CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
@nobrakes sorry, it frustrates me that I'm sharing the road with people who think it's perfectly acceptable to endanger me based on what someone else has done.
Or, indeed, on false beliefs that cyclists jumping red lights happens "all the time."
Far, far more cars drive through red lights than bikes cycle through red lights. But, still, drivers peddle this "cyclists going through red lights" nonsense.
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Edinburgh South East (@EdinPolSE)
25/04/2017, 12:12 pm
#OpClosePass is in the south today! You'd fail your test for passing a cyclist too closely - it can be considered careless/dangerous driving
http://pic.twitter.com/YGWilAB5EH
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"Far, far more cars drive through red lights than bikes cycle through red lights. But, still, drivers peddle this "cyclists going through red lights" nonsense."
I'm sure this is true. My observation is that where the cycling red light jumper tends to go through when the lights are in the middle of the red phase, I have never seen one that is truly dangerous to themselves or others, whereas the car driving rlj-er goes through by accelerating as the lights are changing to red - common behaviour if the cars are moving in a queue is that one will go through on amber and it will be followed by two that go through on red. This is an entirely different level of dangerous behaviour.
I don't condone cycling rljs, but before cars, there weren't any traffic lights.
On the subject of "I always see cyclists jumping red lights"
http://www.cambridgecyclist.co.uk/2016/03/so-you-see-more-cyclists-jump-red-lights.html?m=1
http://pic.twitter.com/YGWilAB5EH
Anyone recognise that road? Thought I knew all the bad roads in SE Edinburgh for cycling, seems I've some more exploring to do!
@stickman
He missed out some key points in the calculation
#1: A car is far more likely to clear the junction before cross traffic (i.e. vehicles travelling in a perpendicular direction) reach it.
A cyclist, because he or she is moving more slowly, is less likely to be able to make it.
So the "10%" of drivers have far more opportunity to go through a red than the "10%" of cyclists and this will result in more jumping. (All things being equal.)
#2: Although cyclists can often filter to the front, it doesn't mean they'll get to the front if there are cyclists are ahead of them.
e.g, If you're at the back of an ASL and behind a row of cyclists, you're going nowhere until they've started to move.
I'm sure there are other incorrect assumptions, but those 2 stand out straight away.
Yes, it's simplistic but I think it illustrates a point.
@stickman slightly more basic is the fact that people see what they want to see. Cyclists RLJing. They ignore what they want to ignore, themselves and other drivers RLJing
Frenchy: It's the stub at the bottom of Gilmerton Rd as you come up to the motorway bridge. A convenient place to pull people over if there ever was one
Patrols on Gilmerton Rd itself will have been very visible and worthwhile
Do you have expert evidence for that assertion?
Confirmation bias has a fair volume of research? Or was iit the Gilmerton Rd assertin, that is fact for sure.
@Klaxon - Cheers - I should have recognised that. Excellent choice of road.
Wonder if they'll take suggestions of locations which are particularly bad...
The start of Kirk Brae is pretty bad, though I'm not sure I'd like to be the officer cycling up that over and over!
@newtoit - they posted on twitter a while ago asking for suggestions. Kirk Brae was one I mentioned, although I think it would be understandable if they chose other locations first...
I cycled passed them this morning around 1015 on Seafield Rd.
@Frenchy
Yeah, Gilmerton Road going out of town pretty good as it's prone to punishment passes for not being on the shared use path. Similar to Seafield road.
Would be interesting to see it done somewhere with painted lanes to make the point that being outside the painted lane doesn't automatically mean you've left enough space. Several places on Causewayside spring to mind!
@Frenchy do you have a link to that post?
I'd love them to visit McDonald Road.
Apologies, it actually wasn't about OpClosePass, but general road safety in SE Edinburgh: https://twitter.com/EdinPolSE/status/818719873840906240
If you wish to report your own close pass encounters we really need to see your footage as soon as possible following the incident. A notice of intended prosecution would have to be served on any potential accused within 14 days of the offence. This allows reasonable time to draw up and process the paperwork.
We would discourage you from posting anything on social media as this may compromise court proceedings. To hold on to any reasonable prospect of prosecution and to allow a fair trial keep the footage off of the internet!
You should contact 101 in the normal way, and the incident will be directed to roads policing officers for assessment and progression, if necessary.
And how many have they disinterestedly rejected over the years?
I've got one from this morning I'd like to submit. Will it go the police running this operation or just a bored desk sergeant?
Says it'll go to a specialist road officer... one way to find out for sure!
Apparently all officers have recently been advised on how to deal with complaints about closer passes, so would probably be good to test them out.
Well that's my evening planned then - will update with how I get on.
POLICE SCOTLAND - CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS - EAST
Edinburgh City; Fife; Forth Valley & The Lothians and Scottish Borders Divisions
During & Outwith Office Hours – 0131 311 3423
PR 15517
28 April 2017
For immediate release
Operation Close Pass already changing road user behaviour
Nearly 70 people in Edinburgh have received the chat on the mat as part of Operation Close Pass.
Operation Close Pass sees drivers who pass an unmarked police cyclist too closely pulled over and given advice using a specially designed mat which shows how much space a person on a bicycle needs when overtaking them.
The operation began on Monday 17th April and was officially launched this week (Monday 24th April). Sixty-eight motorists have been spoken to after passing the plain clothed officer on a bike too closely, and PC Dominic Doyle who is running the operation said the message has been well received.
“We have carried out the operation in different parts of the city and whilst we have stopped roughly the same number of drivers in each location, the advice was definitely taken on board by those people and we have noticed the public reacting the same way. This week I’ve seen drivers giving cyclists far more room when overtaking and colleagues are reporting the same.
“We’ve also had a lot of positive feedback with different areas of Edinburgh being suggested where we could take the mat next. We will certainly consider these, as we want to address both areas of concern and places where we have in the past seen cyclists injured in collisions.
“We have used different cyclists wearing different clothes and on different bikes, so drivers can’t be complacent. The message is simple – you should give cyclists as much room as you would a car when passing, for the safety of everyone.”
A number of other road traffic matters and offences were also dealt with by officers on Operation Close Pass, including issuing fixed penalty notices for speeding, no MOT, no driving licence, no insurance and careless driving. One driver with a dangerous load was stopped and an ASBO was issued for anti-social vehicle use.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said:
“This Government is investing over £1 billion per year in public and sustainable transport to encourage people onto public and active travel modes. It is our long term aspiration to increase the uptake of walking and cycling for shorter everyday journeys.
“I welcome this important road policing project and fully support all road safety interventions that make choosing active travel a realistic and safe choice. All road users need to be aware of the things they can do to make everyone safe as part of our daily journeys. A mid-term review of Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020 identified cyclists and pedestrians as one of three key priorities for further action, setting a specific outcome which seeks to reduce the number of cyclist casualties. The Close Pass project is one of a range of measures that will assist towards achieving that outcome.”
The pilot will continue in Edinburgh until the end of May.
Ends
Reported a close pass (with video) from this morning. Will see if anything gets done. The chap on 101 was very helpful anyway.
I was approached by a friend on Sunday to confirm whether cyclists had to use the shared use facility up the Queen's Drive.
They'd passed a cyclist, then been pulled over by the police and advised that the pass had been too close.
From the tale, it sounded like "ordinary" police are getting involved - the officers had been aware that there was an initiative, but didn't seem to be with the cyclist.
My friend's plea "but surely the cyclist should be on the path" seemed to deflect the officers...
Unlike the officers, I was able to explain that, yes, my friend did have to wait until the oncoming lane was clear, and, no, the cyclist didn't have to use the cycle track (which might not be entirely suitable!).
So, excellent that this initiative has filtered down to the rank and file, even if they're not entirely confident in their participation!
Robert
"They'd passed a cyclist, then been pulled over by the police and advised that the pass had been too close."
Unless it was part of the official initiative pass must have been quite close for police to bother?
Hope there's no suggestion that your friend passed close 'because cyclist shouldn't have been there'.
Kind of positive, but the justice system needs to be fully behind the idea that there are no excuses for passing cyclists closely or indeed any form of dangerous driving. No excuses at all.
I didn't get the impression that it was a punishment pass, just that the cyclist shouldn't have been holding up traffic when there was an alternative.
Having never before heard of police pulling over drivers for close passes, and since the officers referenced the current initiative, I'm assuming that they did the stop because of the recent emphasis, particularly since they didn't seem to be able to explain the stop adequately...
In these sorts of circumstances (in another location), the police have pulled over the cyclists (!), so at least the trajectory is right.
Robert
The Police are missing a golden opportunity to widen the #OpClosePass initiative to further educate and inform the wider community (and to put a number of falsehoods, misunderstandings and blatant lies to bed) by countering the furious and ill-informed drivel being posted on their Facebook page and on Twitter.
West Midlands seem to have put together a cracking social media team who are adept & witty in their responses.
I really do believe our lot are missing a massive open goal by letting some of the nonsense go unchallenged. Its frankly terrifying to think that you're sharing the road with some of these people, given their opinions and their demonstrably HUGE lack of understanding of the laws of the road! Surprised some of them were ever allowed to even apply for a licence, let alone pass and get one.
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