Grampian Police have now responded in writing to my report of Thursday’s incident, when the driver of a white Ford Transit failed to give way at a T-junction and almost hit us on the trike.
No formal action will take place as it would be my word against that of the driver, but the police will give them “suitable road safety advice”.
As police have logged the event and given it an incident number, it ensures details of the van and the incident will be on file should the driver do something similar in the future.
Unofficial advice that I’ve had from a couple of friends in various constabularies is that I should report every such incident, as should all other cyclists.
The only way to get this sort of aggressive, violent, threatening and dangerous road behaviour officially noticed is for it to show up in the statistics.
If the statistics are then backed up by letters to Chief Constables, MPs, MSPs, police authorities and the media, then action is made more likely.
But, the details have to come from a lot of cyclists (and other road users) — not just one or two grumpy nutters like myself…
Two cyclists have made have shown what can be done on Another Cycling Forum.A woman cyclist was slapped by the passenger in a passing car, but no action was taken after her initial complaint to the police.
But when another cyclist, who witnessed the incident, followed it up with his own letter the culprit was traced and cautioned.
We, and other road users, have to work together to ensure bullying motorists (and yes, bullying cyclists too) face the consequences of their actions.
If you’re a cyclist who is the victim of aggressive, abusive, threatening or dangerous behaviour on the road, report it. If you’re a witness, back up the cyclist and/or make your own complaint.
I’m reporting every incident. Will you?
I’m still shocked by your tales of road rage and intolerance. I think I’ve led a very sheltered life, either that or just been lucky.
Out here in France there is much more consideration for the cyclist presumably because cycling is a favoured pastime here. I also think that the lower population density has a lot to do with it. The roads here are more or less empty - well I keep off the motorways when all the tourists are around
My personal take on it, when in the UK, was that people get into their little (but probably very expensive) tin box, put the radio on loud and switch on the air conditioning. They are then fully isolated from the outside, they are in their own little world. They forget that it is real people who are on the outside of their little box. Real people who will die if they are run over by that little but expensive tin box.
Keep filing the complaints and always make sure you get an incident number. Because of having to hit targets I found with some complaints you just get told by the police that they will look into it. With out an incident number it doesn’t get recorded and therefore can be forgotten without affecting the crime solving rates.
Good for you. And if the police have a few reports on someone, even reports that are never going to lead to arrests, they keep an eye on those people, because they know quite well they’ll spot them doing something arrestable sooner or later.
I certainly will
The Other Half and I watched part of an awesomely atrocious Steven Seagal film the other night — some poorly produced and edited tosh about Chinese tongs — in which there’s a scene where half a dozen bullets from an AK-47 fly in slow motion through the back of Seagal’s Toyota Landcruiser. I found myself mentally overlaying an image of a white Ford Transit over the Landcruiser and started chuckling manically to myself…
It was the one good part of the film.
I will!