disgrace my bike with a mirror. Then I bought one for a mate – but as a bar end mirror it proved unsuitable for their straight bars – so I thought “why not” and stuck it on my drops. It’s still there now, bestest cheapest thing I ever got!
Same here (except not buying
Same here (except not buying it for a mate).
hirsute wrote:
Yup – I can still say, in all honesty, hand on heart, I never bought myself a bicycle mirror. Although I did buy it, and it is fitted to my bike! Love it too.
I’m deeply ashamed to admit
I’m deeply ashamed to admit buying more than one as I tried to find one that is easily adjustable and stays where you put it. They’re great once you get used to using them as you can keep aware of anything approaching from the rear and up your pace if it’s another cyclist so they don’t catch you (except when they do).
A couple of comments on here
A couple of comments on here I agree with from S13sfc, I have noticed exactly the same. Good to have the extra space but can’t believe where they overtake. And from Remodel, I was in London last weekend walking and in a couple of taxis and buses. I could not believe the shocking standard of driving, cycling even scooting . Regular jumping of red lights by all transport, pushing in when no right of way etc. Had my eyes closed or holding my breath a lot of the time. Can’t believe there are not more casualties.
Relief to get home to Edinburgh where roads I previously thought were busy now seem deserted.
Remodel? I certainly should
Remodel? I certainly should be remodelled….yes London is mad at the moment. Had a jaunt down to Brighton last week and felt sooo relaxed, this is why I ride…until I hit Croydon and it was here we go again…
London’s my birthplace and home and I love it dearly, but I shouldn’t have (as a freelance from home) to escort Mrs H most days on her commute because I’m scared of something happening to her (she’s a great rider but I’ve been made paranoid).
Great work.
Great work.
Admin, ffs sort out the 97%
Admin, ffs sort out the 97% page covering adverts.
At last a police scheme which
At last a police scheme which catches the majority of drivers who put cyclists’ lives at risk. I’m not convinced it is as low as 20% but it’s a start.
At last some real life police
At last some real life police data, that confirms what virtually all riders have been saying for years. There is a huge proportion of drivers who dont know how to overtake a vulnerable road user safely, with planety of space
I bet the actual close pass
I bet the actual close pass was much higher but they only stopped a certain amount they could, or were deemed a real issue.
as others have said – welcome to the world we’ve been talking about for decades Police Force UK
also, if 1 in 5 drivers ran red lights and ignored give way, stop signs, or front seatbelts – there would be a national outcry and campaign and new laws and punishement for them….but for us cyclists, lets just give them a pointer as to what to do and they can be on thier way.
a_to_the_j wrote:
IF????
Edit: PS, I agree with your post 100%
Captain Badger wrote:
They forgot drug driving, drink driving, and mobile phone use while at the wheel. All of that together probably pushes it up to 3 in 5 drivers, IMO.
brooksby wrote:
Add speeding, especially in residential areas and 20 limits, and you’ll have a full house all but.
Captain Badger wrote:
I wonder if we should count pavement parking / pavement driving, too?
brooksby wrote:
IF????
[/quote]
They forgot drug driving, drink driving, and mobile phone use while at the wheel. All of that together probably pushes it up to 3 in 5 drivers, IMO.
[/quote]
Add speeding, especially in residential areas and 20 limits, and you’ll have a full house all but.
[/quote]
I wonder if we should count pavement parking / pavement driving, too?
[/quote]
All of these crimes are chronic on the road, which demonstrates two things; the chances of being caught are too low, as are the penalties. As well as having segregated infrastructure, we need to dramatically raise the chances of being caught, and have much more realistic penalties for the crimes.
You know I hate getting political, but this is what the endless tory austerity policy has done to policing and the detection and prosecution of crimes. A decimated, demoralised police force, given conflicting, confusing priorites by the politicians, isn’t going to spend much time on road crime, one off schemes like this notwithstanding. We need to fund road policing properly, with properly trained officers dedicated to their task who are really interested in protecting the vulnerable.
The penalties for road crime are insignificant and are no deterrent, especially when you can repeat the crime endlessly and claim hardship. The points system is clearly not working and is not fit for purpose. For a first offence, the penalty should be a fine, dependent on the severity of the crime i.e. £x/mph over the limit, and means tested, so that the Ferrari driver pays proportionately the same as the Ford driver. For a second offence, the car should be confiscated for a month, with no allowances for hardship.
Please note that I didn’t mention the review of road law even once!
eburtthebike wrote:
Weirdly, I think the points system makes a lot of sense, and is fit for purpose – it just needs to be applied. Any system which isn’t applied consistently won’t work, so I don’t believe that there is necessarily any benefit in changing in this case.
The key thing is enthusiasm. It is true that austerity has had a detrimental effect on public services (like you, I shun getting political, so won’t even mention how unnecessary, vicious, vindictive and despicable it is), but there are some forces with units, and many officers, that strive to be effective but are let down by either their superiors or the wider CJS
The points system is very straightforward, which is its advantage when applied. However a magistrate who is likely to be mugged off (willfully or otherwise) by a hardship claim is unlikely to apply any system effectively.
The simplest thing would be to see that adding points (and subsequent disqualification) is a public safety mitigation, not a punishment and therefore not related to personal circumstance. Punishments (fines unpaid work, reparation, jail) may applied in parallel and can be varied for circumstance, remorse etc.
I’m in agreement that fines should be means-tested – attached to tax code would be a simple solution – however temporary removal of vehicles is cumbersome and expensive, and, for a rich individual at least, easily got round by renting/buying another.
Stick with what we’ve got, just facking apply it
eburtthebike wrote:
Penalties are irrelevant. No one thinks they will be caught (and mostly they are right). If you think high penalties are the answer check the number of crimes attracting the death penalty in victorian times. Didn’t stop them.
If there was 100% (or even 50%) detection a £50 fine would be sufficient to stop all motoring offences.
a_to_the_j wrote:
Not at all. In fact some of the stops were for relatively minor infringements like sounding a horn to express displeasure. Some people managed to make perfectly safe overtakes but managed to get themselves pulled over for hitting the horn out of frustration.
These drivers tended to get a talking to. One of them told my sergeant “I’ve been driving since before you were born and I don’t think cyclists should be allowed to ride two abreast”. When my deceptively youthful looking sergeant replied “and was that the last time you read the Highway Code” the chap got the message and ceased his poorly researched homily.
There was no evidence that any of the other drivers were whacked out on goof balls and we would have had them stopped if their driving was clearly poor. The 1 in 5 on this road I put down largely to ignorance of how to overtake and poor attitudes towards cyclists.
also – I do think 1 in 5 drivers do seem to be not great at obeying the law which is why my team do a LOT of traffic enforcement as it is a priority for our policing area. I don’t think there’s a national outcry about it because people just see other people’s behaviour as the problem. What’s that statistic – 90% of people think their driving standard is above average?
anyway I’m on Twitter @sheffnw_npt if people have other comments/ suggestions.
Thank you and keep up the
Thank you and keep up the good work.
Thanks very much for coming
Thanks very much for coming on here and explaining.
Inspector Kevin Smith SYP
I think there is not a national outcry about it because drivers cannot point at all drivers as being bad, they do not want to vilify a group they belong to.
True. If you’re in the “In
True. If you’re in the “In group” of “drivers” the “out group” of cyclists are obviously the problem. Ignoring the fact that many cyclists also own cars or drive.
also if you do any enforcement you’re suddenly “punishing the innocent motorist” instead of doing whatever other task it is that the outraged person has a bee in their bonnet about. Usually “what about pedos” (sic.)
Inspector Kevin, you talk a
Inspector Kevin, you talk a lot of sense. Do you fancy moving to Surrey?! Or maybe getting yourself promoted to a senior police job involved in national road safety for all with a focus on cycling?
Inspector Kevin Smith SYP
I’m nursing an image of your sergeant delivering “words of advice” like a drill sergeant.
Personally, I think people pass too closely because:
and hostility towards cyclists in those situtions persists because drivers are allowed to maintain the belief that cyclists are guests on the road.
We should be pushing for regular training – a set number of accredited training hours per 5 years for their (that is, our) licences to be maintained. A shortfall will result in a no-fault suspension of the licence until the hours are registered.
As others have said, Inspector Smith, thank you for what you do on the roads and for coming on here and sharing your work with us.
Dame Storey suggested the
Dame Storey suggested the possibility of a mandatory requirement for cycling hours before issuing a full driving licence. I think there’s something in that. Especially for “professional drivers” like buses, taxis, HGVs.
Even standing in the pavement when a vehicle guns past at 60 is scary as hell (and that’s without being buffeted on a wobbly velocipede) so some empathy building would be a useful educational tool.
Inspector Kevin Smith SYP
I saw a bus driver training college in Mexico(?) did just that. The lined up the trainees on exercise bikes, got them pedaling, then drove a bus past them to show what it felt like. Think it was a great idea.
Firstly thanks! Second – I
Firstly thanks! Second – I think practice makes habit, so while adding in a “riding a bike” component to driver training might be helpful we know that having done a driving test or read the highway code doesn’t have much bearing on how people drive in the years after that.
I think you do get an “empathy” effect if a much greater fraction of drivers either regularly spend time on a bike* themselves or have nears and dears who do.
* On / near the roads, not just “I ride the trails all the time” or “we always cycle at Butlins”.
Inspector Kevin Smith SYP
To some extent that already exists for HGV/PCV CPC: in Greater Manchester, CPC-certified cycle awareness training is available for free for anybody who lives, or works* in Greater Manchester with a driving licence. When some courses cost a packet, why would any driver or fleet manager not make sure they did that course?
(* and if you drive through in an artic, you’re working, right?!)
What needs to happen is extending that as a requirement to all drivers.
Inspector Kevin Smith SYP
Thanks for your efforts, and returning to post here. As ever enlightening
Thanks for your efforts, and
Thanks for your efforts, and returning to post here. As ever enlightening
Excellent point! My relentless attacks on the police reflect my local situation. It appears that things are different in South Yorkshire. I recall my first reading of something by Inspector K when I thought he might not be genuine-I was wrong and he has given us a good account of the Good Cops.
Great initiative, and chapeau
Great initiative, and chapeau to the officers on the road bikes who managed to keep up with Dame Sarah!
I can sort of forgive a close pass as ‘just’ bad driving, but accompanied with a horn blow should be an instant three-pointer and fine due to its evident wilfulness.
I have to agree with others;
I have to agree with others; the standard of driving really has nosedived. And the impatience is quite shocking; whether I’m cycling or in the car, people wanting you to turn from a side road into a busy main road….revving the car/moving barely cms from your rear.
Too many cars, too many distracted drivers, etc
Quite agree with you. It’s
Quite agree with you. It’s the levels of impatience that I find absolutely outstanding at the moment. I’ve cycled about 35 miles today and had to give the universal sign of displeasure to three different drivers. All of them couldn’t be bothered to sacrifice a second or two from their very important journeys and just felt it was better to put my life at risk.
johndevs wrote:
You mean… a particularly hard stare?
Captain Badger wrote:
You carry marmalade sandwiches in your saddle pack, don’t you 😉
brooksby wrote:
Not in my saddle pack. Cycle helmets are useful for some things you know…..
It seems many drivers are
It seems many drivers are unaware that if a cyclist is travelling at more than 10 miles per hour there is no loophole to allow them to overtake on double white lines
Lancashire Constabulary is equally ‘unaware’ of this, so up here there is indeed a permanent ‘loophole’ for this offence. I doubt if LC has ever successfully prosecuted anyone for crossing single or double white lines while overtaking a cyclist – I have such a prosecution supposedly going on right now, but LC is doing its best to sabotage it. There will be details when it is over! Actually, all of these drivers and LC are aware of this because unbroken white lines are not a very difficult concept even for Mail-reading BMW driving nutters, but they don’t care. Someone claims penalties are irrelevant- they aren’t. Word of a few doses of the meagre 3 licence points would spread like Covid through Scousers at a football match.
wtjs wrote:
They are only relevant when they are applied. When drivers are not caught, not prosecuted, or not convicted the potential penalty has no bearing on driver behavoir.
When drivers are not caught,
When drivers are not caught, not prosecuted, or not convicted the potential penalty has no bearing on driver behaviour
This is a trivial argument which misses the point. It is obvious that deterrence requires the entire system to work, but because of police resistance to any form of real action it clearly doesn’t. Well, they are caught, aren’t prosecuted and are given pretend penalties- there are several layers of pretend penalties lovingly prescribed by the idle constabulary: from the indescribably joke ‘educational information without any warning letter’ (apparently created by The Masters of Inaction here in Lancashire- I haven’t seen it described by victims elsewhere) to the joke online driving course, these penalties are useless and are laughed off by your standard BMW psychopath. Lancashire won’t even respond to this- if Inspector Kevin tried any of this ‘close pass operation’ stuff up here, (and good luck to him, at least somewhere is in with a chance) with or without a worthy cycling celebrity, his feet wouldn’t touch…
wtjs wrote:
I think this is exactly my point
It doesn’t matter whether the law defines the penalty for endangering cyclists as a “paddington bear stare” or loss of a hand.
Drivers are generally not caught, and when they are the police do not often prosecute.
When they do prosecute the drivers are normally acquited by juries of drivers, or car sympathetic magistrates, which probably explains the lack of prosecution.
So as a driver is incredibly unlikely to face any sanction for their actions, the severity of the penalty does not come into play. If EVERY motoring transgression was detected, it would like only need a £50 fine to stamp out the vast majority of offending as drivers would know they would be caught, and would not consider £50 good value for the offence they are about to commit.
When I refer to penalties, I am not referring to the closing of a case by issuing of a warning letter. As this is clearly failure to prosecute, and not insuficiently severe penalty.
FFS; a visit Malta ad that
FFS; a visit Malta ad that covered all but a line of the site and didn’t go away until I refreshed. Come on admin, some of us subscribers are getting restive.
adblock addin ftw?
adblock addin ftw?
eburtthebike wrote:
If an add follows you down the page the site owner needs special permission from google (owns most of the ad providing software) and the site owner can be reported for it.
Is that 20 that close passed
Is that 20 that close passed the cyclists in lycra and 5 that close passed the casual ebikes? If so it suggests intentional intimidation rather than an ‘honest mistake guv, wont do it again’