Given a girly slap by a motorcyclist on the railway path.

[Spicy]

I was riding home Sunday evening, and a motorcyclist passed me on the Bristol-Bath railway path. As he passed he gave me a girly slap on the shoulder, then rode off.

[youtube]wQM9Qv6gDdQ[/youtube]

[eileithyia]

Please I do not understand having never come across the term before, what is a 'girly slap' not trying to be contentious or sexist here, just wondering what the difference is between a girly slap and a blokey one?

[thirdcrank]

Are you just sharing this or looking for advice?

[recumbentpanda]

Setting aside the sexist terminology, (let’s call a spade a bloody shovel here!) that footage, with a fairly clear licence plate visible should go straight to police please.

I photographed a scooter rider on the path at the Bath end, last holiday weekend, in broad daylight, and with the path very busy with Bank holiday pootlers. Unfortunately too distant to get licence plate.

[[XAP]Bob]

A slap has a high chance of causing an off, so that should go straight to the police.

[rmurphy195]

Setting aside the sexist terminology, (let’s call a spade a bloody shovel here!) that footage, with a fairly clear licence plate visible should go straight to police please.

Yup, PDQ so an NIP can be issued. They are riding on the path illegally, bike might be stolen, whatever. Plus the assault.

[Spicy]

Are you just sharing this or looking for advice?

Just sharing, and this has been raised to the police.

[thirdcrank]

I'd consider reporting this to the operators of the path. As this incident shows, motorcycles being ridden on routes of this kind are anti-social. Preventing this isn't easy and is behind all the access barriers which are a PITA to bona fide users. You have decent evidence. I see that the owners of this path include three local authorities who may have an interest in firm action here and may have a tad more influence than an individual rider.
http://www.bristolbathrailwaypath.org.u ... bout.shtml

[eileithyia]

Are you just sharing this or looking for advice?

Just sharing, and this has been raised to the police.

But you still haven't explained what a 'girly' slap is and how this differs from any other slap? Especially as I assume it was delivered by a bloke.

[Bmblbzzz]

Can't actually see the slap on the vid. The scooter is probably a charred mass by now anyway!

[brooksby]

There are motor scooters on the Bristol to Bath railway path all the time (day or night, in my experience) - the police would spend all their time on there if they seriously wanted to fix that problem.

Which leads back to those ridiculous A-frames which are used to (supposedly) block access to Sustrans paths for motor scooters, and which don't generally seem to work...

[mjr]

But you still haven't explained what a 'girly' slap is and how this differs from any other slap? Especially as I assume it was delivered by a bloke.

I took it to mean an open-hand slap drawn across the head, as stereotypically shown in Hollywood films when one woman slaps another, as opposed to a slap pushed into the head that men are often depicted doing to each other (including Gibbs in early NCIS). While "girly slap" is a bad name for it, I assume the OP was attempting to avoid the even more offensive name involving a term for a female dog. If you'd like to be even more offended, go search youtube for lots of videos named like that!

[eileithyia]

But you still haven't explained what a 'girly' slap is and how this differs from any other slap? Especially as I assume it was delivered by a bloke.

I took it to mean an open-hand slap drawn across the head, as stereotypically shown in Hollywood films when one woman slaps another, as opposed to a slap pushed into the head that men are often depicted doing to each other (including Gibbs in early NCIS). While "girly slap" is a bad name for it, I assume the OP was attempting to avoid the even more offensive name involving a term for a female dog. If you'd like to be even more offended, go search youtube for lots of videos named like that!

Not offended just unaware of the terminology having never heard it before..... and wanted clarification as to what was meant...

[Bmblbzzz]

There are motor scooters on the Bristol to Bath railway path all the time (day or night, in my experience) - the police would spend all their time on there if they seriously wanted to fix that problem.

And if they had the resources they'd like.

Which leads back to those ridiculous A-frames which are used to (supposedly) block access to Sustrans paths for motor scooters, and which don't generally seem to work...

And even worse IMO those step-shaped metal tube things at ground level.

[thirdcrank]

There are motor scooters on the Bristol to Bath railway path all the time (day or night, in my experience) - the police would spend all their time on there if they seriously wanted to fix that problem.

Which leads back to those ridiculous A-frames which are used to (supposedly) block access to Sustrans paths for motor scooters, and which don't generally seem to work...

I was only suggesting a possible way to turn this incident to the benefit of other users of this path.

Policing something like this isn't easy, especially with limited resources. I know that when the Spen Valley cycle route was opened, members of the police motorcycle unit, which had several scrambling motorbikes in its fleet, did voluntary unpaid overtime for a while which was said to be effective, but that was in a different era of policing.

Nowadays, unless some neighbourhood policing unit has this as an identified problem, it may not go far.

It may just be, however, that within the local authorities involved here, there are one or more councillors who would like something done and can address their concerns a bit higher up the chain. Also, we know the background to all the problems caused by this sort of behaviour, but others such as the CPS need that information to help with things like the public interest test. A submission from somebody like Sustrans about things like the cost of trying to prevent this anti-social behaviour will carry more weight than a report containing only the facts of the incident.

This incident includes both an "absolute" offence of driving on a cycle track, an alleged assault (albeit not the most serious) and the possibility of driving without reasonable consideration. It seems to me to fit four-square with the requirements for a s59 notice if the rider cannot be traced through the DVLA.

In these days of policing by social media, the news that some idiot had been stung, illustrated with the vid might deter a few. There's no magic formula.