Ah well, it's that time of the year again, the mandatory police force getting something so wrong about cyclists that we have no option left but to cover it.

This time, it's Devon and Cornwall Roads Policing Team, who wrote last evening: "Cyclists, please be mindful of your speeds and just how this will effect you in the event of a collision. This group today on Dartmoor observed travelling at near 40mph on a 30mph restricted road. All stopped and offered appropriate words of advice".

There's not much I can say about this post, other than reminding the roads policing team that the speed limit doesn't legally apply to cyclists, because there's no, once again, legal requirement for a speedometer on an piece of equipment not powered by a motor.

In fact, Rule 124 of the Highway Code sets limits for various vehicles, which MUST be complied with, and in which bicycles are not included.

Further, Rule 125 also says that "inappropriate speeds are also intimidating, deterring people from walking, cycling or riding horses", and drivers should reduce their speed when "sharing the road with pedestrians, particularly children, older adults or disabled people, cyclists and horse riders, horse drawn vehicles and motorcyclists".

Hmm, 22 months on, do we need another survey to tell us how many drivers are still unaware of the Highway Code?

And just as you'd expect, the tweet was the perfect hunting ground for the pitchfork-weilding anti-cycling brigade, lambasting not only the cyclists in the video — who at least in my opinion seem to be well-experienced and riding safely, and were most likely going down a descent — but all cyclists, bringing up discussions like license plates, speedometers, and harsher police action towards "speed-limit disobeying" cyclists.

Mike van Erp, the London cyclist and cycling safety advocate, better known by his alter-ego Cycling Mikey, caught whiff of this police post and replied to several tweets, saying that the cyclists weren't breaking the law and that "that’s probably quite reasonable when a bicycle weighs maybe 10kg and an average car 1.5-2 tonnes".

More cyclists jumped in to criticise the police's tweet, remarking that this was doing nothing but "stoking more anti-cycling sentiments" and "giving motorists even more encouragement to treat anyone on a bicycle as a second class citizen".

Some quick kinetic energy calculations might be of help here...

Another person pointed out that the police, while themselves going past the speed limit in their cars, failed to use the blue lights and the two-tone siren.

Incidentally, two weeks ago, Devon and Cornwall Roads Policing Team were also clamping down on speeding drivers, catching a driver speeding at 61mph in a 30mph zone, just a few feet away from a child cyclist, with the police confirming that a prosecution will take place.

The team also said that it identifying 280 other instances of motorists speeding or using mobile phones in one hour.

Adrian Leisk, Head of Road Safety at Devon & Cornwall Police, said: "Our South Devon team identifying, yet again, that speeding drivers in Torbay are not expecting to be held to account."

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-4-september-2023-303635#live-blog-item-49199

The much-lauded - in this group, at least - Road Safety unit at Devon &
Cornwall Police, sometimes in the form of its Head, one Adrian Leisk, now
feels the lash of the long-tongued self-righteous if not know-it-all
cyclist, presumably because he (in the form of his unit) failed to toe the
line regarding the cyclist gospel of always being right over everything
including the wisdom (or more correctly, the lack of it) of cycling down
Devon’s hills at speeds greater than that allowed by law for motor traffic.

Now read on…but have your vomit bag to hand…

…and wonder at the mental capacity of those who at such speeds approach a
near-blind junction complete with zebra crossing, seemingly without much
anticipation. For all they knew, a right-of-way cyclist could have sailed
blithely on to the said zebra crossing at just the wrong time. What’s the
stopping distance for a bicycle travelling at 40mph?

swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

> Ah well, it's that time of the year again, the mandatory police force
> getting something so wrong about cyclists that we have no option left but to cover it.
>
> This time, it's Devon and Cornwall Roads Policing Team, who wrote last
> evening: "Cyclists, please be mindful of your speeds and just how this
> will effect you in the event of a collision. This group today on Dartmoor
> observed travelling at near 40mph on a 30mph restricted road. All stopped
> and offered appropriate words of advice".
>
> There's not much I can say about this post, other than reminding the
> roads policing team that the speed limit doesn't legally apply to
> cyclists, because there's no, once again, legal requirement for a
> speedometer on an piece of equipment not powered by a motor.
>
> In fact, Rule 124 of the Highway Code sets limits for various vehicles,
> which MUST be complied with, and in which bicycles are not included.
>
> Further, Rule 125 also says that "inappropriate speeds are also
> intimidating, deterring people from walking, cycling or riding horses",
> and drivers should reduce their speed when "sharing the road with
> pedestrians, particularly children, older adults or disabled people,
> cyclists and horse riders, horse drawn vehicles and motorcyclists".
>
> Hmm, 22 months on, do we need another survey to tell us how many drivers
> are still unaware of the Highway Code?
>
> And just as you'd expect, the tweet was the perfect hunting ground for the
> pitchfork-weilding anti-cycling brigade, lambasting not only the cyclists
> in the video — who at least in my opinion seem to be well-experienced and
> riding safely, and were most likely going down a descent — but all
> cyclists, bringing up discussions like license plates, speedometers, and
> harsher police action towards "speed-limit disobeying" cyclists.
>
> Mike van Erp, the London cyclist and cycling safety advocate, better
> known by his alter-ego Cycling Mikey, caught whiff of this police post
> and replied to several tweets, saying that the cyclists weren't breaking
> the law and that "that’s probably quite reasonable when a bicycle weighs
> maybe 10kg and an average car 1.5-2 tonnes".
>
> More cyclists jumped in to criticise the police's tweet, remarking that
> this was doing nothing but "stoking more anti-cycling sentiments" and
> "giving motorists even more encouragement to treat anyone on a bicycle as
> a second class citizen".
>
> Some quick kinetic energy calculations might be of help here...
>
> Another person pointed out that the police, while themselves going past
> the speed limit in their cars, failed to use the blue lights and the two-tone siren.
>
> Incidentally, two weeks ago, Devon and Cornwall Roads Policing Team were
> also clamping down on speeding drivers, catching a driver speeding at
> 61mph in a 30mph zone, just a few feet away from a child cyclist, with
> the police confirming that a prosecution will take place.
>
> The team also said that it identifying 280 other instances of motorists
> speeding or using mobile phones in one hour.
>
> Adrian Leisk, Head of Road Safety at Devon & Cornwall Police, said: "Our
> South Devon team identifying, yet again, that speeding drivers in Torbay
> are not expecting to be held to account."
>
> https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-4-september-2023-303635#live-blog-item-49199
>

--
Spike

QUOTE: I don't object to police voicing their opinions about safety etc. and giving advice - most of the time that's good policing. My objection would be to police ignoring speeding drivers that do pose significant danger and instead just focussing on cyclists that pose far less danger. Unfortunately, most police have contracted car-brain and so consider that cyclists are a threat and ignore motorists casually breaking traffic laws. ENDS

Drivers say that speed vans are "sneaky" and "unfair" though, poor lambs.

swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
> QUOTE: I don't object to police voicing their opinions about safety etc.
> and giving advice - most of the time that's good policing. My objection
> would be to police ignoring speeding drivers that do pose significant
> danger and instead just focussing on cyclists that pose far less danger.
> Unfortunately, most police have contracted car-brain and so consider that
> cyclists are a threat and ignore motorists casually breaking traffic laws. ENDS

This sounds very similar to the self-appointed scourge of motorist and
pedestrian alike, one Michael van twErp, who is on video berating what he
sees as errant drivers, while in the background cyclists happily proceed
along the pavement. No double standards there, of course <sarcasm>.

--
Spike

eburtthebike | 4578 posts | 5 hours ago
3 likes

Not only do the police have no idea about speed limits and how they don't apply to cyclists, their grasp of English isn't too good either:

Cyclists, please be mindful of your speeds and just how this will effect/affect you in the event of a collision.

FTFT

swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
> eburtthebike | 4578 posts | 5 hours ago
> 3 likes
>
>
> Not only do the police have no idea about speed limits and how they don't
> apply to cyclists, their grasp of English isn't too good either:
>
> Cyclists, please be mindful of your speeds and just how this will
> effect/affect you in the event of a collision.
>
> FTFT

Perhaps the Devon and Cornwall Road Policing Unit have been following those
avid producers of an alternative form of English, otherwise known as
road.cc

--
Spike

giff77 | 2098 posts | 45 min ago
3 likes
On a lighter note. How many clubs can add an item to their AGM regarding a chaingang exceeding a posted limit and being pulled over by the peelers.
There's a particular radar on one of my old loops which I would burst myself trying to trigger a frown. Never succeeded. I did however trip a temp speed recorder in a twenty once. Have a pic from my cam somewhere showing 23.

Shermo wrote:

The police car is keeping up with the bikes so must be speeding? Don't believe police can/should exceed the speed limit without their lights on?

I believe that emergency vehicles are exempt from speed restrictions, but they should be using lights when doing so, though arguably 39mph in a 30 zone is about typical for motorists.

swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
> Shermo wrote:
>
> The police car is keeping up with the bikes so must be speeding?
> Don't believe police can/should exceed the speed limit without their lights on?
>
> I believe that emergency vehicles are exempt from speed restrictions, but
> they should be using lights when doing so, though arguably 39mph in a 30
> zone is about typical for motorists.

I never guessed there were so many Captain Mainwarings about.

--
Spike

Matthew Acton-Varian replied to hawkinspeter | 191 posts | 7 hours ago
3 likes
All emergency service vehicles must stick to the speed limit when not running blue lights and sirens (unless for reasons of noise pollution). It is also misconcieved that ambulances and fire engines are allowed to break the speed limit - which is a myth. Only police officers with specialist Advanced Driver Training can drive (under blue light conditions) over the speed limit. Fire and Ambulance service drivers are not given this advanced tactical driving training but a more basic blue-light course.