[matthewmcg]

I’ve fantasized about carrying a bullhorn on my bike and just calling people out: “hey you in the Tesla, put your phone down!” Sadly the enforcement of the hands free law where I live is nonexistent. What’s surprising to me about this article is that the police will actually act on this guy’s tips and evidence.

[ndsipa_pomu]

It does vary wildly across the UK. I've had success with reporting in Avon&Somerset, but other areas have the police creating excuses for the drivers and finding any reason to blame the cyclist.

[em-bee]

my repeated fantasies are a blind person with a reinforced version of their stick, using that stick to great effect to damage cars that are parked on the sidewalk. like, when they bump into a car they take the stick an beat the car for all that its worth creating as much damage as possible.

the other fantasy is carrying a bazooka and shooting anyone speeding. optionally the weapon is futuristic and able to just vaporize the car while leaving passengers unharmed. they just suddenly find themselves sitting on the street looking dumbfounded.

[1-more]

I used to (idly) consider play-doh with thermite in it on the hood of the car double parked in the bike lane. But then I moved to NYC where nothing would be possible without a little double parking happening.

[em-bee]

i'd love to see a computer game like GTA with those features.

[elzbardico]

And this is something that would definitely net a good amount of money to municipal coffers in fines while educating drivers.

[ndsipa_pomu]

Traffic fines go to the central government, not local areas or police forces. On the one hand it takes away incentives to game the system (e.g designing suddenly speed limit reductions on otherwise fast roads), but it also means that enforcement is lacking as it becomes a cost for local governments and police forces

[tim333]

In the UK most traffic enforcement is based on cameras. I guess using film taken by the public rather than a fixed camera is a small change.

[ndsipa_pomu]

Traffic enforcement is minimal. As a cyclist, I can choose any busy city road and go past lots of drivers using their phones whilst stuck in traffic.

Close passes are not something the police look for (excepting a couple of specific operations where they had a cycling officer) so bikecams are the only way to get the police to take any action and that is usually just to send a warning letter.

[tim333]

The enforcement is patchy. There are loads of cameras and they pick up some things like speeding or driving in bus lanes but not others live those you mention. I drive and cycle and driving in central London is an odd experience these days that seems almost stationary - wait at lights for a minute, roll a few yards at 15 mph, wait again.

Most actual cycle deaths seem to be people crushed by lorries when turning at junctions which seems more an engineering issue - the drivers can't see etc. than bad driving.

[ndsipa_pomu]

I think it's both.

The onus is on a driver making a manoeuvre to ensure that it is safe to do so, and turning left shouldn't just be performed blindly if the driver has restricted view around their vehicle. However, there's a lot of poorly designed junctions as well.

I believe that one way to improve the problem of left-turns is to have traffic lights that enable cyclists to go first, or allowing cyclists to treat red lights as "give way" signs or turn-left-on-red.

There's also the question of whether we should allow vehicles to use public roads if they have known "blind spots" that drivers are not able to resolve by moving their heads.

Personally, I'd like to see a far more serious attitude to road/traffic safety. When there's a fatal collision, the junction/road should be closed to motor traffic until the junction can be made safe (e.g. adding a separate cycle lane or amending the traffic lights). However, motornormativity suggests that it'll never happen.

[tim333]

I'm not sure with the trucks. My guess is requiring cameras that provide a view of the problem areas might be the thing, possibly with some AI that detects cyclists and the like. I think a lot have warning signs on now for cyclists. Personally I never stop anywhere near them and treat the red lights as kind of give ways.

I'm not sure the highway code rules are that appropriate for places like central London. I tend to treat the whole place like a pedestrianised area - not worrying too much about road signs but giving way to pedestrians.