Please report dangerous drivers to the police - Roadsafe. Report to plod, not just whinge here.

That's not a very harsh penalty after that stupid, reckless behaviour.

Well he wasn't penalised for the stupid reckless behaviour - he was penalised for Failing to Nominate.

(Unless you meant that was stupid and reckless.)

Unbelievable that this loophole still exists.
What if he had killed someone?
Would they have worked harder to ID him? Or can you just get away with murder for £485 and 6 points?

What if he had killed someone?
Would they have worked harder to ID him?

yes

Update on this vid from the cyclist:

More info here:
http://croydoncyclist.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/1306/

Private video? wtf?

If you click the other link you can watch the video.

Ah cool, didn't see that

Never seen the point of having Park Lane like that. It's a 3 lane 40mph highway that just takes you from one traffic jam to another. At least southbound there's a bus lane to ride in, on the northbound cyclists are made to feel distinctly unwelcome. By laying a road out that way the planners are effectively telling the motorists "this is your domain" and encouraging them to behave this way.

I'm sure many of you have come across the situation before: someone attempts an ill-judged overtaking manouevre as you're cycling along and then, due to an oncoming car, has to take evasive action by pulling into your path. Well, this happened to me yesterday and the back of the ****'s SUV Range Rover brushed me.

I took down the plate and went to the police station who said nothing would happen. This is frustrating. The driver's actions were dangerous and reckless, and he/she needs to at least be cautioned. Interestingly, the plod also said that another issue I'd have would be to prove who was driving as it may not have been the owner...if I couldn't prove that, then...well, I'd have problems...

I've had experiences like this before and the cops have all but told me to get lost.

I'd happily take the **** to court over this but it seems that I'd be wasting my time.

see the please report dangerous drivers thread

it details how to report these incidents

if the car is ever involved in an accident the police will be aware of previous bad behaviour

Should have killed him till he was dead. Then done it again, just to make sure.
Or get a helmet cam.
I got one for Crimbo and its come in handy already when a driver on her moby nearly T boned me coming out of a side turning, then claimed she wasn't on the phone and had looked!!
Pointing at camera promoted a flood of tears and apologies.

^ fuckyeahvindication.

gots to get me a helmet cam.

I have one of those heavy Abus cable locks which could easily make do for Malaysian's suggestion...too tempting!

see the please report dangerous drivers thread
I can't find it - where is it?

I got one for Crimbo and its come in handy already when a driver on her moby nearly T boned me coming out of a side turning, then claimed she wasn't on the phone and had looked!!
Pointing at camera promoted a flood of tears and apologies.
Hilarious - I like the contrition only on the point of being caught out.

You would be wasting your time mate.
Consequences trigger action, and sadly, as a cyclist, those consequences are injuries.
You survived. Thats as rewarding as it gets i'm afraid.....
I only say this as someone who has had a fair few smashes in the past year, and the only one that was ever considered important by the police was one that i had x rays to prove dislocated ribs.
Its a messed up system.

I don't know if this is the right thread for this but RLJing by cyclists is a police priority in Central London, which is partly due to public complaints. You can see that the complaint form here is pretty skewed against cyclists:

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/citypolice/forms/wardpolicingconsultation_b.aspx

There things specified for people to rate their level of concern are for dangerous cycling, skateboarders, noise, drunkenness, rough sleepers and begging. Just calling it "dangerous cycling" seems to be encouraging people to complain against it, as well as having no mention of dangerous cars / HGVs.

Perhaps we could encourage cyclists to use this form to voice concerns against dangerous driving?

They've now changed the complaint to "Inconsiderate Road Users" instead of "Dangerous cycling". A step forwards...

Wow. This is thoroughly depressing:

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/bc20120113-about-bc-news-Driver-in-Rob-Jefferies-case-given-community-order-and-18-month-driving-ban-0

Cahill pleaded guilty to the charge of Causing Death by Careless Driving and was given a 12 month, 200-hour community order and an 18 month driving ban, followed by a compulsory re-test.

Wow. This is thoroughly depressing:

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/bc20120113-about-bc-news-Driver-in-Rob-Jefferies-case-given-community-order-and-18-month-driving-ban-0

Beyond parody.

Balancing the other interesting threads about road users.

youre a skilled road user right? you know lane discipline, you obey signals, you indicate movements because sometimes if you dont youll risk getting squashed and if you wanna keep riding you get wise.

Yesterday a youngish lady and I were in a stream of traffic approaching red lights on a heavily trafficked single lane road in Bournemouth, near a road narrowing this lady was accelerating towards me as if to force me into the gutter-
motioning to her I moved into the centre of the lane blocking her ability to squeeze me. The lights ahead changed and the traffic stream sped up slightly, she overtook me gesturing from behind the wheel.
As usual, the next set of lights ahead dropped back to red, I pulled up alongside the said driver, she wound the window down and I told her that she needed to give cyclists room, and there was no reason to squeeze past on narrow roads, she looked surprised but said "but you were in the middle of the lane"
Of course I was, I replied, youre not allowed to squash me into the gutter, we're sharing this road. Simply put I called her out- told her she wasnt going anywhere any faster than anyone on roads like this, proper schoolteacher style.

more of this will be needed in the coming years.

"but you were in the middle of the lane" = http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon

Every Police force should have something similar to that.

Yeah it definitely is in summary.

I've had conversations such as this with various drivers over the years. Responses vary from "fair enough" to "just fuck off you fucking cunt"!.

I see no harm in a calm chat if events warrant but on a few occasions you're just dealing with Mr or Mrs nasty and their issues go much further than their immediate problems with you.

I often feel you can gauge which type of driver you're dealing with by the 'body language' of their car. Over revving, changing road position behind you, closing in on your rear wheel etc usually equates to there being little or no point in a conversation at the next lights. These are possibly also people who have already formed a fairly anti opinion of the cyclist as road user - which is one of the reasonS why I find an 'us and them' rhetoric to be problematic. People being wilfully dumb or just plain smidsy, maybe. Either way I've changed my own body language a lot over the years and now try to confront even the most lethally bad driver with nothing more than good humoured reason. They'll either respond or they won't.

There's a message to be delivered out there for sure. But play nice folks or we have a war on our hands!

Have had a quiet few months on London's roads but heading down Bayswater Road this morning I was actually ran off the road by a tour coach. Pretty much no traffic around but this coach just swung in towards me. Actually hit the side of the coach a few times and shouted but it still kept coming so I had to jump off my bike onto the pavement. He stopped just in front of me at the end of a line of traffic.

When I wheeled my bicycle up to the door of the coach I could see he was typing away on a mobile phone on his lap!

Load of dodgy driving happens in London, but this was ridiculous! Reported to the cops and to Westbus coaches.

^ Sounds nasty, hope you are ok. Did you get a photo of the idiot driver typing on his phone?

Coaches are terrible, particularly ones from Europe so the driver’s on the other side (AND probably texting on his phone).

I got pushed off the road by a bus the other day, reported it to TFL but haven't heard anything back as yet. Normally they’re pretty good at replying (not that I complain to them all the time, just when one of their drivers makes it clear they’re trying to kill me through malice or negligence).

I actually think the standard of driving is getting worse in London. No one looks before pulling out of side roads! Or sometimes they do look, they see me, and pull out anyway. I expect this sort of driving from minicabs but it’s everyone. I’m finding it really, really hard to control my temper, especially as there’s nothing you can do about it...

http://g.co/maps/sn85s ?

That's the most common place I get 'buzzed' by cabs too. usually they begin their 'overtake' about 10 feet behind me and finish it about 2 feet from my front wheel. 9 times out of 10 with a completely clear lane immediately to their right all the way to the next set of lights.

^ Sounds nasty, hope you are ok. Did you get a photo of the idiot driver typing on his phone?

Unfortunately not so sure it's can't be proved, but even if he wasn't on the phone it definitely was without due care and attention! Just as well I could leap onto the pavement even though it's a pretty high kerb. If there had been any barriers there I'd have been under a coach. Was quite shaken but it was only afterwards I felt quite angry about it all.