“That test is seriously flawed”: Met Police e-bike stop checks praised for speed but criticised by cyclists for lack of rigour + more on the live blog
Not the hardest test in the world...
“Ever wondered what happens during a London Met Police eBike stop? Wonder no more,” this Reddit poster writes.
Much has been happening with the Met in recent weeks and months that we’ve taken quite an interest in, be it their response to Richmond Park bikejackings, their roll-out of Sur-Ron electric motorbikes, or their rather indifferent attitude to hit-and-runs on cyclists…
It’s the e-bikes that are continuing to hold attention however, not least since there is great scepticism around if even the police know whether a bike is legal or not. After all, who remembers when West Midlands Police destroyed a legal e-bike hired through the local council, causing the force to announce it would stop and re-design its testing for illegal bikes?
So what have we got here? Captured near Tottenham Court Road, the footage shows our cyclist riding past a courier who looks, from a brief cursory look at the battery attached to his frame, to be riding an illegal bike, before our own cyclist is stopped by an officer at the junction ahead.
eBike Police Stop today near TCR
by
u/Jeff46K4 in
londoncycling
“Is it a push button one or is it pedal assisted?”
“It’s pedal assisted.”
“Can we jump round the corner and have a quick test? Hopefully it won’t take too long”
“It’s fully legal.”
“Yeah, well, as you can imagine recently, [unintelligible] so we’ve just got to check everything’s ok.”
What follows is around 20 seconds of the officer struggling before the rider puts out the kickstand, before he then half pedals the bike and watches the front wheel spin freely for a second or two before handing the bike back, and declaring it “all good.” The entire interaction is done in less than a minute.
Fellow cyclists are appreciative of the test, but there’s some questions over to the science behind the system…
“That testing of lifting the wheel and hand pedalling and then observing the speedo is seriously flawed. Who the heck thought that one up? In the OP video it looks like the officer does the same test but he does a half-hearted few turns, so rider was lucky.”
“I thought they were using rolling roads now for the testing. It’s easy to get any bike, even one with no motor, over 25kph by just spinning the wheel with no load. In this video it looks more like the police officer just trusted the guy and didn’t really bother checking anything except that he couldn’t find a throttle.”
“Nice enough policeman but aren’t the criminals they’re looking for just going to skirt around them? Feel like this is just another thing slowing the average person down for no reason.”
“This is a piss poor test. This doesn’t disprove whether the bike is push/throttle enabled nor does it do anything to check whether the motor is under the legal limit of 250W”
Right idea, but you suspect the execution needs a little refining…
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@Rendel Harris Yet she then appears to talk about future measures: "Alternatively, surrounding plants and trees near a cycle lane could also improve the quality of air, whilst physical separation preventing cyclists riding in the same lane as polluting vehicles would also be beneficial.". What about increasing the size of the existing LEZ? More feasible than planting trees near as-yet unbuilt cycle lanes.
@Pub bike To be fair to the good professor, I'm sure as an expert in vascular medicine she would like nothing better than to eliminate pollution but she is offering her advice on how to deal with the situation as it is rather than as we, and doubtless she, think it should be.
@Pub bike Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee already have Low Emission Zones. They probably help a bit, especially for the sort of particulates that a mask could actually help with. But there is definitely room for improvement too - if your vehicle is compliant (most cars/vans from the past 10 to 20 years) then you can just drive in with no restrictions or charges.
@mdavidford Agreed. The comment was to make them see how unrealistic their suggestion is.
@RayG This is the wrong solution - if the problem is the nose, remove the nose.
Bloody vigilante HGVs, persecuting hardworking motorists - bet they don't even pay road ta... wait, what? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6x2zpdmnxkeo
Congrats on writing some bullsh#t ragebait road.cc team. The councillor was asked why revenues were lower than forecast and he answered the question. There as no outrage or seeking to pass blame. They forecast a level of income and then it turned out that raising the price of parking and encouraging walking and cycling did what it was meant to do. This is Daily Mail level trash.
I had one of the masks in the lead photo in the 90s. Neoprene, with a filter insert and a one way valve. Far too sweaty for summers down here and impossible to properly seal around the nose, so glasses would fog up. Maybe the authors could be asked to recommend masks that are suitable for this use.
"For example, how many rainbow jerseys would Anquetil, Hinault, or Induráin have won if the discipline had existed in their pomp?" Before the world TT championship existed, the GP Des Nations was regarded as the unofficial world championship. Anquetil won that six times in a row and nine times in all, so there's a bit of a way to go for anyone to match that record...
@eburtthebike You're just not folding and unfolding them vigorously enough.