Last Drop

PASSING JUDGEMENT

Close encounters of the police kind…

By Bill Dean

PHOTOGRAPHY VARIOUS

Recently police have started doing “sting” operations to fine/educate motorists who pass too close to cyclists or horses. Involving a day’s work for a team of officers, the complaint that the blue line is now so thin, burglaries can only be given a crime number and routine patrols will only happen on telly rings somewhat hollow.

Driving too close to cyclists and horses is dangerous and an offence. Interestingly, the Highway Code (Rule 139) says only to give them “at least as much room as you would a car when overtaking,” and does not specify any distance. Given a bus route road can be only 6 m (19 ft 6 inches) across and a wagon/bus, including mirrors is at least 3 m (9 ft 9 inches) wide, when one passes the other that gap can be the width of their two mirrors.

But also under current law, anyone – no matter how young or inexperienced – can throw their leg over a one-ton animal that evolution has primed to respond to stress and danger by bolting at high speed. And that on said animal they are fully entitled, without insurance or licence, to enter the busiest main roads in the country except where specifically banned. Equally anyone, equally unskilled or insured, can mount a bicycle and do the same.

But why exercise this legal freedom if it means torturing a dumb animal by exposing it to thundering wheeled monsters? Why wobble over grids and potholes next to speeding metal protected only by Lycra and a polystyrene helmet? Dr Beeching ensured a wonderful supply of redundant track bed for bridle paths. Sustrans is working hard to provide safe cycle routes across the country away from trunk roads. In October 2016, I sat with my egg and chips watching The One Show. That nice Matt Baker announced a short piece they’d done with West Midlands Police to improve cycling safety. Interesting. Was it copying Manchester’s crackdown on Wilmslow Road cyclists running red lights? Or perhaps it was promoting Bikeability, the update of the Cycling Proficiency Scheme, teaching good road skills early.

No. It was an officer in civvies cycling well out from the kerb on a major Birmingham road. Any vehicles which couldn’t or didn’t encroach on the opposite carriageway to pass were pulled over by his colleagues down the road. This inevitably meant a number of lorries, including a council bin wagon, with the drivers either getting fined or cautioned.

However, it was the piece to camera, with demonstration, which had me choking on my chips. The lead officer stated on prime-time TV it was safer on main roads for cyclists to travel side by side as it would take vehicles less time to pass them.

Really? This was a group of Road Traffic Unit officers telling cyclists to break Highway Code Rule 66: “Cyclists should ride in single file on busy roads,” and, even worse, not understanding the effect such a rolling road block would have on following traffic.

My complaint to the BBC was batted away with a bland “We can only follow police advice.” Clearly the thousands of our money they spent compensating Cliff Richard after police inspired intrusion has not sharpened any minds among its investigative journalists. There then followed a long exchange of emails with Dean Hatton, Superintendent Central Motorway Police Group (why, when cyclists aren’t allowed on motorways?). His ability not to answer questions was at politician level. The empty roads of the 19th Century have long gone and aren't coming back.

He finally wrote: “We have taken on

board your feedback… the officers have been made aware of it.” A perfect

example of: “It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear.”

Feeling I’d got as far as I could and it was too local to write about, I filed it

away as dead. Then last week I went horse riding (yes, and I also cycle!), and

my fellow rider mentioned Greater Manchester Police had done a similar

operation called Safe Pass in Slag Lane, Leigh. A young girl had been knocked off

her horse there, so a team of eight officers, another quiet crime day, set up

a similar operation with two officers, in civvies on horses. This was done in

partnership with the British Horse Society (BHS). Some 40 cars were

stopped and drivers spoken to.

To be fair, few horse riders go on the

crowded roads cyclists do. However, one question arises from the two reports: Do

the police really understand what’s needed to make cyclists and horse riders

safe in traffic?

In Birmingham, it was the stupid ‘two

abreast on busy roads’ advice. Here it was the horses not wearing leg bands

(hi-vis anklets, something the BHS insists on). Why do they? Because a car

driver’s eyes are normally focused on the light clusters of the car in front. It

brakes, he brakes, etc. At that height, an unadorned horse’s legs merge into the

hedgerow. The driver doesn’t see its body, even if its rider is hi-vis jacketed;

it’s above his eye line. Australian, Canadian and American police

understand this, and their horses have them. They don’t even have shaded

country lanes. Our mounted police don’t. The quiet, empty roads of the 19th

Century have long gone. They aren’t coming back. Vehicles, however powered,

are here to stay and will become ever more numerous. A serious debate is

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