Self righteous cameramen

[rick99]

I know lots of people wear a GoPro for protection. As evidence of dangerous interactions with others.
There are some, however, who seem to think they've discovered s missed opportunity to be a traffic cop. Or maybe they're harking back to their days as library monitor .
I don't want to be moralised by some self satisfied prig with a camera for minor traffic infringements that make absolutely no difference to the cameraman at all and are not dangerous.
These guys have obviously been bursting to tell people off as primary school teachers and finally have 'back up'.[inappropriate term removed]


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[mercalia]

report in the rant thread of the tea shop

[ChrisOntLancs]

when i used one i advertised it. it was preventative, i didn't EVER want to use it. i stopped, because it's one less camera pointed at us, and we're all that little bit freer to pick our nose in public or something.

i see a lot of footage recorded on here and often i hope the rider is contacting the police. there's actually one going on at the moment and i really hope the rider gets some sort of recourse.

i have seen several videos where the cyclists in the wrong though, or videos where the cyclist abandons all respect for safety just to catch up with the guy... as if it would make a difference..... or the cyclist misses the green light because they're too busy giving the evils. i'm not going to pretend i'm better than that, there just aren't any videos of me doing it on youtube

[Cyril Haearn]

I know lots of people wear a GoPro for protection. As evidence of dangerous interactions with others.
There are some, however, who seem to think they've discovered s missed opportunity to be a traffic cop. Or maybe they're harking back to their days as library monitor .
I don't want to be moralised by some self satisfied prig with a camera for minor traffic infringements that make absolutely no difference to the cameraman at all and are not dangerous.
These guys have obviously been bursting to tell people off as primary school teachers and finally have 'back up'.


It's a composting toilet -> my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

What do you mean by *minor traffic infringements*?

[rick99]

For example . Stopping at a red. There's no one around. No pedestrians. No cars. Getting bored and turning left through it before it turns green. One guy with his gestapo camera starts telling you off. It's pathetic. I've been commuting by bike for 30 years. I don't have crashes. I don't habitually run red lights, but sometimes ... well. The light's in the wrong.



I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[rick99]

when i used one i advertised it. it was preventative, i didn't EVER want to use it. i stopped, because it's one less camera pointed at us, and we're all that little bit freer to pick our nose in public or something.

i see a lot of footage recorded on here and often i hope the rider is contacting the police. there's actually one going on at the moment and i really hope the rider gets some sort of recourse.

i have seen several videos where the cyclists in the wrong though, or videos where the cyclist abandons all respect for safety just to catch up with the guy... as if it would make a difference..... or the cyclist misses the green light because they're too busy giving the evils. i'm not going to pretend i'm better than that, there just aren't any videos of me doing it on youtube

Hear hear on the 'freer' front.
I'm coming at it from a 'mind your own business' point of view. If you want to enforce 'the rules' on others when it hasn't made even a tiny difference to you or anyone else , then join the police. You'll get taught about proportionality there too.


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[BakfietsUK]

Frustrating as it is to be told by the traffic system to wait when I have to, I do.

Cameras are a witness to potentially serious public order incidents, like road rage or the like. Showing the Police every single instance of carelessness would render me totally brain dead after a very short time. However, I would be jolly glad to have the footage, if I was assaulted by somebody.

Alright, I get bored with having to wait a traffic lights too rick99 and I sympathise with you. The point is that this, as you would say presumably, "minor traffic infringement" is not really minor if your on the spot calculations are in error. I don't mean getting caught, I mean that vehicle you have not yet seen who happens to be rushing to get through the junction before the lights change. It could be the person on foot who you have not seen yet crossing the road on their right of way.

When you go down this road, so to speak you automatically open yourself up to danger and criticism.

Some might say that these are also "minor traffic infringements"

Close passes
Turning left after overtaking
25 in a 20 limit
Parking on a pedestrian crossing

These could as well be trivialised by the offenders, but the victims in the case of something "going wrong" may be us or me.

[Audax67]

Re "minor traffic infringements": I'm all in favour. For a driver in France, putting two wheels across the white median line takes two points off his licence.** Four wheels loses you four points. Yet motorists will regularly go over the line to spare a cyclist a close pass.

** In France you start with 12 and lose them for offences. Dunno how it works in the UK.

[rick99]

Frustrating as it is to be told by the traffic system to wait when I have to, I do.

Cameras are a witness to potentially serious public order incidents, like road rage or the like. Showing the Police every single instance of carelessness would render me totally brain dead after a very short time. However, I would be jolly glad to have the footage, if I was assaulted by somebody.

Alright, I get bored with having to wait a traffic lights too rick99 and I sympathise with you. The point is that this, as you would say presumably, "minor traffic infringement" is not really minor if your on the spot calculations are in error. I don't mean getting caught, I mean that vehicle you have not yet seen who happens to be rushing to get through the junction before the lights change. It could be the person on foot who you have not seen yet crossing the road on their right of way.

When you go down this road, so to speak you automatically open yourself up to danger and criticism.

Some might say that these are also "minor traffic infringements"

Close passes
Turning left after overtaking
25 in a 20 limit
Parking on a pedestrian crossing

These could as well be trivialised by the offenders, but the victims in the case of something "going wrong" may be us or me.

Ok. So do you ever go over 70mph on the motorway ? I would estimate well over 50% of people do . And you know what? It's fine. The speed limit is too low on motorways. Everyone feels that and the law is an ass (and not enforced, within reason).
You can't argue that mindless following of all traffic laws is the only way to go.
You're allowed to turn left through reds in a car in the USA, which shows it's not 'mad'.Plus you are talking about motor vehicles where there is a lot more danger to other people.
If I get off my bike and push it round the corner you'd be totally happy ,right? In theory that is still against the law but not enforced.
As for errors, I would suggest that someone who knows he's not behaving perfectly will pay more care and attention than most. Certainly I do.
You have the same pedantic moralistic viewpoint as the people I'm talking about. It's ok that we see things differently. My point is that if I don't affect you or anyone else according to my 35 years of commuting experience and you start lecturing me, be prepared to be told where to go.


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[thirdcrank]

A point I've made umpteen times before:-

A police officer on patrol witnessing an offence can deal with it considerably more effectively at the time, than by investigating reports from the public. Put another way, sending in a video of something that can regularly be seen just about anywhere you look is potentially reducing the number of offenders being dealt with by a factor of at least ten. I say "potentially" because that level of enforcement of traffic offences is long gone. If the police increasingly "exercise discretion" over offences they witness, they are unlikely to act differently with reports from the public.

I can see a difference when the cameraman is on the receiving end of bad driving, although that's becoming academic.

[rick99]

Another example. Some junctions, according to me, are not safe. In particular it's not safe to hide in the gutter. They need a bike box. Sometimes there isn't one. In this case I stop my bicycle at overwhelmingly my own risk in front of the cars.
It's against the rules. I get the odd comment from a pedantic fool with a camera on his head but I am sure as hell going to keep doing it. It makes me less likely to end up under a truck.


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

[Tangled Metal]

My street has an on demand traffic light. It's part of a two sets of lights staggered junction with our street as the only on demand lights.

If wheeling your bike around the corner isn't legal and jumping the red light isn't then how am i as a cyclist supposed to leave my street? The bike doesn't trigger the lights.

BTW I would have thought walking the bike around the corner on the footway doesn't infringe any regulations or laws. However I'll let that go because it means that walking or riding around the corner is just as wrong so i might as well do it quicker on the bike and road.

BTW to get the lights working we need 2 bikes and a child trailer. Although I think the trailer is what triggers the lights to change.

[squeaker]

The bike doesn't trigger the lights.

In which case the lights are faulty. If you've complained to the Highway Authority and they've done nowt about it, then I'd agree with your chosen action - 'proceed with caution'.

[thirdcrank]

As a practical, rather than a legal point, if a set of traffic lights doesn't register the arrival of a cyclist then please report it, especially if you are local to the location. Although you may be fobbed off, it needs putting right and this can be done. IME, the authorities simply don't know that the fault exists. If motor traffic was being held up by the lights, they'd be getting reports immediately, but on many roads, the motor traffic masks the non-detection of cyclists, except for regular users, especially if they use the road at quiet times. Shift workers can be particularly affected by this. Also, be aware that the lights at a particular junction may be installed in a way that isn't cycle-friendly, although that is supposed to be receiving attention as and when work is done. There can be years before any upgrades are carried out. I'm not so determined a reporter of traffic lights as I used to be, so this may be a bit dated.

A standard traffic light system will have three sets of detectors under the road surface on the approaches and these can usually be seen as faint chevrons in the surface. Only the first ie the furthest from the signals will register an approaching vehicle and the other two will merely confirm the continuing approach of the vehicle. If a rider doesn't cross that first detector, eg by riding in the gutter or joining the road after the detector, nothing the rider does will get the lights to change. If there has been rectification or if the system is more recently installed, there will usually be something like a faint line in the road surface between the kerb and the chevron nearest the lights and that's a detector installed to recognise cyclists.

Some highwaymen - through ignorance or inertia - may say that the lights cannot be adjusted with sufficient sensitivity to detect a cyclist but I've been assured by technicians at the a large firm of installers that this is not so.

[rick99]

I mentioned wheeling as an anomaly that isn't enforced, however a google search of this subject indicates that if you wheel it on the road you are still a cyclist but if you start on the pavement you're not.... and that sometimes this has gone to court. How absurd. I've been enformed