Safe Speed Forums

From the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... iving.html

Friday, Jun 3rd 2016 10AM

Motorists face fines of up to £5,000 if they overtake too close to cyclists under new measures to stamp out intimidating driving
•Government could impose minimum distance between cars and bicycles
•Follows concerns that cyclists are discouraged from riding on busy roads
•Currently, Highway Code calls for drivers to give cyclists 'plenty of room'
•Fine could reach £5,000 should the offence be considered careless driving

By Alexander Robertson For Mailonline

Drivers could be handed fines for passing too close to cyclists when overtaking on busy roads.

The Department for Transport is looking into the possibility of enforcing a minimum distance between cars and bicycles for the first time in Britain.

Currently, the Highway Code calls for motorists to give cyclists 'plenty of room', but this could be changed to a distance of a least one metre, as seen in other countries such as Australia.

It is believed that fines for overtaking too close to cyclists could result in maximum fines of £5,000, if the infringement is viewed as careless driving.

The move comes amid concerns that many cyclists are discouraged from using inner-city roads due to the 'intimidating' driving, according to The Times, despite the introduction of cycle superhighways.

Shocking figures released by the Department for Transport last year revealed that cyclists were 17 times more likely to be killed on the road than those travelling in cars.

The statistics show that for every one billion miles travelled on UK roads, 35 cyclists were killed in collisions compared to just two motorists in 2014.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill confirmed the Department for Transport was reviewing the idea in a written response to a parliamentary question.

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Anyone who tells you that nothing is impossible has never bathed in a saucer of water.

OK, the idea of giving cyclist a safe amount of clearance when overtaking them is fine, and many of us have been mindful of that for above 50 years of driving, but when might we expect to hear about measures to discourage a proportion of cyclists from behaving like dickheads?

Best wishes all,
Dave.

Cycling along a 3 lane dual carriageway I'm often annoyed by the prats who can't be bothered to use one of the empty two lanes and insist on passing me with four inch to spare but a one size rule does not fit all. If traffic is slow and crowded then giving less room is acceptable.

Besides who's going to enforce it?

And at the same time, if they expect cars to give cyclists a metre of clearance AT ALL TIMES, that should also apply when they are weaving between slow moving vehicles...it works both ways, folks.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

So will we see cyclists start getting fined when they encroach into the safety gap between vehicles, or kerb. Common occurrence at one junction, where the lanes are narrow is to find a cyclist screaming down the pavement and shoehorning themselves into the gap between the front two cars ,ignoring the left indicator .Jump under a bus/train -it's suicide.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Well, grabs, we'll wait and see if West Mids police see it that way , or as usual, another fine way to make them look more efficient, or as another way to drive a wedge further between roadusers. Forget all working together to make the roads safer - lets just grab as much cash as we can .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Of course not - it's one law for us, another law for them

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

But in the meantime the coffers from "cyclist awareness courses" starts to rise to healthy levels. [pedestrian/ mobility scooter user hat on] Now if we could only get PCSO on the pavements ( forget streets) to get cyclists on road safety courses then the coffers would swell higher than a Tsunami [/pedestrian/ mobility scooter user hat on]

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on