@chdot: I was told that fines would be coming next month.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Operation Close Pass in Edinburgh
(630 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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I was also told that by police. This month, education; next month, prosecution.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Hopefully this will be enforced better than their ASL campaign.
Posted 6 years ago # -
There is a new report from Road Peace on reduction in enforcement with a decrease in the prosecution of the more serious driving offences, and a rise in vulnerable road users killed and seriously injured.
Press Release and Full Report Road(mainly deals with England and Wales)
Posted 6 years ago # -
The form I was asked to complete states that video footage must include at least two minutes before and two minutes after any incident to be permissible and needs to be returned to the police within 7 days of the incident.
Just thought that would be worth sharing.
Posted 6 years ago # -
https://mobile.twitter.com/polscotrpu/status/862722755900264448
"Following the successful launch of #OpClosePass in Edinburgh, officers are now investigating 16 incidents submitted by cyclists for review! "
Posted 6 years ago # -
Reported a close pass I experienced a couple of days ago. Will save details for now, just in case, but police officer was very helpful and driver will be spoken to.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Hello, I hope you don't mind me jumping into the forum? As well as being the officer behind the Edinburgh Op Close Pass project, like many of you I'm a keen cyclist and regular commuter and I'm passionate about making the roads safer for all road users.
Firstly thank you for your support. It's a topic that has polarised opinion. Half the people support it and the other half, well, they are my target market.
Secondly, it's a new work stream for PSOS, I could harp on about resources, budgets etc but they're unlikely to change anytime soon. Op Close Pass is a new activity that we're fitting alongside motorcycle safety operations, fatal 4 campaigns, Op Scandium, Op Trivium as well as other core Road Policing functions such as patrolling the roads, attending and investigating serious/fatal collisions, abnormal load escorts, security escort driving and denying criminals use of the road. On top of that we're Police officers, if a regular non traffic job comes in we can get deployed! We're spinning a lot of plates.
I won't always get it right (for everyone) but Op Close Pass is a generational change and I'll keep going until I'm ordered to stop.
If you've got skills/ideas that you think could help please get in touch.
Thank you all again for your support and please keep sharing the tweets and Facebook posts.
Safe cycling.
Dom
Posted 6 years ago # -
disciplined for mass consumption
this is my assumption
of the way things run
you're looking down the end of a gun
disinformation of the things that we have done
concentration of liberation
ignorance is the curse of the nation
most everywhere
a total state of disrepair
but still we're unaware
no solution for the way things are
can't look back - it's gone too far
for everything you are
in every single way
i'm pushing it too far
there's nothing you can say
Posted 6 years ago # -
Welcome @Dom. It's years since we've had a serving police officer making themselves known on CCE.
Keep up the good work with this Close Pass thing!
Posted 6 years ago # -
Hi @Dom. Thanks for coming on here and sharing your thoughts.
Question for you - are you looking for suggestion for locations to carry out #opclosepass activity on? If so how should we let you know which ones.
I've responded to some tweets with my favourites (including Gogar Station Road) but didn't get anything back - which is fine but wondered if a list was being kept somewhere.
I'm sure others on here will have their own pet favourites and you'll have worked some out yourself, so do let us know if it is useful to suggest locations.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"Welcome @Dom. It's years since we've had a serving police officer making themselves known on CCE"
Welcome INDEED.
We had some good input from a couple of police officers around the time of the first PoP. Quite a few people here met them as 'the bicycle cops'.
Unfortunately they disappeared around the time of the creation of PS.
Hope you stick around.
@MathesonMichael has just liked this -
https://twitter.com/edinpolse/status/862767984108023812
So #OpClosePass is being watched!
Posted 6 years ago # -
Thank you for the kind welcomes!
@HankChief suggestions can be emailed in using the 'ContactUs' function on the Police Scotland website. They will be directed to me. I also 'monitor' twitter and Facebook although I'm not scheduled for my social media course until July! So can't reply personally/quickly yet. That probably answers a lot of the questions.
Allan Tinto from ECC contacted me about Gogar Station Rd as well. Hopefully he's going to put me in contact with someone from the RBS bicycle user group as well to see if we can can collaborate.
I'll be riding/recording some potential routes next week. Some other suggestions I've had are Ravelston Dykes, Queens/Dukes Drive, Lower Granton Road, Strathearn/Kilgraston Rd area. There were others but I can't recall just now!
In selecting Op Close Pass sites I need primarily a safe stopping area at the end (space for cars and the mat), no 'escape routes' (rat runs), reasonable speed limits and ideally no existing cycle infrastructure. If it's already got a casualty history then even more so. Oh and a relatively high volume of traffic. Easy really!
I'd also like to get into big businesses/driving businesses and give an input before they Close Pass/ get caught as well.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@DomD
Great to see you on here as well and thank you for all you have done so far.
I'll add my voice to the Gogar Station Road crowd as well. A colleague got hit and run by a Highway Maintenance van at the Roundabout at the South End this week. I think you'll be receiving private messages from at least one recent contributors on this thread regarding the RBS Bicycle user Group very soon :-)
"In selecting Op Close Pass sites I need primarily a safe stopping area at the end (space for cars and the mat), no 'escape routes' (rat runs), reasonable speed limits and ideally no existing cycle infrastructure. If it's already got a casualty history then even more so. Oh and a relatively high volume of traffic. Easy really!"
Possibly the edge of town, but the B800 (speed limit 50mph, at least one recent fatality) between South Queensferry and Kirkliston meets a lot of these critera. There is a footpath but it is hard to access especially going Southbound (morning rush hour) and a lot of cyclists use the road.
"I'd also like to get into big businesses/driving businesses and give an input before they Close Pass/ get caught as well."
Bravo! Instead of always going on about the negative, I wonder if it is worth looking for a role model and find out what they are doing right...
I mainly do my cycling out west and TNT drivers around the depot there have always been courteous, always stopping in plenty of time when they see me on narrow roads and allowing me past with a friendly signal. It is so welcome and does make me feel well disposed to TNT as an organisation. There are too many instances of this (often several on the same ride) for it not to be corporate policy. Maybe find out how this came about and use as a carrot for some of their less thoughtful rivals...Posted 6 years ago # -
@DomD
And one last thing, I think cumulative experience on here suggests that in the event of an incident, many here (including the colleague last week) have had unsuccessful outcomes when reporting them. Sometimes there is the feeling that the incident was reported to the wrong officer at the wrong time, though the manner of reporting may help too?
Maybe it is worth repeating here the best steps to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice...
I can think of among others:
Obtain as many details, photos as possible at the scene
Try to find out if there are CCTV cameras that could have captured the incident or its prelude/aftermath (this is where my colleague's report came to grief)
Look for witnesses (Scottish Law needs corroboration)
If you have footage, don't post it on Social MediaBut maybe some more specific direction from a serving officer would be welcome.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@domD thanks for sharing these details.
Can you square for me your aforementioned competing priorities with the roll out of prosecutions after the education phase?
There will be a tipping point of drivers being fined before drivers' behaviours change. Do you have any idea of what that number will be?
Unlike the ASZ campaign which never proceeded beyond educate (possibly because of the logistics of stopping traffic) I can see OCP handing out some fines. This will have an impact but may need topped up from time to time.
Thank you for your work on this important matter to us.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Dom D - just sent you a PM - can be accessed at the top of this page.
Any problems shout on here.
HC
Posted 6 years ago # -
@paddyirish - I'll get some guidance up as soon as I can.
@gembo - what I was meaning with competing priorities is unfortunately I can't run a close pass operation everyday (although I would like to!). In so far as education v's enforcement, we are very much in an education phase at the moment. I have a lot of work still to do in respect of this. However I am not afraid to use enforcement and our first reports are filtering through.
We have started tweeting/informing about reports from members of the public so that the message that any cyclist can report careless driving is starting to get out and we'll continue with this message. The trick is finding the right balance.
Our timelines are quite fluid as demand from other Police divisions increases we'll find ongoing education phases running alongside enforcement. I don't have targets or expectations of numbers. The reports and hopefully a decrease in casualties will dictate.
@HankChief - I've emailed you direct.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I'll be riding/recording some potential routes next week. Some other suggestions I've had are Ravelston Dykes, Queens/Dukes Drive, Lower Granton Road, Strathearn/Kilgraston Rd area. There were others but I can't recall just now!
Some good choices in there. (I've personal experience with L Granton Rd & Queens Drive).
I experience 8 close passes on Duddingston Road West earlier this week. So I hope that gets added, too.
(That was 8 in one journey of less than a mile.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Dom D - Many thanks for running this!
I suggested this to a couple of police officers a few months ago, but in case it didn't find its way to you: Are you looking to move out of the city at any point? I inadvertently found myself cycling from Penicuik to Edinburgh along the A702 a while ago, and it was absolutely terrifying - drivers were overtaking at 60mph on double solid white lines whilst there was oncoming traffic.
EDIT: Video -
I'm hesitant to suggest that police officers put themselves through that, but these drivers need to learn that it's unacceptable.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Dom D
Welcome, and thanks for your efforts to date. Like most Edinburgh cyclists I've dialed out any expectation of consideration from anyone on the roads, but I'll have a think this week as to where the elbow-brushers are.
Certainly the right turn from Gilmerton Road at Good's Corner requires a very strong primary to prevent overtaking within lane one from people looking to scoot up the green lane to the junction with Lady Road and Esslemont Road.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Welcome DomD - I have another suggestion if you are thinking of going out of the city - anywhere on the A7 south of Sherrifhall. The number of high speed close passes I have had cycling to the Borders at any and all stretches of this road has forced me to take a much longer back road route. I literally feel like I am just waiting to be hit at high speed every time I venture out on the A7. 60mph passes within a metre of the bike are a daily occurrence. People continuously try to squeeze past you when there's traffic coming the other way. It's really hostile.
All the best and good luck with the success of the operation.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Frenchy
That footage makes my scrotum tighten. You are a braver man than I.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@nobrakes +1 for your opinion of borders A roads.
Hello Dom D Thank you for making the roads safer.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Dom D
If the goal is to make drivers aware of the need to give 1.5m space, then it would help to have signs like this:
http://www.bikeramble.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cycle-warning-sign.jpg
http://www.hedgehogcycling.co.uk/images/cycle-overtaking-sign-2.jpg
(Posting links as pics don't come out properly.)
After all, the council was able to put up a huge number of signs pointing out 20mph speed limits, surely they'd be willing to create a few of these?
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Dom D "We have started tweeting/informing about reports from members of the public so that the message that any cyclist can report careless driving is starting to get out and we'll continue with this message. The trick is finding the right balance."
This is good.
One issue 'on here' over recent years is the patchyness of interaction/response when people have tried to report things to 101 and at Police Station public counters.
I'm sure various recent (highly publicised) cases concerning call centres have concentrated 'management' minds on improving services through training.
Does need a straightforward series of options for 'handing over' video - on-line upload or cardreader transfer - maybe at selected Police Stations? St. Leonards?
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Dom D
Welcome to the forum and chapeau on the initiative.
From little acorns...
Posted 6 years ago # -
@DomD thanks for clarification.
A few fines might make the initiative go viral?
I was coming down Grenbank Drive this morning and had priority at the wee roundabout. BUT I am very cautious there and at the next junction as the drivers just drive straight at you. Chap in white audi H8 MYG was tearing up Glenlockhart Rd and I had to cross the white circle to avoid him as he was going so fast his whole car came on to the roundabout. He did put his arm up to acknowledge his fault. Greenbank Drive is quite wide from there on along to morningside so might work for close pass but again risky for police cyclists as frequency of bad driving at the roundabout and junction just to the east very high.
Thanks for anything you can do.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Locations:
@gibbo Duddingston Rd West is on my list!
Thanks for all the other suggestions in Edinburgh. I’ll endeavour to ride them all if I haven’t already although I suspect many of them are time dependent, like Gogar Station Road for example. Some are better suited for education whilst some will suit enforcement.
@Frenchy
@nobrakes
@CyclingmollieAs far as locations outwith Edinburgh go I’m not currently sensing a lot of desire from East Lothian, Midlothian or the Scottish Borders compared say to Fife or Forth Valley who have already sent over Road Safety Officers and representatives to assess the viability of the operation. As a regular rider in Mid and East Lothian I totally see the need but this is where you guys come in by applying the right sort of pressure in the right circles? That’s my personal opinion by the way, not the official PSOS standpoint! There may well be plans behind the scenes that I am unaware of though.
Officially the pilot is still running in Edinburgh. Following evaluation decisions regarding future activity will be made.
Posted 6 years ago # -
As a regular rider in Mid and East Lothian I totally see the need but this is where you guys come in by applying the right sort of pressure in the right circles?
Would be delighted to do so, but I'm afraid I don't know where the right circles are.
Tweet at Midlothian police?
Email someone? (Who?)
Go into Bonnyrigg station?
EDIT: All of the above?Posted 6 years ago #
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