Report police for bad driving? (Near Everton Stadium A580)

[james01]

road sign in France advising of minimum clearance to give bikes? .

I'm pretty sure it was Ireland, and advised drivers to give 1.5 metres passing room to cyclists.

[gambatte]

The was a minor ripple in the press and a couple of cycling forums caused by a chap called Magnatom who claims that he'd received death threats because of his videoing of bad driving and placing the videos on YouTube. The chap appears to be a raving loonie in some of his own videos when he's confronting people about their 'anti cycling' behaviour. I was gobsmacked to find out that he was a doctor. I hope his intemperence does not transfer to his bedside manner.

Dr Dave Brennan who's Cyclechat, Bikeradar and Youtube username is Magnatom.

All you've got to do to is look at the comments after his vids on Youtube - you'll see some of the threats. Failing that, go to the 'Bloodbus'(!) forum you'll see a few there. Failing that go to 'Strathycruise' (a petrolhead site)

Or go to Cyclechat or Bikeradar, where a few followed him.

By the way - Thro his vids he's managed to get Firstbus in Glasgow to instigate a drivers cyclist awareness initiative, including participating in the "Give Cyclists Room" campaign (nice spread in the papers about that as well!). His prominence also means he's being consulted by Glasgow council as a representative cyclist.

Strange how a couple of papers missed that bit?

[vernon]

By the way - Thro his vids he's managed to get Firstbus in Glasgow to instigate a drivers cyclist awareness initiative, including participating in the "Give Cyclists Room" campaign (nice spread in the papers about that as well!). His prominence also means he's being consulted by Glasgow council as a representative cyclist.

I hope you mean a cycling representative. I'd pack in cycling if I thought he was a representative cyclist.

There's also a canniness in the strategy of recruiting him:

'It's better to have him in the tent p***ing out than outside the tent pi**ing in' as one of my less tactful collegues would put it.

[gambatte]

There's also a canniness in the strategy of recruiting him

Apart from it was well before the papers got hold of the story that Glasgow council got intouch with him.

[vernon]

There's also a canniness in the strategy of recruiting him

Apart from it was well before the papers got hold of the story that Glasgow council got intouch with him.

If he's been a pain in the butt in the eyes of the bus company, he's more easily neutralised by embracing him and his confrontational behaviour than rejecting him irrespective of whether or not the newspapers have published his self agrandising tale.

Is he the cyclists' equivalent of Paul Smith - another self promoted arbiter of good practice reviled by 'the opposition'

I'm a law abiding citizen but if some self appointed, self reighteous zealot tried to tell me what I was doing wrong in the manner that Magnatom goes about it I think I'd respond in a confrontational but still law abiding manner and to hell with the subsequent embarrassment od appearing on Youtube.

Some of his videoed gripes are, at best, marginal in their legitimacy as examples of poor behaviour. But if it keeps him busy and in Glasgow then good luck to him.

[dmiller]

I'm with Magnatron on this - see my take here http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=90596#90596.

Certainly in my experience Strathclyde Police dont give a toss about cyclists. My camera actually gets me more road space and no more being spat at.

Worth it for £100.

Not all cities might be as bad as Glasgow

[vernon]

My camera actually gets me more road space and no more being spat at.

Must mean that Glagow motorists are more observant than you give them credit for

[dmiller]

My camera actually gets me more road space and no more being spat at.

Must mean that Glagow motorists are more observant than you give them credit for

Maybe - I think its more that The Sun did an article on Magnatron (praising him mostly) and the local scum had someone read it to them when they looked at the pcitures and are under the mistaken belief that the police care...

[WesBrooks]

The email has been sent:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I'm a regular cycle commuter along the A580 from St Helens in to the centre of Liverpool. I'm becoming increasingly alarmed at the disrespect that an increasing number of drivers have for cyclists. A lot of cars that approach me from behind in the same lane pass within 1m, many closer than 0.5m. This is not an uncommon occurrence, and happens many times over my 26 mile round trip.

Cyclists need this space to allow for movement in the road due to gusts of wind or the patches of damaged road surface on their route. This is even covered in the highway code which advises drivers to assume the same road position when passing cyclists as they would do a car. The link to the appropriate section of the highway code is bellow and shows a car moving right over into the opposite lane giving the cyclist over 1m of clearance.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_070314

The situation gets worst not far from the police station near Everton football ground. I've had a number of close shaves on the dual carriageway just before the speed limit drops to 30, and from the junction (circled in yellow on the attached map) where the speed limit drops to 30 including the section of road leading past the football stadium, particularly the bit on the front of the stadium - circled in blue - near another set of lights.

I've stomached this poor behavior so far but on Monday morning of this week I was passed on my way into the centre by a police vehicle with much less clearance than that shown in the above link. The stupid / daft thing about this incident was the driver had to go part way in to the second lane, taking such a position that meant other drivers couldn't pass in the second lane anyway. The reason why they didn't just go all the way over is well beyond me, and I presume yourself.

However I appreciate that police drivers like the rest of us make errors (and so I'm not giving you the precise time of the incident, or indeed the reg number, so that the driver can't be identified), it just saddened me that on this occasion they where setting a poor example to other road users. Other drives would have seen the vehicle pass me and assumed it's alright to pass that close, as the police did so without the blue lights flashing.

What can be done about the poor regard for space for cyclists while passing by the general public ? Do you have any say about the messages that are displayed on the electronic message board in the centre of the A580 on the stretch before the drop to the 30 limit? If so can you put occasional messages advising drivers to give 1m clearance while passing, perhaps timed for poor weather? Perhaps just in between messages warning drivers not to use there mobile while driving and about delays on Queens Drive?

Thanks for your time. I'm sure you'll appreciate that I didn't email a complaint straight away on Monday as I was rather angry and felt my email may have been far less that constructive!

Yours Faithfully,

Wesley Brooks

[WesBrooks]

So far no reply. I'll start resending on a weekly after the 5th of May, and subsequently after daily basis after the 26th until I get a reply!

[DavidT]

Good letter I'd say. Good luck with a response. I recently put a query in to Derbyshire Police (driving rather than cycling related) and got a quick, an very satisfactory response.

Reading this forum, Police/Local Authority responses on so many issues seems to be something of a postcode lottery, with good and bad practice out there.

All the best.