Has anyone measured passing distance?

[1982john]

Just curious if anyone has made a sensor that can measure the passing distance.

I would love to see some data on this and the speed of the overtake.

[PT1029]

Yes, I forget the technology, it was a sideways (RH side) pointing sensor on his bike that measured the distance given (or not) by a passing vehicle.
I think it was a Bristol(?) academic who used it on his commute to work. He did it +/- a helmet and +/- a pony tail to suggest a female rider.
If my memory is correct, the helmet resulted in closer passes, the female wig or what ever it was resulted in more generous passes (of the driving sort of pass...just for clarification!).
It was a few years back, but I don't recall any other details.
I don't recall it measuring the speed of the overtaking.

[mjr]

Yes, see www.DrIanWalker.com

[scarletnut]

There was another thread about an Australian study where they found 1 in every 17 vehicles close passed. I asked on that thread about where the sensor technology was since I am part of a Welsh cycle campaign group trying to get hold of such a device!
Looks like this guy in Bath is the go to man!! Cheers

[The utility cyclist]

what's the point, plod don't give a fyling one anyways AND it's a poor measure as to if someone has been assaulted (as opposed to the weak 'careless' driving which is simply BS anyway). If you feel fear of harm no matter what the passing distance/speed then it' an assault, it should be treated as such.
I can be passed closer than the supposed 1.2m at a much slower speed and feel far more comfortable/not threatened than a vehicle passing at 40mph some 1.5-2m away, more so when the latter is a bus or HGV.
You have to prove it was a close pass, that onus and high level of proof is the major sticking point, and even with clear evidence how many police forces or even CPS would actually do anything, next to zero that's of any worth.
New South Wales had a handful of prosecutions for close passes following the new law, in the same period thousands of cyclists were fined hundreds of dollars - the same fine level for speeding, due to not wearing plastic hats. Fortunately we haven't come to quite that level yet but what we do see is police focusing too much on minor indiscretions when they do 'motoring' crackdowns and somehow the numbers of motorists driving are absolute angels by comparison to the cyclists they seem to pick up at the same time!

Bogus and discriminatory all at the same time.
Frankly I wouldn't waste my time with such a device, it's utterly pointless other than to gather data for yourself IMHO.

[alanesq]

A few weeks back I read something about new laws coming in April this year about close passing cyclists although I have not seen anything since?
This set me thinking and inspired me to quickly cobble together a distance sensor to fit to my bike to see just how close cars are passing me although I never actually got round to fitting it to my bike.....

I just used an Arduino with LCD shield and a SR04t ultrasonic sensor - total cost around £15 from eBay (plus a power bank to power it).

btw - the cheaper and much more common SR04 sensors I have tried but they do not work outdoors at all well. The SR04t seems to work very well outside measuring from over 2m down to 20cm no problem (although I have not tried it fitted to a cycle sensing passing cars).

Of course this would never be much use legally (not being calibrated etc.) but an interesting/fun project and could be used to gather some useful data?

Update: There is a very good instructable on how to do this (link below). This uses the SR04 but this can just be directly swapped for a SR04t.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Ultrasonic-distance-meter-with-LCD-display-on-Ardu/

[st599_uk]

A few weeks back I read something about new laws coming in April this year about close passing cyclists although I have not seen anything since?
This set me thinking and inspired me to quickly cobble together a distance sensor to fit to my bike to see just how close cars are passing me although I never actually got round to fitting it to my bike.....

I just used an Arduino with LCD shield and a SR04t ultrasonic sensor - total cost around £15 from eBay (plus a power bank to power it).
If anyone is interested I could post my sketch/instructions on how to put one together.

btw - the cheaper and much more common SR04 sensors I have tried but they do not work outdoors at all well. The SR04t seems to work very well outside measuring from over 2m down to 20cm (although I have not tried it fitted to a cycle sensing passing cars).

http://www.alanesq.com/temp/us.jpg

Of course this would never be much use legally but an interesting/fun project and could be used to gather some useful data?

I have an Arduino non data logger logging, temperature, humidity, air pressure and quality to SD card.

Might be an idea to add a distance sensor too.

[Cyril Haearn]

Can one surround oneself with a light cloud, 2m in all directions, and an alarm that bleats if it is touched?

[Jdsk]

There was another thread about an Australian study where they found 1 in every 17 vehicles close passed. I asked on that thread about where the sensor technology was since I am part of a Welsh cycle campaign group trying to get hold of such a device!
Looks like this guy in Bath is the go to man!! Cheers

"How much space do drivers provide when passing cyclists? Understanding the impact of motor vehicle and infrastructure characteristics on passing distance"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 7518309990

Jonathan