[mattw]

Has anyone read this book from the Łukasz Marek Sielski, who runs the twitter account PhoneKills. It’s a journey through the history of camera cyclists – a lot of interviews, with thoughtful observations along the way.

I’ve just read the sample portion, and is very well written and extremely thoughtful.

On those slightly obscure subjects I where I have followed rabbitholes, he seems to get the detail right.

The Kindle version on Amazon is here, where there’s a sample couple of chapters:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D6DP9KHX

Recommended.

Topic

[KentRider]

It was stated by Kent Police

It was stated by Kent Police in an email reply to me in response to an enquiry I had made about how reports were being handled.

[mattw]

Thanks for the responses.

Thanks for the responses.

Politically the new Transport Minister is interested in cycling / wheeling / walking, and they are also talking about a review of road safety.

Do we keep talking to PCCs,Mayors, MPs and asking for Op SNAP everywhere and common policies.

[bikes]

What a shameful policy! I
What a shameful policy! I assume this is just something you have managed to figure out, rather than a policy they have published somewhere?

[andystow]

KentRider wrote:

I haven’t found a way to describe a close pass that prompts action.

Maybe casually mention in your detailed description that there was also an attractive woman walking on the pavement.

[KentRider]

Yes, Kent Police’s backwards

Yes, Kent Police’s backwards step is very demoralising. They switched off the video upload feature about two and half years ago, so you must have just squeezed in with your last one.

Their policy since then has been that, unless you state in your report that there was contact, they won’t follow up with a request for the video. So, they are essentially saying that it doesn’t matter to them how poor the driving was if contact did not occur – they have no desire to assess the video evidence. Of course, we all know that it could have been entirely down to the cyclist’s skill, or pure luck, that a collision was avoided, rather than the absence of a collision indicating that the driving was not careless/dangerous. But Kent Police don’t give themselves the opportunity to assess visually what happened.

I haven’t found a way to describe a close pass that prompts action. The only request for video I’ve had since early 2022 has been when an object (a pen) was thrown at me from the car after the close pass. This was treated as assault and taken far more seriously as a result (though ultimately led nowhere as apparently the registration plates had been cloned), even though the pen posed considerably less threat to my safety than the close pass.

[mattw]

Thank-you.

Thank-you.

Can you be sure to put a review on Amazon when you have read it, as it is self-published and the message needs to get out.

I think it’s a really good narrative of the detail of history known only to nerds, and he highlights some aspects of opportunity we have here which are not done elsewhere – such as inherent right to use the road and policing by consent via Peelian principles. Plus that we have an unusually poisonous road culture for Western Europe; there is value in an international perspective as a foil to our sometimes inward looking view.

I think the especially important aspects are around what causes change, and to acknowledge the mental toll on those who take up this issue, plus thanking them for taking point. And that the history debunks false narratives around “attention seeking”, “vigilantes” and “creating conflict”, which narratives bleed into the wider discussion from the the troll-chorus in social media and some mainstream media.

Personally I’m dropping reviews in local cycling Facebook groups I am in, as these are places it should bea a good read.

[mattw]

I think that’s a reasonable

I think that’s a reasonable comment. But we can also celebrate how far we have come in a fairly short time on this.

I suggest that the first year or so of the new administration, and especially the reba;ance of PCCs and Mayors, can potentially set the line for the next decade.

So we need to be working on lobbying for stronger national practices, and expected standards to be set, resourced and institutionalised.

[tigersnapper]

And some Forces are going

And some Forces are going backwards.  I made a report to Kent Police a couple of years back from a dashcam and it was the usual 2 mins before, 2 mins after.  Having not made a report since I made my 2nd about 3 weeks ago having had a lorry driver drive pretty much straight at me on my bike and Kent Police now have you submit a written description of the incident and they’ll contact you if they want video to follow up!  What happened to a picture being worth a 1000 words?

[Eton Rifle]

Thanks for the heads up. Just
Thanks for the heads up. Just bought on Kindle. Well-written and informative. I’ve been running cameras since a road rage incident a few years ago.

[stonojnr]

2012 ? I thought it would

2012 ? I thought it would have been much earlier than that for some reason. Obviously in certain places weve come along way, but in others it still feels like we’re only just starting that journey

twelve years and theres only a partially adopted standard portal (that Scotland still refuse to use), no unified way for the police to handle/deal with the reports across different forces (postcode lottery),  or update on reports progress, or produce stats without constant FOI requests.

[mattw]

My copy arrived yesterday.

My copy arrived yesterday.

If you do Kindle I’d suggest that version. The design of my paperback copy is not quite up to the beautiful design of some cycling books.

It shows how far we have come – the first conviction for a 3rd party report of a traffic offence was August 2012 by Cyclegaz near the Oval – afaics the first inkling of cammers being treated as witnesses not victims, which became the critical resource-saving insight behind Operation SNAP. How far we’ve some since then in many places !

There’s also an insightful little story from Anne Ramsay (Cycle Granny, also a professional bus driver at one time) about how a London Bus Driver breezed into Belfast for his new job, and went back to London at record speed once his bus was hijacked and blown up.

It is also good on documenting the mental stress that can come with this type of  campaigning, and on the stories of people like Andy Cox.
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