I raised the Metropolitan Police Consultation exercise last October. I have now received an email thanking me for my contribution and enclosing a Newsletter. This indicates the Metropolitan Police's priorities and what they are doing about them. Disappointingly, unless you can count running down cyclists as 'anti social behaviour' (top of the list) then there is not a mention anywhere of tackling the danger imposed by some motorists.
On the other hand 'anti social behaviour' probably can be interpreted as including such matters as riding a bicyle on the pavement or banging the side of a vehicle that has just put you in danger. The newsletter endows ASB with its own acronym but does not really indicate what it is. Some clues are I suppose to be found here.
It is disappointing that bad and aggressive driving does not feature anywhere.
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I think denting someone's car as they drive over you is probably ASB too.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, perhaps this little clip from my ride home today sums things up nicely - where to park the plod van? the space along the side where everyone else parks, or the contraflow cycle lane, by the point the cycle route leaves the road and the T junction... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iEm2DGHrqc
ReplyDeleteWatching that I fully expected a PC to jump out of the van and nick you for riding on the pavement :)
DeleteTackling antisocial behaviour by motorists was one of the top three priorities agreed for the last year with my neighbourhood Met Police SNT. They have dealt with this by, on only one reported occasion, standing at the roadside for an hour with a speed detector and subsequently claiming only a 'handful' of cars exceeded the 20mph limit. Anyone local knows this is patent nonsense. The unfortunate conclusion is that the Met do not take anti social driving seriously and are not at all interested in tackling it.
ReplyDeleteCycling silk,
ReplyDeleteA motorist threatened me with assault (as in waving fists and advancing on me) the other week in the wake of a confrontation in an advance stop box. I had the car registration number but the police refused to send a letter to the registered keeper asking who was driving the car at the time on the grounds that the assault wasn't a motoring offence. I pointed out the incident had been sparked off by a motoring offence (he deliberately pulled across another cyclist's path). They said trying to detect the crime wouldn't be an "appropriate use of resources". It sums up a lot of the police attitude, sadly.
I describe the incident (in part) here: http://invisiblevisibleman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/in-which-our-hero-picks-up-cycling.html
You're picking away at precisely the right areas. Keep up the good work.
Invisible Visible Man
http://invisiblevisibleman.blogspot.co.uk/