Cycling UK Forum

chris_suffolk wrote:Just had an e-mail from another forum I belong to , saying that close passes have now been put into law - 1.5m or face £100 fine and three points - same as speeding, so hopefully this will be more than just a passing fad

@MetCycleCops
The driver of this vehicle failed to use his mirrors & #ClosePass Sgt Ikram. His wing mirror hit into his arm The vehicle was stopped by Sgt Osborne & reported for driving without reasonable consideration for other road users. We'll #BeSeeingYou in court. #unacceptable #StayWider

chris_suffolk wrote:Just had an e-mail from another forum I belong to , saying that close passes have now been put into law - 1.5m or face £100 fine and three points - same as speeding, so hopefully this will be more than just a passing fad

thirdcrank wrote:I'm pretty sure there's something more recent - Bez seems to be the person who keeps up-to-date. Anyway, AFAIK, the WMP initiative is based on s3 of the RTA 1988 (careless/ inconsiderate driving) they've decided more-or-less unilaterally that 1.5m is the minimum, and they enforce this with a range of disposals from roadside advice through awareness courses and fixed penalties up to prosecution. ie I'm pretty sure that 1.5m is neither statutory nor in the HC

(4) A person is to be regarded as driving without reasonable consideration for other persons only if those persons are inconvenienced by his driving.

The utility cyclist wrote:Shall we put this to bed straight away!
The Irish government did a study this year of all countries and found no evidence that a distance passing law has increased safety of people on bikes.
Not one single countries close pass initiative with a minimum passing rule/law has worked, without continual policing and a significant change in culture including carrot and stick it simply will not work.

Spain, nope, since the passing law Spain has increased injuries and deaths, they have a worse KSI rate than we do in the UK, cycling injuries and deaths have been on the increase, their actual deaths numbered 76 but given they cycle half as much as we do in the UK per million person you could generously state their death toll is equivalent to 150 here.
Australia, nope, more focus on helmets and bells, what was it, three/four distance passing infractions in NSW whilst the local state raked n millions from unhelmetted non bell fitted cyclists! :twisted: The US has had 3FL for decades and is applicable in about 20 states. best case it might save one life in 20 months, worst case it actually has a negative impact on cycling safety to the tune of 2.67 deaths over the same period.

The stats from West Midlands show us very little, we don't know numbers cycling, we have one years stats with a lot of policing, when that dsiappears as it surely will then we will see a normalising.

A distance law/rule is futile, we have a law already and that is not upheld by those whose job it is, even with video evidence! Simply policing driving standards and forcing people to drive to a higher standard or be removed from the roads is the way to go. Anything else is utterly futile as proven by the facts from everywhere else in the world.
You could simply stop up thrpugh roads in towns and cities so that motorists cannot go through so have to go around and/or have strict speed enforcement via electronic devices fitted and with much lower speed limits, that would solve a lot of problems in built up areas but no politician is going to do that ever.

The utility cyclist wrote:Shall we put this to bed straight away!
The Irish government did a study this year of all countries and found no evidence that a distance passing law has increased safety of people on bikes.

The utility cyclist wrote:Not one single countries close pass initiative with a minimum passing rule/law has worked, without continual policing and a significant change in culture including carrot and stick it simply will not work.

The utility cyclist wrote:Spain, nope, since the passing law Spain has increased injuries and deaths,

The utility cyclist wrote:You could simply stop up thrpugh roads in towns and cities so that motorists cannot go through so have to go around and/or have strict speed enforcement via electronic devices fitted and with much lower speed limits, that would solve a lot of problems in built up areas but no politician is going to do that ever.

Psamathe wrote:

The utility cyclist wrote:Shall we put this to bed straight away!
The Irish government did a study this year of all countries and found no evidence that a distance passing law has increased safety of people on bikes.
Not one single countries close pass initiative with a minimum passing rule/law has worked, without continual policing and a significant change in culture including carrot and stick it simply will not work.

Spain, nope, since the passing law Spain has increased injuries and deaths, they have a worse KSI rate than we do in the UK, cycling injuries and deaths have been on the increase, their actual deaths numbered 76 but given they cycle half as much as we do in the UK per million person you could generously state their death toll is equivalent to 150 here.
Australia, nope, more focus on helmets and bells, what was it, three/four distance passing infractions in NSW whilst the local state raked n millions from unhelmetted non bell fitted cyclists! The US has had 3FL for decades and is applicable in about 20 states. best case it might save one life in 20 months, worst case it actually has a negative impact on cycling safety to the tune of 2.67 deaths over the same period.

The stats from West Midlands show us very little, we don't know numbers cycling, we have one years stats with a lot of policing, when that dsiappears as it surely will then we will see a normalising.

A distance law/rule is futile, we have a law already and that is not upheld by those whose job it is, even with video evidence! Simply policing driving standards and forcing people to drive to a higher standard or be removed from the roads is the way to go. Anything else is utterly futile as proven by the facts from everywhere else in the world.
You could simply stop up thrpugh roads in towns and cities so that motorists cannot go through so have to go around and/or have strict speed enforcement via electronic devices fitted and with much lower speed limits, that would solve a lot of problems in built up areas but no politician is going to do that ever.

It is about far more than safety. It is also very much about scaring the wits out of people who would love to take-up cycling. Close passes are scarey. Somebody considering or trying cycling can quickly be put off the idea after a close pass or two. Somebody with children might be discouraged sooner.

It can be a majornfactor in stopping more people becomming cyclists.

Ian